From: 	 heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Sent: 	 Tuesday, September 16, 1997 12:26 AM
To: 	 Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: A Soon Israel and Syria War? -- Part II
>From  Steve Cope   
To:   heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: News
>
>                             NEWS QUOTES FROM
>                            ARTICLES BELOW:
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                       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"
>
>                            By Robert Fisk
>
>    The  "peace process" is long dead.  A war is not far away.  Almost
>anyone in the Middle East will tell you this.  Almost no  one  in  the
>United  States or Europe believes it.  They talk - as the Secretary of
>State,  Madeleine Albright,  did on Friday - of a "low point"  in  the
>peace  process,  as if the whole flawed Oslo agreement was not already
>buried.  All the evidence that a bloody explosion is imminent  in  the
>Middle  East,  of  which last week's slaughter in Jerusalem was merely
>one more sign, is wilfully ignored.
>
>    For months now,  Benjamin Netanyahu and his bickering cabinet have
>been  discussing a reinvasion of Palestinian-held territory.  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".  No explanation was  given  as  to  what
>these "fateful" decisions would be, nor why they would place Israel in
>so  "delicate"  a state of security.  This extraordinary statement was
>ignored by the press - except by the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
>
>    At almost the same time - although Mr Arad did not reveal  this  -
>the  Israeli army was secretly simulating a reinvasion of all the West
>Bank towns and cities that the Israeli government had  given  back  to
>the  Palestinians.  Netanyahu's  aides  were  present  at  this gloomy
>exercise which proved that hundreds of lives would be lost in such  an
>operation.   They  concluded,  according  to  David  Horowitz  of  the
>Jerusalem Report,  that the wholesale retaking of cities like Ramallah
>and  Hebron  was  not  realistic.   They  were  devising  "alternative
>strategies" for the eventuality of  a  full-scale  Israeli-Palestinian
>confrontation.
>
>    Yet still, incredibly, we fail to read the signs. Take the case of
>Yasser  Arafat.  Before he was weak enough to make peace with Israel -
>when he was still one of the world's most wanted "terrorists" - Israel
>regularly compared him to Hitler. He was corrupt. He believed in using
>violence for political ends.  He was a petty tyrant to his own people,
>eliminating  internal  enemies  and  cynically  using   a   score   of
>Palestinian secret police organisations against each other.
>
>    Then  came  Saddam  Hussein's invasion of Kuwait,  Arafat's absurd
>support for Baghdad, his political and financial bankruptcy and - with
>the hopelessly flawed Oslo agreement - peace with  the  enemy  he  had
>always  sworn to destroy.  Overnight,  princes,  kings and presidents,
>and the ever compliant Western media, discovered that Arafat, far from
>being a super-terrorist,  was  a  super-statesman.  Israel's  seal  of
>approval - a very cynical seal, since Israel needed a weak Palestinian
>leader,  put  the West into overdrive.  Arafat was a man with whom one
>could do business,  the true leader of his people,  a future president
>of a Palestinian state.
>
>    There was no end to this nonsense. Those of us who wrote that Oslo
>was  a  disaster,  that  Arafat  had mortgaged his house - or "sold it
>twice over",  as the Egyptian historian Mohamed Heikal put it to me on
>the  day  it  was  revealed  - were vilified as spoilers of peace,  as
>supporters of "terrorism" or,  slanderous though the  accusation  was,
>"anti-Semitic". When I pointed out that Oslo provided no international
>guarantees,  that  Arafat  was a deeply corrupted,  untrustworthy man,
>that Israel had  made  no  written  commitments  to  halt  settlement-
>building  or  share  Jerusalem as a capital with the Palestinians,  or
>leave all of the occupied West Bank and Gaza  Strip,  I  was  informed
>that Israel had every intention of doing so.
>
>    When  I  suggested  that  Oslo  allowed  Israel  to renegotiate UN
>Security Council Resolution 242 - calling for a total withdrawal  from
>all  occupied  land  in  return  for total security,  the basis of the
>original 1991 US-sponsored Madrid peace conference -  I  was  informed
>that trust rather than written agreements would secure peace.
>
>    But  in  the  Middle  East  over  the past few days,  a remarkable
>transformation has taken place.  Arafat is now being accused of giving
>the  green light to "terror".  We are asked to recall the large number
>of prisoners who have been tortured or murdered in the  jails  of  the
>Palestinian  authority.  And  -  horror of horrors - we are told he is
>corrupt.  Palestinian legislators have demanded  the  sacking  of  his
>entire  cabinet  for  squandering  40  per  cent  of  the  authority's
>financial income;  all but two ministers  offered  their  resignation.
>What  is happening is perfectly clear:  Arafat is being rebestialised.
>He is being returned to pariah status. In preparation for what?
>
>    The United States, needless to say, is applying pressure on Arafat
>to "step up the war on terror" - a pressure that was  not  applied  to
>the  Israelis  when they decided to go ahead with their new settlement
>on occupied land at Jebel  Abu  Ghoneim  (Har  Homa),  which  was  not
>applied  to  the  Israelis  after  the opening of the Jerusalem tunnel
>whose funding was provided by Irving Moskovitz (part of whose  fortune
>was  made  with  American  bingo parlours).  Nor was American pressure
>applied when Israel began to deprive Palestinians of  their  Jerusalem
>residency  rights  on  the grounds that - although their families have
>lived there for generations - they have spent too many  years  outside
>the  country.  Another  120,000 Jerusalem Palestinians now face losing
>those same rights because they live on the outskirts of the city.
>
>    But after the massacre of Israelis in  Jerusalem  last  week  -  a
>frightful  act  that  was  as wicked as it was inevitable - Arafat was
>ordered to resume his role as chief Palestinian policeman.  Forget for
>a  moment  that every act of Palestinian "terrorism" is supposed to be
>linked to Arafat while every act of Israeli "terrorism" -  the  Hebron
>mosque  slaughter  or  the  murder of the Israeli prime minister,  for
>example - is supposed to be the work of lone,  insane  criminals.  The
>female  settler  who  portrayed  the  Prophet Mohamed as a pig - which
>immediately prompted Hamas's promise of  revenge  -  may  indeed  have
>acted  alone.  But  if  the  settlements  had  been  closed down,  the
>incident would never have occurred. What the suicide bombings did last
>week was to refocus Western attention on the cruelty,  rather than the
>causes, of the violence.
>
>    Taher  al-Adwan,  editor  of  the  Jordanian daily Al-Arab Al-Yom,
>represented the Arab view bluntly last week.  "The  Israelis  tear  up
>peace  agreements,"  he  wrote.  "For  withdrawal  from  the  occupied
>territories,  they substitute aggressive  settlement  expansion.  They
>assault  the holy places and insult Islam.  Then above all this,  they
>demand security, stability and peace."
>
>    It is no satisfaction to realise that one's worst predictions  are
>swiftly  being fulfilled.  Only a madman does not want peace.  But the
>dishonesty built into the Oslo agreement and Washington's gutless  and
>uncritical  response to all of Israel's actions have led the region to
>the abyss.  Dennis Ross's return to  the  Middle  East  this  week  is
>surely  more  a gesture to disprove America's impotence than a serious
>attempt to revive a "peace  process"  that  the  Middle  East  already
>regards as dead.
>
>    And  if  the  West  Bank  burns,  do the Israelis believe that the
>Hizbollah will call a truce north of the Israeli border?  Syria,  too,
>is  being accused once again by Israel of support for "world terror" -
>and Israel has again refused  to  return  the  occupied  Syrian  Golan
>Heights.  So  is  Damascus also to be a target?  Last week,  President
>Assad of Syria - after telling President Mubarak of Egypt that he sees
>no immediate hope of peace - paid his first visit to Tehran for  seven
>years.  He  wanted  to meet the new Iranian president but he took with
>him a clutch of  Syrian  generals  to  discuss  what  Damascus  called
>"strategic  relations"  between  the  two  countries.  The Hizbollah's
>weapons are shipped through Syria -from Iran.
>
>    As for the  Palestinians,  an  ever-growing  number  believe  that
>Arafat's  role  is  to  be Israel's full-time policeman,  to suppress,
>crush and eliminate all Palestinian opposition groups so  that  Israel
>can  continue to dispossess Palestinians,  so that Israeli settlements
>can be built on  occupied  Arab  land,  and  so  Israel  can  withdraw
>residence  papers  from  Palestinians  who have lived in Jerusalem for
>generations and thus "Judaicise" Islam's third holiest city. By acting
>as policeman - by ensuring there is no violent Palestinian response to
>these acts - Arafat would, in effect, become the means by which Israel
>can now tear up the peace treaty.
>
>    But he probably does not have the  time.  The  West  may  wilfully
>ignore   the   warnings  but  there  is  no  excuse  for  Israelis  or
>Palestinians to do so.  And there have been plenty of Israelis willing
>-  however  vainly - to warn of what is to come.  As long ago as April
>the Israeli commentator Hemi Shalev wrote in Maariv that  ".  .  .more
>and  more  people,  including  those who should know,  are starting to
>believe that an enormous explosion is unavoidable. If the Americans do
>not succeed in stopping the deterioration at the last moment,  and  if
>the  leaders  do  not come to their senses before it is too late,  the
>region will go up in flames and the historic act of conciliation  will
>sink  in rivers of blood,  both ours and theirs." Mr Shalev's analysis
>was ignored.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                          The Jerusalem Post
>                        August 1, 1997, Friday
>
>           "Syria: We'll take Golan by force, if necessary"
>
>                            By David Rudge
>
>    Syrian  Chief  of  Staff Hikhmat Shihabi yesterday warned that
>    his country would take back the Golan Heights by force if it cannot do 
>    so peacefully.
>
>    His  comments  in the Al-Ba'ath daily were made as President
>    Hafez Assad made a rare visit to Teheran to meet with Iranian 
>    leaders.
>
>    Shihabi was quoted in the official government newspaper as 
>    saying that  Syria  is  prepared  in  the  event  of  war  and  would  not
>    be intimidated  if  Prime  Minister  Binyamin  Netanyahu  moves  
>    towards confrontation.
>
>    The  newspaper  interview,  to  mark  the  52nd anniversary of
>    the establishment of the Syrian army,  was seen by some  observers  as 
>    an indication that Assad is considering a military option, 
>    especially in light of his recent  comments  expressing  pessimism 
>    over  the  peace process.
>
>    Prof. Ze'ev Maoz, head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic
>    Studies, said that the continuing deadlock in the peace process has 
>    brought the possibility  of  a  military  confrontation with Syria much
>    closer for Israel.
>
>    "The Syrian army has intensified its efforts on three  levels. 
>    On the conventional level,  it has tried to improve its training and
>    over the past year,  we have seen several major military exercises
>    based on offensive scenarios," he said.
>
>    "A  second  indication  is the upgrading in terms of readiness
>    and improvements  in  Syria's  missiles  and  non-  conventional 
>    weapons. Thirdly,  they  have also been trying to upgrade their
>    outdated armor, guidance systems, air force, and surface-to-air
>    missiles."
>
>    Maoz  said  another  indication  Assad  is  considering a
>    military option is that key figures  in  the  regime  have  been 
>    "persistently trying  to motivate people in the armed forces" to
>   consider and accept the idea.
>
>    "I believe that the situation on  the  ground  is  such  that 
>    the Syrians are capable of launching a surprise attack at any 
>   moment.  The question is whether there is a political decision and  
>   how  much cost they are willing to bear.
>
>    "In  my  opinion,  every  day that passes and every default of
>    the government on  negotiations  with  Syria,  coupled  with  the 
>    Knesset decision  last week (on the bill to strengthen the Golan
>   Law),  brings the prospect of military confrontation closer," Maoz
>   said.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>-
>
>                          The Jerusalem Post
>                         July 18, 1997, Friday
>
>                   "Syria aims to settle old debts"
>
>                            By Steve Rodan
>
>   Looking toward Russia as a comrade  in  arms-purchasing,  Syria 
>   is beefing up its military might, Steve Rodan reports
>
>    These  days,  Israeli military commanders face a conundrum as
>    they look toward their northern border.
>
>    The puzzle is Syria.  On paper,  the Syrian military is weak, 
>    far weaker  than  when  it  launched  the  surprise attack in the 1973
>    Yom Kippur War.  The Syrians have fewer tanks, far fewer
>    fighter-jets,  an aging air defense system and an outdated Soviet
>    military doctrine.
>
>    That's  why  they're proceeding with what Israeli and Arab
>    sources agree is an ambitious program of rearmament.  President Hafez Assad
>    is focusing on strengthening Syria's armored corps and amassing a
>    missile arsenal meant to launch  a  punishing  attack  on  Israel 
>    and  defend against Israeli Air Force raids on Damascus.
>
>    "We  are  following  developments,"  Air Force Commander
>    Maj.-Gen. Eitan Ben-Eliahu says.  "We are examining the possibility  
>    that  there will be unexpected developments."
>
>    At  the  same  time,  the  Syrians are busy training their
>    forces. Intelligence sources say Syrian troops last month completed  a 
>   series of  maneuvers and exercises aimed at punching through Israeli
>   defenses on the Golan Heights.  The sources say the success  of  the 
>   exercises appears  to  give  Assad  the  option  of a limited war
>   against Israel although  they  don't  see  evidence  of  such  a 
>   move  taking  place imminently.
>
>    "Assad  wants the Golan back during his lifetime," an
>    intelligence officer says.  "He is willing to get it back  peacefully,  but  
>    he is preparing a military option as well."
>
>    The Syrian exercises included the fortification of Scud B and
>    Scud C  missile  batteries  against Israeli air attack.  Scud missiles
>    have been transported from one fortified shelter to another in an 
>    apparent attempt  to outwit the enemy as to which shelters contain
>    missiles and which are empty.
>
>    Moreover,  the Syrians have stepped up efforts to  insert 
>    Syrian-made  chemical  warheads  in  the  estimated  800  Scud Bs and Cs
>    they possess.  The Israel Air Force assesses that by the year  2000 
>    Syria, which  by  then  will have full missile production
>    capabilities,  will possess 1,500 surface-to-surface missiles.  The
>    focus is on trying  to install  VX nerve gas in the missile warheads,
>    an effort that Western intelligence sources say has not yet fully
>    succeeded.  VX is  regarded as  the  most  dangerous of all nerve
>    gases and can remain in the area for several days.
>
>    Syria, however, is getting help.  Its main supplier is Russia,
>    and already Damascus and Moscow have renewed discussions over the
>    purchase of  several  models of advanced anti-aircraft missiles, 
>    including the SA-12 surface-to-air missile,  which Western defense
>    sources  say  has the capability to intercept enemy missiles.
>
>    The  discussions are regarded as the most serious since Moscow
>    cut off its weapons supply to Syria in 1991 because it could not repay
>    its $ 11 billion debt to Moscow.  Israeli  military  sources  assess 
>    that Syria  badly  needs  an advanced Russian anti-aircraft system as
>    a key component of its stepped-up effort to launch a limited surprise
>    attack on the Golan Heights.
>
>    During his recent tour of the US,  Chief of General Staff
>    Lt.-Gen. Amnon  Lipkin-Shahak  warned his American counterparts that the
>    Syrian military is increasing its  capabilities  as  well  as 
>    preparing  its officers  for war.  " Syria is continuing to improve
>    its capability to execute a surprise attack  against  Israel,  "  he 
>    told  the  Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on June 24.
>
>    As  IDF  commanders  see it,  Syria,  which has thousands of
>    crack commandos on the slopes of Mount Hermon,  wants to launch an
>    offensive on  the  Golan  Heights.  Damascus  might fire missiles at
>    key Israeli installations to prevent a quick call-up of the 
>    reserves.  The  SA-10 and  SA-12  would  be  used  to  protect
>    Damascus from any retaliatory Israeli air strike.
>
>    The SA-12 is an  improved  version  of  the  SA-10  or  the 
>    S-300 surface-to-air missile, being sold to Cyprus. The SA- 10 is similar
>    to the  US Patriot,  used unsuccessfully to intercept Iraqi Scud
>    missiles fired toward Israel during the Gulf War,  and Western
>    defense  sources say the SA-12 is superior to the American system.
>
>    "Our  information  from  both the Russians and our own contacts
>    in Moscow is that the SA-12 has interception  capabilities  of  three 
>    to four  times  that of the Patriot," a Western diplomat in Tel Aviv,
>    an expert in Russian arms,  says.  "This would be the most advanced
>   anti- aircraft technology in the Middle East."
>
>    Syria's  defense  system today is based on the SA-6 and SA-8, 
>    the latter  shipped  to  Syria  in  the  early  1980s.  Yiftah  Shapir, 
>    a researcher  at  Tel  Aviv  University's  Jaffee  Center  for
>   Strategic Studies says these systems are outdated.
>
>    "They are very old in terms of technology," Shapir says. 
>    "Today's technology  can  easily  handle  these  systems.  We are talking
>    about Syria trying to replace the SA-5 with the SA-10,  which can
>    deal  with the self-protection systems found in many modern
>    jet-fighters."
>
>    According to Jane's Land Based Defense publication,  the SA-10
>    has a maximum effective range of 90 km.  at a maximum altitude of  30 
>    km. The SA-12 has two models.  The A model has a range of 75 km. and
>    the B has a range of 100 km., with a missile interception range of 40
>    km.
>
>    Syria has for years eyed the SA-10. During the March 14 visit of
>    a Russian military  delegation  to  Damascus,  headed  by  Gen. 
>    Mikhail Timkin,  senior  vice  president  of  Russia's state-owned
>    arms export Rosvoorouzhenie,  the wish became possible.  Defense
>    sources  say  the focus of the visit was to examine the possibility
>    of upgrading Syria's armor  and air defense capabilities.  The
>    discussions continued during the visit of another Russian military
>    delegation in April.
>
>    The Russians want to expand their arms  sales  and  Syria  is 
>    the likely  choice.   Sergey  Kolchin,  a  Moscow-based  economist, 
>    cites Russian Defense Ministry figures that Russian arms exports have
>    jumped from $ 2.3 billion in 1992  to  $  3.4b.  in  1996  and  the 
>    ministry assesses that the exports will soar to $ 10b.  by 2000. The
>    developing markets include such countries as Syria, Iran, Egypt and
>    the Gulf,  as well as the Far East and Latin America.
>
>    "Hopes are placed mainly in the Near East market where there
>    exist solid  traditions  of  Russian arms purchasing," Kolchin writes in
>    the Moscow-based Rabochaya Tribuna. "Syria remains a traditional
>    partner."
>
>    The  Jaffee  Center's  Shapir  agrees.   "The  Russians  have  
>    no ideological problems selling the SA-12 to the Syrians," he says.
>    "They can easily present this as a defensive weapon. The fact that
>   they have not done this is because of financial considerations. The
>   main problem is  the  old  debt of Syria to Russia.  The Syrians are
>   not willing to compromise on this."
>
>    The Syrians argue that they have long served Moscow as an ally
>    and provided the former Soviet Union with a  port  at  Latakia  along 
>    the eastern Mediterranean, benefits that make up for the arms sales
>    during the 1970s and 1980s.  Their argument has evoked empathy in the
>    Russian Foreign Ministry,  which under the tutelage  of  Yevgeny 
>    Primakov  is lobbying  to  renew  arms sales to Syria as a way for
>    Russia to revive its influence in the Middle East.  Indeed, in April
>   1994,  the Foreign Ministry  pushed  through  an  agreement  to 
>   renew  weapons  sales to Damascus - an accord that has not yet been
>   implemented by the  Russian arms industry.
>
>    The  details  are  still  unclear  but  Gulf  Arab sources say
>    the problem of Syria's debt to Russia is slowly being resolved.  Based 
>    on two  meetings  of  Syrian  Vice President Abdul Halim Haddam with
>    Gulf leaders this year,  the sources have told US officials that
>    since 1992 Iran  and  Saudi Arabia have been steadily repaying the
>    Syrian debt to Moscow.  They estimate that as much as two-thirds of
>    the debt has been repaid  and  the  rest  is  being conditioned on
>    renewing Russian arms purchases to Syria.
>
>    Other Arab sources say Russia has informally  agreed  to 
>    forgive two-thirds of the Syrian debt.
>
>    Last March, Iranian Defense Minister Mohammed Foruzandeh said
>    Iran will  "participate in a project to modernize Syrian military
>    equipment as part of  the  defense  agreement  concluded  between 
>    Damascus  and Teheran.  The  Syrian  army  has  been  upgrading  its 
>    capability and acquiring advanced technology."
>
>    Russian officials deny the reports that the Syrian debt  is 
>    being eliminated.  Indeed,  some  of  them appear resigned to the
>    likelihood that Damascus will never pay its debt. "In such a case,
>    better we keep selling them and make some money rather than  not 
>    make anything at all," one Russian diplomatic source says.
>
>    The Gulf diplomatic sources say under a new arrangement, Syria
>    can now  order  weapons  from  Russia  for  cash,  some  of which would
>    be allotted to repay past debts.  The  sources  say  Syria's  Haddam 
>    and Foreign  Minister Farouk Sharaa jointly visited the Gulf
>    countries and asked for financial assistance in January and in May.
>
>    Despite the activity, US officials say Syria is far from ready
>    for war.  Some leading Arab analysts agree,  insisting that Syria's 
>    Assad still  has  not given up hope on US efforts to facilitate a
>    settlement with Israel.  At the same time,  pointing to Saudi 
>    Arabia's  economic difficulties,  they  are  skeptical whether Syria
>    will obtain the Gulf funding for new arms deals.
>
>    "Hafez Assad and Abdul Halim Haddam have not  taken  the 
>    decision that war is coming," Nasser Eddin-Nashashibi, a prominent Arab
>    analyst and former adviser to several Arab governments,  says.  "I
>    think Assad is committed strategically for peace.  He  has  enough 
>    troubles  with Lebanon and the Turks.  I don't think a wise man like
>    Assad would wage war when his allies are less numerous than his
>    enemies."
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>-
>
>                    BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
>                        August  8, 1997, Friday
>
>        Paper says Israel "pushing region towards an explosion"
>
>             Source: Syrian Arab Republic Radio, Damascus,
>                      in Arabic 0430 gmt 6 Aug 97
>
>          Excerpts from report by Syrian radio on 6th August
>
>   Under the headline "  Israel  Is  Pushing  the  Region  Towards 
>   an Explosion,"  'Al-Ba'th'  says:  Everyone  now  knows  that
>   Netanyahu's government is executing a premeditated scheme,  whose
>   features  became clear  in  the  recent  past,  and  pushing  the 
>   region towards a big explosion.  With this explosion,  Israel seeks
>   to reshuffle the  cards once again,  end the peace process and start
>   implementing its declared programme to entrench its  occupation  of 
>   the  Arab  territories  and realize the settlement and Judaization
>   plans...
>
>   'Al-Ba'th'notes  developments in the region,  the most dangerous
>   of which are the suffocating sieges imposed by  Israel  on  the 
>   occupied territories, the constant savage attacks against South
>   Lebanon and the Netanyahu  government's  refusal to accept any
>   international calls and appeals to retreat from its intransigent
>   positions.  In the  light  of all   this,   and  in  the  absence  of
>   any  effective  and  decisive international move, particularly by
>   the United States,  which,  as all signs  indicate,  has  disavowed 
>   its  role in the peace process,  the region is moving towards an
>   explosion.  Israel and those  who  support its  intransigence  will 
>   be  responsible  for  this explosion and its destructive results...
>
>   'Tishrin' says that Israel's government has chosen  the  policy 
>   of avoiding the main issues, now that its policy has been exposed and
>   its serious,  aggressive course is constantly condemned by the world.
>   The current escalation  against  the  Lebanese  people  falls 
>    within  the context of this policy.
>
>   The  paper  wonders:  When  will  this adventurous,  aggressive
>   and provocative course - that is leading the region from bad to worse,
>   and that is inflicting great damage on the peace process and its 
>   sponsors - be allowed to continue unchecked sentence as heard=DD?
>
>   'Al-Thawrah'  discusses the same issue,  saying:  When the Tel
>   Aviv gang encroaches on the territory of others, carries out acts of
>   piracy in South Lebanon,  violates  the  April  understanding,  and 
>   when  it exercises  mass  murder,  the  policy  of scorched land and
>   systematic state  terrorism,   then  this  constitutes  the  highest 
>   degree   of provocation and challenges.  It is very difficult to put
>   up with,  and keep silent about, state terrorism and to allow those
>   who pursue it to mess around with the region's security and threaten
>   world peace.
>
>   The paper urges the United States to take a responsible, 
>   balanced, swift and decisive position...
>
>   The   paper   notes  that  the  world  community  and  its 
>   various institutions,  as well as Europe and the other peace-loving nations
>   of the  world,  also  have  a  role  that  must  develop an effective
>   and deterrent force to  put  pressure  on  and  confront  Israel  and
>   its attempts  to  bully  others  and turn the Arab homeland into a
>   testing ground for the aggressiveness of Netanyahu and other Zionist
>   figures.
>
>   Concluding, the paper says:  The kind of peace in which we
>   believe, and that we seek to achieve for us and for the others, is the peace
>   of the brave, and not the peace of the weak or of occupation.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>-
>
>                        Deutsche Presse-Agentur
>                  August  5, 1997, Tuesday, BC Cycle
>                      10:19 Central European Time
>
>            "Netanyahu concerned over Syria-Iran alliance"
>
>    Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday  voiced  concern 
>    about the  growing  ties  between  Syria  and  Iran,  following the visit
>    to Teheran last week by Syrian President Hafez Assad.
>
>    "Syria  should  weigh where its real interest lay," said
>    Netanyahu during an inspection tour of an army base.
>
>    "Syria would do well to bear in mind that conflict with Israel 
>    is not  in  its  interests  and  that  peace  with  Israel  could give
>    it advantages that will put it  in  the  first  line  of  states  in 
>    the region," he said.
>
>    The comments reflected growing Israeli- Syria tensions.  On
>    Monday Defence Minsiter Itzhak Mordechai said that  the  Iranian-Syrian 
>    ties were "a growing danger".
>
>    The  Ma'ariv  daily  reported  that  a senior security source
>    told legislators that the  Syrians  were  "building  the  capability  of 
>    a surprise  attack though we have not seen concrete intentions to
>    attack Israel"
>
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