Kindgo
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Ewen MacAskill in Jerusalem
Saturday August 31, 2002
The Guardian
Israel warned Syria yesterday that it will face reprisals if the Islamist group Hizbullah launches new rocket and mortar attacks this weekend. An Israeli government spokesman said the country was braced for attacks from the group, which is based in Lebanon.
Three Israeli soldiers were injured on Thursday in a Hizbullah attack in a disputed area of the border. One of the troops was said to be in a serious condition. It was the first attack in four months by Hizbullah, the region's most disciplined and best armed militant group, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Amir Gissen, said: "When such things start, they normally continue. We feel there might be more attacks over the weekend, and if they are pushing it that hard, we will respond.
"It is very clear to us that nothing happens on our northern border without the knowledge and permission of the Syrians. We hold them responsible for every violation. We have warned them several times in the past we will not ignore provocation."
The Israeli air force has previously attacked Syrian military positions in Lebanon without retaliation by Damascus. Syria has had troops in Lebanon since the civil war.
In a warning gesture, Israeli jets flew over Beirut late on Thursday night.
The Israeli defence minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, in an interview broadcast by the Arabic satellite station al-Jazeera, warned the Syrian and Lebanese governments - though the latter has no influence over Hizbullah - that they were playing with fire.
During Israel's spring offensive in the West Bank, Hizbullah also opened fire along the Lebanese border, inviting Israel to open a second front. It did not take the bait.
There has been a lull in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent weeks, with relatively light casualties - at least on the Israeli side - compared with just a few months ago. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, two seriously, in exchanges of fire yesterday near the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the West Bank.
No suicide bombing has taken place for almost a month, though Israelis are reluctant to take this for granted.
The quiet phase may reflect the success of Israeli intelligence and the tough curfews imposed on the Palestinians by the army, or it may be that the Palestinian militant groups are pausing while they debate whether to change strategy.
In Gaza, the Palestinians have kept up attacks on Jewish settlements with guns and mortars.
The Islamist group Hamas, responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Israel, vowed on Thursday to take revenge for Israeli shelling that killed four Palestinians in Gaza.
But in his first interview with an Israeli paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, the new Palestinian authority security chief, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, called on Pales tinian militant groups to "stop the suicide bombings, stop the murders for no reason". Such attacks were "contrary to the Palestinian tradition, against international law and harm the Palestinian people".
In two years, more than 250 Israelis have been killed in more than 70 suicide attacks.
Meanwhile, Amram Mitzna, a former Israeli general who recently shot ahead in Israeli opinion polls after announcing his candidacy for the leadership of the Labour party, has been brought back to earth with a Labour poll published yesterday in the Israeli daily, Ma'ariv. It puts him in second place, behind the party's leader, the Israeli defence minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
Mr Mitzna, the mayor of Haifa who recommends entering quickly into talks with the Palestinians, dropped from 31% in the previous poll to 23%, while Mr Ben-Elizier jumped nine points to 31%.
Mr Mitzna, who has been out of the limelight in the past fortnight, has a series of speeches lined up this week, to raise his profile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/St...,783783,00.html
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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