Israel Matzav

Why Syria wasn't attacked by Israel

There were several times during the war when I said that I thought Israel should attack Syria. We also know now that the United States had given Israel clearance to attack Syria. And now, we may finally know why that attack never came. On Friday, in the Hebrew edition of Ma'ariv, military analyst Amir Rappaport disclosed the story.

Hat Tip: IRIS

Amir Rapaport, military analyst for the Maariv, revealed in a report today that during the course of the first two weeks of the war in Lebanon, while the Syria army went on full alert and massed forces near the border, the IDF relied on the standard deployment of a small force of mostly patrolling reserves to defend the Golan Heights from a Syrian invasion.

"We had great luck that the Syrians didn't make a grab," said a security source. "They could have taken over the communities in the Golan Heights with their 8,000 residents before we would have recovered and started to defend the area."

Rapaport notes that during this period various Israeli officials repeatedly declared that Israel had no intention of clashing with Syria.

The IDF only deployed forces to defend the Golan from the threat of the massed Syrian forces after members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, including MKs Yuval Steinitz, Effie Eitam and Matan Vilnai met on the matter and even toured the area. [Steinetz is the former Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Eitam and Vilnai are both former Generals. Only Vilnai is part of the coalition. He was Comrade Peretz's advisor during the war and is now chairing the Commission of Inquiry Whitewash. CiJ]

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:56 AM