Syria and Israel: The fire next time

World Net Daily tells us about a ' Mideast war this summer.':

 

If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights before September, Syrian guerrillas will immediately launch "resistance operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities, a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told WND.

 

The Baath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said Damascus is preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerrilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September. He said in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capabilities of firing "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv.

 

"Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the Golan Heights)," the Baath official said.

This is the latest in a mountain of reports that Syria is preparing to start a war, just as was announced last summer by Bashar al-Assad. These reports are greeted with equanimity by Israel, and seem to be ignored by the United States and everyone else. Of course, they could be a bluff If the war comes, everyone will be asking "what were we thinking?" It is doubtful that Israel has an effective defense against the missiles Syria is preparing, which may be armed with biological or chemical warheads.

 

What Syria wants, evidently, is not the Golan Heights, but rather negotiations over the Golan Heights that must be mediated by the United States. The United States doesn't want to 'engage' Syria, Therefore this route, which would probably yield nothing, is blocked. On the other hand, it doesn't want to really confront Syria either, over its role in the insurgency in Iraq, its role in the "accidents" that keep happening to its opponents in Lebanon or its role in fomenting problems in the Palestinian authority.

 

Israel should be actively offering and pursuing peace through direct negotiations, while at the same time preparing for war. Very likely, Israeli war plans revolve around the same failed "strategic bombing" policy of the Lebanon war. Bombing poor countries doesn't work. They don't manufacture their own weapons or industrial equipment. They import them from abroad. Bombing them only produces an international outcry about "civilian casualties."

 

The United States and the EU should make it clear that any Syrian attack on Israel will be considered a violation of Chapter 7 of the UN charter, and will be met by international sanctions and force if necessary.

 

Ami Isseroff