Israel Matzav

Is Syria next?

A senior IDF officer told HaAretz this evening that Israel has no plans to attack Syria. He made the statement in response to a report in the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat, which quoted a Pentagon source as saying that Israel issued an ultimatum to Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to which a regional war would erupt within 72 hours if Syria does not prevent Hezbollah attacks, because Israel would bomb essential Syrian installations. If we do, I hope we start with the 'summer palace' in Latakiya.

U.S. President George W. Bush called on Syria on Saturday to exert its influence to persuade Hezbollah to stop attacks against Israel.

At a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bush laid the blame for the upsurge in Middle East violence on Hezbollah.

"The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah to lay down its arms and to stop attacking. And therefore I call upon Syria to exert influence over Hezbollah."

Ahmadinadinnerjacket said today that Israel would 'never dare' to attack Iran....

But here are two curious points:

First, DEBKAfile is reporting on its home page that Hezbullah fired rockets at Merom HaGolan on the Golan Heights today, because Syria regards the Golan as 'its' territory, and Hezbullah is trying to draw Syria into the conflict.

Second, there's at least one report out there that says that Israel has already attacked Syrian targets (the IDF denies the report). The report, which comes from Lebanese sources, claims that Israel hit four Syrian targets today.

The al-Mustaqbal Lebanese news network reported that the IAF hit targets belonging to the Syrian army, and shortly afterwards the Air Force reportedly struck the al-Masnaah border between Syria and Lebanon. IDF officials said that the Air Force struck bridges and roads on the Lebanese side, and not Syrian posts.

Will Israel attack Syria? I wouldn't be surprised if we did.

Update 12:30 AM

I just found another article that indicates that the Syrians also deny that their posts were hit.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:12 AM