Israel: Those that harbor terror are 'legitimate targets'

Jerusalem Post ^ | Oct. 11, 2003 | JPOST.COM STAFF

[yonif]

The Foreign Ministry deputy director of communications, Gidon Meir, said Saturday that Israel views countries that provide shelter and assistance to terrorists as legitimate targets.

Meir was responding to a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement which warned that Syria would exercise self-defense in case of a repetition of the Israeli aggression, a reference to the Israeli airstrike of an Islamic Jihad training base in Syrian territory last Sunday.

"Israel views every state which is harboring terrorist organizations and the leaders of those terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent citizens of the state of Israel as legitimate targets out of self defense," the Israeli Foreign Ministry added.

"A state harboring terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent civilians, which does not belong to the civilized family of nations, has no right to make comments about issues of self-defense."

Meir added such states were legitimate targets "to protect its citizens from horrifying terrorist attacks like the Israeli people experienced in a Haifa restaurant last Saturday."

Syria's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani said Saturday relations between Syria and the United States were deteriorating because of America's support of Israel and its claims that Israeli was defending itself when it attacked a target near Damascus on Sunday.

"We hope that the Israelis will not repeat their aggression. In case of repetition, Syria has the right to exercise its right of self-defense in all available ways," Kanafani told reporters in Damascus.

She declined to elaborate on what means Syria would use, saying self-defense has different forms

US, Israel say Jihad training camp in Syria was active

The Syrian camp bombed by Israeli warplanes last week was an active training base that had been used recently by militant groups, Israeli and U.S. officials said Friday — contradicting claims by militants and nearby villagers that the base was abandoned years ago.

The airstrike, the first Israeli attack on Syrian soil in three decades, signaled Israel will now hold its northern neighbor responsible for suicide bombings by Palestinian militant groups with bases and offices in Syria.

The attack was the second time in recent months Israel sent that message to Syria.

In August, Israeli warplanes buzzed Syrian President Bashar Assad's holiday residence. Israel acted after a shelling by the militant Hezbollah group, backed in part by Syria, killed an Israeli teenager.

In the second incident, Israeli warplanes hit several targets Sunday at a camp about 15 miles northwest of the capital, Damascus, in retaliation for an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in the Israeli port city of Haifa that killed 20 people. One person was wounded in the raid.

Israeli officials said the Ein Saheb camp was a terrorist training base used by a variety of groups, including Palestinian militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, under Syrian supervision and with Iranian funding.

Islamic Jihad denied it had any bases in Syria. The Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said Ein Saheb was its base but that it had been abandoned seven years ago.

However, Israeli and U.S. officials said the base was still in operation.

"Our intelligence indicates that it was a camp in active use by terrorist organizations," Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, told The Associated Press on Friday.

The New York Times on Friday quoted senior U.S. officials as saying spy satellites detected recent construction at the camp, and Islamic Jihad might have been preparing to use it.

A Western diplomat in Damascus said there was "fairly good evidence" the camp had been used within the last six months and was equipped with a missile platform and an anti-aircraft artillery gun — apparently still in the camp at the time of the attack — and a firing range. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

The camp was used to train militants from Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah, the diplomat said.

Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the camp, nestled in a ravine of olive and fig trees, was a key site where militants were trained to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks on Israel. During three years of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, at least 432 people have been killed in 103 Palestinian suicide bombings.

Israel gleaned significant information about the camp from a pair of Palestinian militants it captured two years ago, the sources said. The militants said they had been trained in Syria by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, according to the sources.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Cabinet on Wednesday the base was still operational but that most of its occupants were out on training exercises during the attack, leaving only a few administrative workers behind, a government official said.

After the raid, the Israeli army distributed footage it said was broadcast on Iranian television in 2001 showing a military officer conducting a tour of the camp.

In one room were displayed hundreds of weapons, including grenades with Hebrew markings and other weapons apparently captured from Israel. Another scene showed a series of underground tunnels packed with arms and ammunition.

After the attack, Syrian security forces swiftly sealed off the camp, barring journalists from entering, though the heavily damaged camp, including several one-room buildings made of concrete, a water tank and a swimming pool, could be seen from the nearby village of Al-Driej.

Residents of the village told The Associated Press the camp was abandoned years ago. One man said on condition of anonymity that he had inspected the camp after the attack and found parts of Russian-made automatic rifles. The man said he gave the pieces to police.

Sunday's airstrike threatened to exacerbate tensions between Israel and Syria and Lebanon, where Syria is the main power broker. A day after the raid, an Israeli soldier patrolling the border with Lebanon was shot and killed in an attack blamed on Hezbollah, which Syria often uses as a proxy to settle scores with Israel.

But Israel did not appear to be backing down from its message to Syria that its old enemy was vulnerable to attack at any time and could not play host militant groups without feeling the repercussions.

The Israeli military sources said Israel would not rule out future attacks at other militant camps around Damascus.

The raid was criticized by some in Israel, who argued the camp was not important enough to justify risking inflaming a border that had been quiet for 30 years.

(With The Associated Press)

[yonif]

"Israel views every state which is harboring terrorist organizations and the leaders of those terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent citizens of the state of Israel as legitimate targets out of self defense," the Israeli Foreign Ministry added.

"A state harboring terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent civilians, which does not belong to the civilized family of nations, has no right to make comments about issues of self-defense."

[Mr. Mojo]

Israel views countries that provide shelter and assistance to terrorists as legitimate targets.

Good......Israel is taking a page right out of the U.S.'s post-9/11 playbook.

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[EGPWS]

She declined to elaborate on what means Syria would use, saying self-defense has different forms

How many forms can a white flag take?

A simple 9 by 7 rectangular piece of cloth, I'm sure, would suffice.

[goldstategop]

President Bush said states must make a choice on the matter of teror. They cannot be neutral. They're either with us or against us. And by this logic, as long as the Syrians allow their country to be used as a base by terrorist groups, they are a legitimate Israeli target.

[NRA2BFree]

<"Israel views every state which is harboring terrorist organizations and the leaders of those terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent citizens of the state of Israel as legitimate targets out of self defense," the Israeli Foreign Ministry added. "A state harboring terrorist organizations who are attacking innocent civilians, which does not belong to the civilized family of nations, has no right to make comments about issues of self-defense." Meir added such states were legitimate targets "to protect its citizens from horrifying terrorist attacks like the Israeli people experienced in a Haifa restaurant last Saturday."

i totally agree with Israel, and I hope they deal swiftly with them all. Islam is an enemy to the world, and although it can't be stopped, it would be nice if Israel wiped out a few hundred million of them. Can I say that? lol :)

[okie01]

The squeeze is on Syria. They've been fingered as a terrorist supporter by U.S. policy and the 4th ID is behind them, in Iraq. The Israelis are on their flank, making threatening noises of their own -- which the U.S. has not seen fit to counter.

The clock is running on Assad. He has a big decision to make. And the hope is that he will cough up the terrorists in his midst, without our having to come get them.

Just another maneuver in the ongoing War on Terror. Get Assad by the testicles and squeeze. Gently. At first...

[walford]

Isn't it interesting that a strike against a terrorist base is called 'aggression' while a suicide bombing that kills men, women and children is called 'resistance?'

We mustn't forget that the very existence of Israel is 'provocative' to the Arabs. Anything that enhances Israeli security [i.e. ensures the continued existence of Israel] will be opposed. It is not possible therefore to get the Arabs to accept peaceful coexistence with Israel by means of persuasion, but by demonstrating resolve. How?

A fundamental difference I have with Israeli policy is the insistence on limited, tit-for-tat counterstrikes. The enemies of Israel must be shown that it is more costly to continue their present tactics. As it is now, it's more costly for the Israelis for a simple reason:

The terrorists are not blamed for jeopardizing their own people by hiding amongst them as they fire at Isrealis. Indeed, they reap enormous political gains if a woman or child does get caught in the crossfire [insert Jay Leno's 1990 slogan for Doritos]. They use the decency of their opponents as a shield while they have none. The Arabs can better withstand this sort of war of attrition, so a strategic [endgame-oriented] solution must be pursued instead.

I stand by the proposed solution I offered over a year ago:

http://mason.gmu.edu/~walford/ArabIsraeli.htm

[lilylangtree]

Go Israel!

[tubavil]

Israel: Those that harbor terror are 'legitimate targets'

That statement might carry some weight if Israel didn't allow the wholesale genocidal slaughter of its civilians for the past three years.

Filing under 'more mindless pap from the only country in the world that won't fight back against its mortal enemies'.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[Syria's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani said Saturday relations between Syria and the United States were deteriorating because of America's support of Israel...]

Ooooooo. I'm scaaaaared now!

President G. W. Bush: "You are either with us or you are with the terrorists."

To Syria: "You got to get your minds right, boys."

[DonQ]

Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc., don't merely "harbor" terrorists, in the sense of offering them a Swiss-style neutral sanctuary when they're in down mode. Those countries actively encourage terrorists, subsidize them, train them, arm them, and, generally, enable them. They are not merely harboring, they are accomplices, they are partners in crime.

[BerniesFriend]

Ok..let somebody correct me..send Israel to take out syria..US has iraq and afghanistan..where is the bad in this..more terrorist attacks in israel????