Israel has to be careful not to overplay their hand.
If they strike Syria without a blatant strike directly from Syria first, they will be seen as the aggressors and not just as defending themselves.
Iran denies shipping missiles to Hizbullah
Sunday , 16 July 2006
Iran on Sunday denied Israeli claims that it had troops in Lebanon and that it helped Hizbullah to attack an Israeli warship, saying the guerrilla group could fend for itself without outside help.
"There are no (Iranian) guards there. Shipment of (Iranian) missiles to Hizbullah is also not correct," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday.
Israel said Saturday that 100 Iranian troops from the elite Revolutionary Guards were in Lebanon, and that they helped Hizbullah fire a sophisticated radar-guided missile at an Israeli warship blockading the Lebanese coast late Friday.
Initially, it was believed that an unmanned drone laden with explosives had hit the Israeli warship, but it later became clear that Hizbullah had used what Israel described as an Iranian-made, radar-guided C-802 missile.
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=34973
Agreed.
However, before Israel takes any action that could push Syria into a first strike, Israel needs reasonable assurance that they can meet that threat. Such assurance obviously needs to include threats from all of Syria's military allies.
Once exception to the idea that Israel cannot strike first would be a situation where it is obvious that one or more of their enemies intended to strike first, but Israel beat them to it.
There is precedent for this.