Free Republic

On Border With Lebanon, 'This Family Is Never Scared' By SERGE SCHMEMANN ETULLAH, Israel, April 5 — Knowing that the attack would come sooner or later, Israeli soldiers along the Lebanese border stayed well inside their heavily fortified bunkers through the day. Finally, at 7:50 p.m., a barrage of mortar shells and antitank missiles crashed into Israeli posts on Mount Dov. Nobody was injured. Within minutes, Israeli jets swooped past and fired rockets around the Lebanese villages of Kfar Shouba and Kfar Shaba, taking care not to strike inside the villages, though that was where the shelling came from. So...

BEIRUT - A series of unclaimed rocket attacks from Lebanon into northern Israel has served as a timely reminder of the key role Syria can play in Mideast stability. The attacks, combined with repeated assaults by the Lebanese Hizbullah organization against the Israeli army over the past two weeks, briefly reenergized the long-dormant Syria and Lebanon diplomatic track when Secretary of State Colin Powell paid an unscheduled visit on Monday to Beirut and Damascus and called for calm. That attention, say diplomats and analysts, is why Syria had given a green light for an escalation along Lebanon's frontier with Israel....