Posted on 10/07/2003 1:04:12 PM PDT by bedolido
Associated Press (Oct 07, 01:36 PM) Bolstered by U.S. support for Israel's strike against Syria, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday that his nation would not hesitate to attack its enemies wherever they are. Syria's president countered that the raid - targeting what Israel said was a Palestinian militant training camp - would only enhance his country's power in the Middle East.
The Israeli attack, made in retaliation to a suicide bombing, raised concern in Israel and the Arab world that the Palestinian conflict could widen into a regional crisis if Israel begins pursuing militants in neighboring nations. With tensions high after the strike, there was shooting and mortar fire overnight along the border between Israel and Lebanon, where Syria is the main power-broker.
"Israel will not be deterred from protecting its citizens and will strike its enemies in every place and in every way," Sharon said at a memorial service for Israeli soldiers killed during the 1973 Middle East war.
Hours later, President Bush said Israel's air strike in Syria was part of an "essential" campaign to defend the country, and drew a parallel between U.S. policy on terrorism and Sharon's actions.
Bush's supportive remarks, similar to comments he made Monday, came with a caution that Sharon be wary of creating "the conditions necessary for" more violence.
"The decisions he makes to defend her people are valid decisions," he said. "We would be doing the same thing ... But we're also mindful when we make decisions, as the prime minister should be, that he fully understand the consequences of any decision."
Sharon's statement was his first since Israeli warplanes bombed a suspected Islamic Jihad training base outside the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday, the first major Israeli attack on Syrian soil in three decades. That raid came a day after a Jihad suicide bombing Saturday that killed 19 people in a restaurant in Haifa.
Syrian President Bashar Assad denounced Sharon's administration as a "government of war" in remarks published Tuesday.
Assad said Syria's role in the region "is painful" to Sharon's government. The raid "was a failed Israeli attempt to undercut this role," he told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat.
"We can, with full confidence, say that what happened will only make Syria's role more effective and influential in events in the region," he said.
In violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border, a 4-year-old Lebanese boy was killed early Tuesday in a village, apparently after an anti-aircraft shell or mortar fired from within Lebanon toward Israel fell short.
Lebanese security officials and residents in Houla said Ali Yassin was killed and his twin brother wounded in the explosion. Israel's army said at least three mortar shells were shot from Lebanon toward northeastern Israel.
Hours earlier, the Israeli army said a sniper from the Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla group fired across the border at an Israeli patrol, prompting return fire. One Israeli soldier was killed, identified as Staff Sgt. David Solomonov, 21, who also held U.S. citizenship. Solomonov, from the town of Kfar Saba, emigrated to Israel with his parents 13 years ago from Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Consulate.
Hezbollah denied any involvement on the shooting in a fax to The Associated Press in Beirut.
Sharon's vow to pursue militants wherever they are came after Israel accused Syria of harboring and funding Islamic Jihad and also named Iran as a key backer of the militant group.
Itamar Rabinovitch, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a former peace negotiator with Syria, wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronot that the raid signaled a sharp escalation in the conflict with Palestinians and questioned its wisdom.
"As of now, this was a solitary act - a sort of signal to Damascus and behind Damscus, to Tehran - that Israel is liable to turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a regional crisis," Rabinovitch wrote. "But does Israel really want this? Is Israel willing to step up the battle with Syria?"
The head of Israel's northern command, Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, warned Lebanon and Syria that a refusal to stop the Hezbollah activities would bring about Israeli retaliation.
"These actions are very dangerous for Lebanon and Syria... and can bring about a serious deterioration in the situation," said Gantz said.
Israel's Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that the security Cabinet decided at a meeting on Aug. 19 - following a Hamas bus bombing that killed 23 people - to target an Islamic Jihad training camp near Damascus, but postponed the air raid for operational reasons.
After the Haifa suicide bombing Saturday, the army said it was possible to carry out the operation, and a group of Cabinet ministers approved the air raid, Olmert said.
Israeli warplanes bombed the training camp - which apparently has been abandoned for some time - early Sunday.
"We have no limitations regarding the targets and the goals so long as they are, in the end, connected to the terrorist acts," Olmert told Israel Radio.
Raanan Gissin, a Sharon aide, said Israel's security cabinet decided after the Aug. 19 bus bombing that "there would be no limitations, not even geographic, to get the leadership or the infrastructure of the terrorist groups."
The Israeli air raid came after two clear messages that Israel means business, Gissin said. The first message came shortly after the Iraq war when Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Assad an Israeli demand that Damascus remove the militant groups operating in Syria, he said.
In August, Israeli warplanes flew over Assad's summer palace in Latakia, Gissin said. The warplanes reportedly flew so low that windows in the palace shattered.
Now, Israel wanted to send a message to both the militant groups and to Assad, Gissin said.
"We hope the Syrians will sober up and realize that what they are doing is endangering them," Gissin said. "Hopefully, Assad will get the message."
It should be clear to all conservatives by now that the left intends to demonize us. They don't just disagree with us, they hate us. And worse, they want to get other people to hate us.
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How about the one sitting right in your back yard - Arafat!
How utterly klintonian.
The 480 lb. human fat cell blows it out his arse.
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