OK, first read the article below (from 07th June)...and then read the next one from today (09th June).

Shane - your input please?



Israel fears Syrian attack

By Charles Levinson in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 1:59am BST 08/06/2007

Israel was seeking peace with Syria, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said yesterday amid tensions over a reported military buildup on both sides of their border.

The Israeli army takes part in a military manoeuvre; Israel was seeking peace with Syria, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said yesterday amid tensions over a reported military buildup on both sides of their border


Helicopters and tanks are mobilized as the Israeli army takes part in a military manoeuvre to conquer a Syrian outpost

Israeli intelligence officials have been warning for weeks that Syria is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-tank weapons, antiaircraft rockets, and other missiles, and bolstering its presence along the Israeli border.

Mohammad al Habash, a Syrian parliament member, meanwhile, told the Al Jazeera satellite channel this week that his country was actively preparing for war with Israel, which he said he expected to break out this summer.

Israel has similarly fortified its own border defences and on Tuesday conducted well-publicised war games which included a simulated attack on a Syrian village and a surprise attack by Syrian commandoes on the Golan Heights. With both sides on alert and deeply mistrustful of the other's intentions, it is widely feared that a misstep could spark a war that neither side wants.

"Israel seeks peace with Syria," Mr Olmert told his security cabinet. But the Israeli premier warned of "miscalculations that could cause the security situation to worsen".

His comments were the latest indication that the Jewish state is ready to resume long dormant peace negotiations with Syria.

Fears of an accidental war have prompted a handful of senior officials including Amir Peretz, the defence minister, and army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to call for reviving talks with Syria.

Shaul Mofaz, the transportation minister and former army Chief of Staff, left for Washington yesterday to seek the Bush administration's blessing for opening direct communication with Syria.

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"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."

After Olmert's blunder in Lebanon last year - where for the first time an Israeli PM 'lost' a ruck with his Arab neighbours - I should imagine this decision (if it goes ahead) will go down with the Israeli voting public like a ton of hot snot.



Israel offers the Golan Heights to Syria

By Charles Levinson in Katzrin, Israel
Last Updated: 2:16am BST 09/06/2007

The Israeli prime minister has offered to return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace, the nation's press reported yesterday.

Israelis tour a military bunker in the Golan Heights; the Israeli prime minister has offered to return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace, the nation's press reported yesterday


Israelis tour a military bunker in the Golan Heights. The strategic highlands could be returned to Syria in exchange for peace

In a secret communique, Ehud Olmert demanded that in exchange for the return of the strategic highlands, Syria dissolve its alliances with Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian militant factions who maintain headquarters in Damascus.

Syria, under the regime of Bashar al Assad, is a key supporter of the Lebanese Shia Hizbollah militia, who battled Israel to a standstill last summer. Many of the anti-tank rockets that wreaked havoc on Israeli ground forces originated in Syria, a crucial conduit for the Iranian Katyushas and other rockets that rained down on Israeli cities throughout the 34-day war.

Were Syria to abandon its Shia allies in Lebanon and Iran in exchange for peace with the Jewish state, it would seriously weaken Israel's most potent foes.

"I am your partner for making peace between our countries," Mr Olmert told Damascus through German and Turkish mediators, Israel's Yediot Ahranot newspaper reported. "I know that a peace agreement with Syria requires me to return the Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty. I am willing to fulfil my part in this deal."

Mr Olmert reached out to Syria only after America's president George W Bush gave the green light in an hour-long phone conversation last month. The prime minister's office would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

Israel and Syria participated in arduous peace talks throughout much of the 1990s. But those efforts collapsed in 2000 amid disagreement over sovereignty of a narrow strip of land near the eastern shore of Lake Kinneret.

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"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."

Looks like things are a changing in that miserable part of the world. regards ferret.

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Lebanese army hammers militants in Palestinian camp
By Nazih Siddiq Reuters - 1 hour 5 minutes ago NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) -

Lebanese troops shelled al Qaeda-inspired militants entrenched in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, almost three weeks after fighting broke out.

Sporadic machinegun fire reverberated and artillery shells rocked the edges of the camp from early morning onwards, especially at the northern and eastern entrances of the camp, in which Fatah al-Islam fighters have vowed to fight to the death.

Television footage showed heavy black smoke billowing from many of the camp's buildings, some riddled with bullet-holes or punctured by shells.

"The army is trying to control positions that the militants are using to target the army," a military source said.

"The militants sometimes intensify their efforts (and launch stronger attacks), and sometimes resort to sniper attacks from these positions."

Only a few of the 40,000 residents now remain in a camp short of food, water and electricity.

At least 115 people, including 47 soldiers and 38 militants, have been killed since the fighting began, making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

"There is no movement between the camp's neighbourhoods because some shells are falling in civilian areas. The basic necessities of life aren't available," a resident of the camp, on the north Lebanese coast, said by telephone.

The latest mediation efforts by Lebanese Islamists to try to convince the militants to surrender have had no success.

But Lebanese sources said the Islamic Action Front, which includes Sunni politicians and clerics, and a grouping of Palestinian clerics, would continue efforts to find a solution.

The fighting began on May 20 when the militants attacked army units deployed around Nahr al-Bared after one of their hideouts in a nearby city was stormed.

Lebanon is already struggling with a 7-month-old political crisis, and there are fears that fighting could spread.

Deadly clashes have erupted at Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp in the past week, and five bombs have rocked civilian areas in and near Beirut since May 20.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told the French television station TV5 on Friday that the army was holding back to preserve civilian lives.

"That's why this battle is taking longer; and it's worth pointing out that these terrorists are well-equipped and well-trained and persistent."

Fatah al-Islam was officially formed late last year. Its leader, veteran Palestinian guerrilla Shaker al-Abssi, says he shares the same ideology as al Qaeda but has no organizational links with the group. Many of his men are Arab fighters from other countries, some of whom have fought in Iraq.

Authorities have charged 32 detained members of Fatah al-Islam with terrorism, charges that carry the death penalty.

I dont like to get involved with politics and shit because i have to do my job no matter what, and that last war is a bit of a sensitive issue for me because i lost some very good friends, but because you guys asked:

We would like peace with syria, problem is they keep massing more and more forces on our border which doesnt seem very friendly like. The manouvers are to train the army for an open field war instead of the CQB stuff we handle on a daily basis, so we'll be more prepared than last time.

I wouldnt call the last war a loss, we were fighting against 2 armies (syrian and iranian) and a terror organisation, and hit them pretty hard, our problem was a) unclear objectives (we went in, fucked them up, but then just stopped without accomplishing anything) and b) poor leadership (olmert and peretz, the defense minister, were jobniks (slang for desk jockeys) and never served in combat or took positions of command and the chief of staff was a pilot who had never served in any other branch of the army).

Giving back the golan wouldnt accomplish anything, syria cant be trusted to uphold their promise of peace, and the golan is way too strategically important for us, it overlooks the whole of northern israel and we can see from it into damascus.

No one wants another war here but in my opinion it looks like we may have no choice. I see a lot of stuff here that i cannot post and you guys will never hear about, but remember that theres a lot going on that isnt in the news and it makes a huge difference to how one perceives the situation,.