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Sharon is clearly provoking the Arabs. He knows it. They know it. The new President Assad is clearly being challenged, his own credibility at stake.
The main reason General Barak before him did not strike out in the ways Sharon quickly started doing as soon as he became PM is precisely because Israel may end up paying a far higher price for what it is doing than is generally realized. These things are cumulative. And the day of revenge may come also sooner than is generally realized.
Clearly the arms race in the region is now escalating. The armies throughout the area are preparing. Missiles and advanced weapons are being rushed to readiness. The Israelis are being armed by the Americans with all kinds of new military technology including new kinds of advanced intelligence capabilities for pin-point attacks at weapons of mass destruction from Iran to Libya.
Even while Israeli planes were striking Syrian positions in Lebanon this weekend news of a military alert by Iran was in Washington's second newspaper, The Washington Times. Amazingly, even though the Israelis have publicly threatened Iran, the article leaves out any mention of possible Israeli attacks against Iran, focusing solely and erroneously on just the American threat.
BAALBEK, Lebanon -- AP, 1 July - Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian army radar position in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Sunday, triggering an artillery duel between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops along the border.
The Israeli airstrike was in retaliation for an attack by Hezbollah two days ago - the second time in less than three months that Israel has lashed back at Syrian positions for action by the guerrillas, who are backed by Syria and Iran.
In the eastern Bekaa Valley, witnesses said at least two Israeli missiles hit a Syrian position in the plain between the two main towns of Zahle and Baalbek.
Two Syrian troops and a Lebanese soldier were wounded, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported. Lebanese security officials said at least two Syrian soldiers were hit, but did not mention any Lebanese casualties.
The Bekaa Valley is dotted with Syrian radar, anti-aircraft and tank positions, part of a force of some 25,000 deployed in Lebanon, especially in the Bekaa near Syria's border, since 1976. The Syrian government made no immediate comment on the Israeli strike.
The instant Hezbollah response to the Israeli strike was reminiscent of the worst days of the 20-year border war that finally saw Israel end its occupation of southern Lebanon a year ago.
Hezbollah fired rockets and mortars at two Israeli military positions, witnesses said. Israel responded with its own fire, and Lebanese security officials said one Lebanese farmer, 60-year-old Kassem Atwi, was injured in the Israeli shelling.
In Israel, a government statement said the initial airstrike was in retaliation for Hezbollah attacks. "This criminal activity by Hezbollah takes place under the authorization of Syria," Israel's Cabinet said in a statement.
On Friday, Hezbollah guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli army positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms area along the Israeli-Lebanese border, wounding one soldier. Israeli warplanes responded by firing on suspected guerrilla infiltration routes.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting Israel until it vacates the Chebaa Farms area. The territory is part of the Golan Heights, which Israeli occupied from Syria. However, Syria and Lebanon claim the land belongs to Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes destroyed a Syrian radar station on April 16, killing three Syrian soldiers, in retaliation for an earlier Hezbollah attack. After that strike, neither Hezbollah nor Syria immediately retaliated.
The leader of the Islamic militant guerrilla group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, warned Sunday of a tougher Hezbollah response.
"I don't want to make threats, but for sure we will deal with it differently," he said at a Hezbollah rally not far from the radar station targeted Sunday. Israel was "playing with fire" and the airstrike against the Syrians "won't do them any good," he said.
Before the strikes, Lebanon and Syria issued a joint statement warning Israel against attacking Lebanon.
"Israel will be held responsible for the consequences of any further retaliation on the entire region, world security and peace," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa and his Lebanese counterpart, Mahmoud Hammoud, said in the statement Saturday.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES - 1 July: Iran's military is on alert for a punitive U.S. military attack following the indictment of terrorists in Saudi Arabia with links to Tehran. Top Stories U.S. defense and intelligence officials said Iranian military leaders warned naval units to watch for some type of U.S. attack.
A U.S. official said there are signs that "some in the Iranian regime are bracing for an attack."
"They were warning their forces to be on the alert," said one U.S. official familiar with reports of the warnings.
The warnings also included directions to Iranian naval forces to be careful not to be lured into a possible provocation by the U.S. military through an encounter with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf. Tehran apparently believes the U.S. military might trigger an attack by provoking the Iranians into taking some kind of military action.
The indications that Iran was preparing for conflict followed the federal indictment June 22 of 13 Saudi nationals and a Lebanese man for bombing a U.S. military residence in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1996. The blast killed 19 American service members.
Officials also said the Iranians may have warned their naval units after U.S. military forces were placed on heightened alert because of fears of terrorist attacks. Last week the forces of fugitive Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden were reported to be planning an attack on U.S. or Israeli interests.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said in announcing the indictment that the Dhahran bombing was linked to the Iranian government. Mr. Ashcroft said: "Elements of the Iranian government inspired, supported and supervised members of Saudi Hezbollah."
The attorney general also said that "the defendants reported their surveillance activities to Iranian government officials and were supported and directed in those activities by Iranian officials."
U.S. intelligence officials have identified Iranian government officials involved in the bombing preparations. However, the indictment made no mention of Iran or Iranian officials.
"The Iranians should have seen from the indictment that we are not planning to attack," said a defense official.
The U.S. military has conducted bombing strikes in response to terrorist activities on at least three occasions.
Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched against suspected terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan in August 1998. The strike followed the terrorist bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa by Muslim fundamentalists associated with bin Laden.
In 1993, Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad were hit after the Iraqi government was linked to a terrorist plot to assassinate then-President George Bush.
The U.S. military also carried out bombing raids against Libya in 1986 after intelligence reports linked Libyan agents to the terrorist bombing of a discotheque in Berlin used by American military personnel.
Iran is designated as a state sponsor of international terrorism. The State Department's annual report on terrorism, made public in April, said that despite political gains for "moderates" in Iran's political system, "hard-line conservatives have blocked most reform efforts."
"Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2000," the report said. "Its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) continued to be involved in the planning and the execution of terrorist acts and continued to support a variety of groups that use terrorism to pursue their goals."
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/7/261.htm |