From: 	 heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Sent: 	 Tuesday, September 16, 1997 12:27 AM
To: 	 Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: A Soon Israel and Syria War? Part I
>From  Steve Cope  
To:    heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: News
>
>                             NEWS QUOTES FROM
>                            ARTICLES BELOW:
>                  ----------------------------------
>
>         Syria has begun preparations for a possible
>          surprise  attack on Israel using missiles armed with chemical
>    warheads, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported Friday.
>
>                                 FROM:
>
>                         Agence France Presse
>                     September 12, 1997 12:07 GMT
>
>                  "Syria preparing option of surprise
>                  chemical attack on Israel: report"
>
>                  ----------------------------------
>
>          It was confirmed in a recent statement by Lt. Gen.
>       Amnon Shahak, Israel's chief of staff, who painted a grim
>        scenario similar to the surprise Syrian attack over the
>        Golan Heights in 1973.  This time, he indicated, such a
>            thrust would be accompanied by missile attacks.
>
>        "We have a number of sensors and we know that not only
>      the Syrian leaders are talking about the possibility of war
>      with Israel," he told Israeli journalists. "What we know is
>           that they are talking about a surprise attack."
>
>                                 FROM:
>
>                         The Washington Times
>                 July 5, 1997, Saturday, Final Edition
>
>                     "Syrian moves worry Israelis;
>                  Buildup includes troops, missiles"
>
>                  ----------------------------------
>
>      In June, Uzi Arad, Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser, was
>      telling the leaders of the powerful American-Israeli lobby
>        group AIPAC that they should do everything possible to
>         resist congressional calls for a cut in US financial
>        assistance to Israel, because Israel was likely to take
>     "decisive and fateful decisions" that would "place Israel in
>                    a delicate security situation".
>
>                                 FROM:
>
>                       The Independent (London)
>                        August 3, 1997, Sunday
>
>                      "Ticking towards disaster;
>              The West is ignoring all the signs that the
>          Middle East is about to explode, says Robert Fisk"
>
>                  ----------------------------------
>
>         Israel could try to broaden the conflict (in Southern
>      Lebanon) to include Syria. "Any new action against Lebanon
>       would not just target the Lebanese or Hizbollah but also
>     Syrian forces, to try to change the whole Lebanese political
>         equation and separate Syria from Lebanon" in order to
>       "impose a separate treaty on Lebanon" as Israel tried and
>         failed to do in the early 1980s, at the height of the
>                          Lebanese civil war.
>
>                                 FROM:
>
>                       Financial Times (London)
>                     September 13, 1997, Saturday
>
>           "Hizbollah chief expects new round of proxy war"
>
>                  ----------------------------------
>
>            Asked if he would send suicide bombers against
>      Israel - the tactic first used by Hizbollah to drive US and
>     French forces out of Lebanon and Israel back to the security
>       zone after its 1982 invasion - Sheikh Nasrallah said: "If
>       they start a new incursion, or a new bombardment, we will
>        resort to any measure, to any action required to defend
>                    Lebanon and defend ourselves."
>
>                                 FROM:
>
>                       Financial Times (London)
>                     September 13, 1997, Saturday
>
>           "Hizbollah chief expects new round of proxy war"
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                         Agence France Presse
>                     September 11, 1997 11:09 GMT
>
>     "Iraq calls for jihad against Israel, slams US peace efforts"
>
>    Iraq urged Arab states on Thursday to mount  a  jihad,  or  Moslem
>holy  war,  against  Israel and to reject a US-sponsored peace process
>which it says is biased toward the Jewish state.
>
>   "All the signs and historical facts show that  the  Arabs  have  no
>choice  but  to pursue the jihad against the (Israeli) occupier," said
>Ath-Thawra, organ of the ruling Baath Party.
>
>   It said US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's maiden  tour  of
>the  Middle  East that started in Israel on Wednesday was aimed solely
>at  "guaranteeing  the  security  of  the  (Israeli)  aggressor  which
>practises terrorism."
>
>   The  peace  process  sponsored  by  Washington is "totally partial"
>toward Israel,  it charged,  adding that the US  administration  would
>"never accept the slightest pressure on the Zionist entity."
>
>   It  slammed  "Arab heads of state who think they can settle matters
>by negotiating with the enemy."
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                    BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
>                     September 13, 1997, Saturday
>
>            "Labour leader Baraq says Syria 'will not dare'
>                        launch chemical attack"
>
>   Source: Voice of Israel, Jerusalem, in Hebrew 0500 gmt 12 Sep 97
>           Text of report by Israel radio on 12th September
>
>   Labour leader Ehud Baraq believes Syria will not  dare  launch  the
>missiles  it  has fitted with chemical warheads at Israel.  In Baraq's
>view,  the Syrians regard that as  a  poor  man's  response  to  their
>assessment that Israel has nuclear weapons.  Baraq's remarks were made
>on  Israel  radio  in response to today's 'Yediot Aharonot'report that
>Syria is  capable  of  launching  dozens  of  missiles  with  chemical
>warheads in a surprise attack.
>
>   On  Mrs Albright's visit,  Baraq said Labour is concerned about the
>deadlock and the fear that  the  situation  is  deteriorating  into  a
>superfluous  war.  The  problem  is  the path taken by the Netanyahu's
>government, Baraq said.
>
>   The prime minister's spokesman voiced regret that Baraq ignored the
>Palestinians' responsibility for the deadlock, thereby not helping the
>government to confront terrorism.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                         Agence France Presse
>                     September 12, 1997 12:07 GMT
>
>                  "Syria preparing option of surprise
>                  chemical attack on Israel: report"
>
>    Syria has begun preparations for a  possible  surprise  attack  on
>Israel  using  missiles  armed  with  chemical  warheads,  the Israeli
>newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported Friday.
>
>   In a report that coincided with US  Secretary  of  State  Madeleine
>Albright's scheduled departure from Israel for Damascus, the newspaper
>published  a  Russian  satellite photo purportedly showing an array of
>SCUD missile launch sites near the city of Hama.
>
>   Edward Howe, an arms expert with the British defense weekly Jane's,
>told the newspaper the satellite photo is proof that Syria has put  in
>place  the  means  to  launch a surprise missile attack on Israel that
>could involve "dozens" of chemical warheads.
>
>   Israeli military officials in recent months have expressed mounting
>concern over Syria's efforts to develop new forms of chemical weapons,
>including a lethal kind of nerve gas.
>
>   But a former commander of the Israeli air force, Avihu Binun,  told
>Israel  radio Friday that the Yediot report "contains nothing new" and
>that Syria "would not dare fire missiles at Israel."
>
>   Ehud Barak,  the leader of the opposition Labor Part and  a  former
>army chief of staff, agreed.
>
>   "Syria wouldn't risk a  surprise  chemical  attack  against  Israel
>because they are afraid of the nuclear weapons they think we hold," he
>said.
>
>   Israel  has  never publicly admitted having a nuclear arsenal,  but
>foreign military experts believe the Jewish state had between 100  and
>200  nuclear  warheads  which  could  be  placed on the army's Jericho
>medium and long-range missiles.
>
>   Israeli-Syrian  peace negotiations have been on hold since February
>1996.
>
>   Albright and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  discussed  ways  of
>renewing  the  Syrian  track  of  the  peace process late Thursday but
>neither made any public declarations about their talks.
>
>   The US secretary of state was scheduled to  meet  Syrian  President
>Hafez al-Assad late Friday in Damascus.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                       Financial Times (London)
>                     September 13, 1997, Saturday
>
>           "Hizbollah chief expects new round of proxy war"
>
>                      By David Gardner in Beirut
>
>   Hizbollah,  the  Lebanese  Shia  Islamist movement fighting Israeli
>occupation of south Lebanon,  is bracing  itself  for  reprisals  from
>Israel  after  the  ambush last week of an elite Israeli commando unit
>deep inside Lebanese territory which left 12 Israelis dead.
>
>   Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader,  said he was expecting
>another   Israeli  aggression  at  any  time,   in  spite  of  US  and
>international mediation to prevent  the  low-intensity  war  in  south
>Lebanon  from  escalating  into a new trial of strength between Israel
>and Syria, which controls Lebanon and licenses Hizbollah attacks.
>
>   Interviewed at a safe-house in the Hizbollah stronghold of Beirut's
>teeming southern suburbs,  Sheikh Nasrallah said:  "I believe  Israel=DD
>will  be  obliged  to  respond  to  the  loss of morale in their armed
>forces,   and  the  punctures  we  have  made   in   their   aura   of
>invincibility."
>
>   Israel has lost 32 elite troops so far this year in Lebanon, on top
>of 73 killed in February when two helicopters collided on their way to
>the self-proclaimed "security zone" it maintains in the south.
>
>   The  security  zone,  encompassing 12 per cent of Lebanon,  is more
>tinder-box than buffer,  providing the arena for a proxy  war  between
>Israel  and  Syria,  which  has  40,000  troops in Lebanon.  Hizbollah
>pressure on the zone serves Syria as a reminder to Israel  that  there
>will  be  no  peace  in  the region without the return to Syria of the
>Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
>
>   Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's hardline prime minister, has ruled out
>returning the Golan,  although his Labour predecessors had  agreed  to
>hand back the strategic plateau in exchange for full peace with Syria.
>Madeleine  Albright,  the  US  secretary of state,  on her first peace
>mission to the  Middle  East,  was  last  night  due  to  meet  Syrian
>President Hafez al-Assad to explore ways of reviving negotiations.
>
>   Sheikh Nasrallah, himself just back from consultations in Damascus,
>argues  that  the  US  has  "given the green light to the Israelis" to
>attack in Lebanon,  just as they did in April last  year  when  Israel
>bombarded the country from land, air and sea for 17 days, killing over
>200 civilians.  But, he says, Israel has "limited options". The black-
>turbaned Hizbollah chief lists five.
>
>   "They may try to kill or abduct our leaders - but they will  always
>do  that  any  time  they  have  the  opportunity." Sheikh Nasrallah's
>predecessor as Hizbollah secretary general,  Sheikh Abbas Musawi,  was
>killed with his family in 1992 in an Israeli helicopter ambush.
>
>   "There  are  no  longer  any  Hizbollah  training camps for them to
>attack," the Islamist sheikh says,  adding with a hint of satisfaction
>that  "it  will  be  a  high-risk  adventure  for  them to launch more
>commando raids" beyond  the  security  zone  in  an  attempt  to  stop
>Hizbollah infiltration.
>
>   Israel could, he says, launch a new bombardment from the air, which
>would primarily hit civilians, and "this would not go unpunished".
>
>   Finally,  he  said,  Israel  could  try  to broaden the conflict to
>include Syria.  "Any new action against Lebanon would not just  target
>the Lebanese or Hizbollah but also Syrian forces, to try to change the
>whole  Lebanese political equation and separate Syria from Lebanon" in
>order to "impose a separate treaty on Lebanon"  as  Israel  tried  and
>failed  to do in the early 1980s,  at the height of the Lebanese civil
>war.
>
>   Sheikh Nasrallah judged the latter option to be ill-advised  since,
>as  Mrs  Albright's  visit  to  the region this week showed,  "the top
>priority for America and Israel  at  the  moment  is  the  Palestinian
>issue".
>
>   But  he  repeated  the  remarks  he  made  during  the  April  1996
>bombardment, that "the Israelis control the skies,  but we control the
>ground."  Asked  if he would send suicide bombers against Israel - the
>tactic first used by Hizbollah to drive US and French  forces  out  of
>Lebanon and Israel back to the security zone after its 1982 invasion -
>Sheikh  Nasrallah  said:  "If  they  start  a new incursion,  or a new
>bombardment, we will resort to any measure,  to any action required to
>defend Lebanon and defend ourselves."
>
>   But  the Hizbollah leader denied that his organisation had anything
>to do with the recent suicide attacks in  Jerusalem  which  killed  20
>Israelis, as Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has suggested. "My
>direct  answer  to your direct question is No," Sheikh Nasrallah said.
>"Arafat has to a certain extent lost his mental balance.  He is trying
>to  save  his  own skin by pointing the finger at Palestinians outside
>Israel and at Hizbollah. He should produce evidence for these claims."
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                       Financial Times (London)
>                      September 12, 1997, Friday
>
>            "US steps in to halt further Lebanon fighting"
>
>                      By David Gardner in Beirut
>
>   The US has intervened to stop further escalation in the fighting in
>southern  Lebanon  between  Israeli  occupation  forces  and  Lebanese
>Islamist guerrillas, according to Lebanese officials.
>
>   The  mediation  effort  is  a  response  to fears that Israel would
>retaliate heavily against Lebanon and its Syrian overlord after losing
>12 elite commandos in a bungled raid in southern Lebanon last Friday.
>
>   It is understood that Lebanon,  Israel and Syria have been in touch
>through  the  US  to calm down the last active Arab-Israeli war front.
>The intervention comes after Israel suffered  six  weeks  of  mounting
>losses  in  its  attempts to defend the "security zone" it occupies in
>south Lebanon against the Syrian-licensed Hizbollah,  the Shi'a Moslem
>fundamentalist  militia recognised in Lebanon as a national resistance
>movement.
>
>   So far this year, 32 Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, while a
>further 73 were killed in February when their helicopters collided  en
>route  to  an operation similar to last week's botched attack.  Higher
>Israeli casualties follow the near collapse  of  the  mercenary  South
>Lebanon  Army  that Israel uses to defend the security zone.  This has
>compromised its intelligence and pushed Israeli troops to  the  front-
>line and deeper into Lebanon to stop Hizbollah infiltration,  bringing
>Israel into conflict with other Shi'a forces and the Lebanese army.
>
>   In April last year, Israel bombarded south Lebanon and south Beirut
>for 17 days in a fruitless attempt to force Lebanon and Syria to  rein
>in   Hizbollah,   killing   more   than  200  civilians  and  damaging
>infrastructure recently replaced after Lebanon's  1975-90  civil  war.
>Fears  of  a  new  large-scale incursion had risen after last Friday's
>disastrous Israeli raid.
>
>   So far,  however,  south  Lebanon  has  gone  quiet,  and  Benjamin
>Netanyahu,  Israel's  hardline prime minister,  is under pressure from
>across the political spectrum to pull out of Lebanon.
>
>   Rafiq  al-Hariri,  Lebanon's  prime  minister,   dismissed  Israeli
>agonising over withdrawal as "an internal political game". He said: "I
>don't  think  they  are serious.  Every time they have a disaster they
>talk about  withdrawal."  He  warned  that  peace  and  security  were
>indivisible  and  that Israel would not obtain security for its people
>without returning all occupied Arab land.  "They are trying to  divide
>the undivideable," Mr Hariri said,  in a way "which will not guarantee
>the security of anyone".
>
>   Although he would not confirm behind-the-scenes  mediation  by  Mrs
>Albright,  when asked whether he now expected heavy Israeli reprisals,
>Mr Hariri said: "I have reason to believe No."
>
>   The prime minister,  who with Syrian backing has for the past  five
>years  been the force behind Lebanon's attempts to rebuild itself into
>the thriving financial and services entrepot it was before  the  civil
>war,  said  he  believed  the  recent  fighting was an opportunity for
>"everyone to come back to the table" and "continue the negotiations".
>
>   He reiterated the word "continue" to reflect Syria's  demands  that
>its  negotiations  with  Israel  on  the return of the Golan Heights -
>captured by Israel in the 1967 six day war - should resume where  they
>broke off shortly before Mr Netanyahu's election victory.  Those talks
>had reached the point where Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli premier,
>had agreed to return the Golan in exchange for full peace.
>
>   Amid persistent reports of renewed Israeli-Syrian talks at  asecret
>location  in  Europe  - believed to be Geneva - Mr Hariri said a peace
>deal involving Syria,  Lebanon and Israel  "can  be  agreed  in  three
>months, but only if Israel wants it".
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                         The Washington Times
>                 July 5, 1997, Saturday, Final Edition
>
>                     "Syrian moves worry Israelis;
>                  Buildup includes troops, missiles"
>
>                          By Andrew Borowiec
>
>    NICOSIA,  Cyprus  -  Concentrations  of Syrian troops at strategic
>points near Israel are compounding the tension caused by the paralyzed
>peace process and the resulting rioting in Israeli-held parts  of  the
>West Bank.
>
>    The Syrian moves, reported by Western and Arab diplomats, are said
>to  be  accompanied  by  an  intensified  buildup of Syria's offensive
>missiles targeting densely populated areas of Israel.
>
>    Talks at solving the dispute between Israel and  Syria  have  been
>stalled  since  February  1996.  The  election of conservative Israeli
>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 1996 seems to have  precluded
>further contacts in the foreseeable future.
>
>    Syria has been demanding unconditional Israeli withdrawal from the
>Golan Heights,  seized by Israel in 1967 and considered crucial to the
>Jewish state's defenses.  After the 1973 war in which Syria and  Egypt
>simultaneously attacked Israel on two distant fronts,  Israel returned
>a slice of  the  Golan  but  kept  the  area  dominating  its  heavily
>populated Galilee valley.
>
>    Although  Israel  maintains definite air and technical superiority
>over Syria, the possibility of conflict is taken seriously.
>
>    It was confirmed in a recent statement by Lt.  Gen.  Amnon Shahak,
>Israel's  chief  of staff,  who painted a grim scenario similar to the
>surprise Syrian attack over the Golan Heights in 1973.  This time,  he
>indicated, such a thrust would be accompanied by missile attacks.
>
>    "We have a number of sensors and we know that not only the Syrian=DD
>leaders  are  talking  about the possibility of war with Israel,  " he
>told Israeli journalists. "What we know is that they are talking about
>a surprise attack. "
>
>    According to Western reports,  Syria has redeployed  some  of  its
>elite units closer to the border.
>
>    This  includes  the 14th Special Forces Division now poised in the
>foothills of Mount Hermon,  and  the  51st  Division,  moved  east  of
>Lebanon's  Syrian-controlled  Bekaa  Valley.  In the Golan Heights,  a
>narrow strip of land partly held by Israel,  Syria  has  an  estimated
>three to four army divisions.
>
>    Damascus  has  described  the  deployment  as defensive,  and some
>diplomats are playing down the possibility of a new  conflict,  mainly
>because  the  collapse  of  the Soviet Union has deprived Syria of its
>major source of weapons.
>
>    Looking for other sources of weapons has turned out to  be  costly
>and difficult.  Apparently because of strong U.S.  pressure, Syria has
>been unable to purchase  a  highly  sophisticated  Tiger  fire-control
>system from South Africa.
>
>    Israeli  forces  have  been steadily beefed up by state-of-the-art
>U.S.  weapons,  confirming them as the  most  modern  and  technically
>superior  fighting  machine  in the region.  Some diplomats say Israel
>has been receiving more than the officially earmarked $1.8  billion  a
>year in military subsidies.
>
>    According  to  a French diplomatic report weighing the prospect of
>renewed fighting  between  Israel  and  Syria,  a  conflict  could  be
>triggered  if  Yasser  Arafat  resorted to force or if his Palestinian
>Authority collapsed and Israel reoccupied the self-ruled areas.
>
>    Such a blueprint  apparently  exists  and  recently  the  Israelis
>conducted maneuvers in the West Bank to test its feasibility.
>
>    While  the  Israeli  air  force is equipped to maintain round-the-
>clock fighting capability in the event of conflict with Syria,  Israel
>is seriously concerned about Syria's missile development program.
>
>    The  Syrian  program  was  heightened,  according  to some Israeli
>reports,  by Israel's plans to deploy an anti-missile system known  as
>Arrow  2,  which would cover about 85 percent of populated areas.  But
>some Western sources say Syria has been unable  to  develop  effective
>chemical and bacteriological weapons.
>
*************************************************************************
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