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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Geoff Altman who wrote (219913)	9/16/2007 9:52:53 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 787577

BBC's well buried take (2 of them) on the Syrian "tension".... New twist to Syria-Israel tension By Martin Patience BBC News, Damascus The alleged violation of Syrian airspace by Israeli warplanes was announced by the official state news on Thursday afternoon. It is not clear why it took the Syrian authorities almost 12 hours to make the reported incident public. The Israeli military, for its part, has made no public comment on the matter. But in a summer where the two countries seem to have oscillated from possible war to possible peace talks, this incident will have left some officials in Damascus jittery. Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told al-Jazeera TV that Syria's leadership was "giving serious consideration to its response... to this aggression". Caught by surprise It seems unlikely, however, that Syria will resort to anything more than public denouncements of the alleged incident. But the alleged violation of Syria's airspace will serve only to heighten tensions between the two countries. That it apparently happened in the country's north, close to the Turkish border - and not in the south, where Syria and Israel share a border - has taken many people here by surprise. Syria and Israel remain technically in a state of war, and peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War. Both sides have generally kept the border area quiet. Syrian officials - including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - say that they want peace with Israel through negotiation. But they insist that in return for any peace agreement, Israel must return the entire Golan Heights. Israel accuses Syria of supporting Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamic movement, which it fought against last summer. The Syrian government also harbours Palestinians that Israel - and much of the Western world - regards as terrorists. They include the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal. War talk In Damascus, news about Israel dominates the newspapers and airwaves. But when that news directly affects Syria it is a different matter. At a swanky cafe in downtown Damascus, customers put their sandwiches back on their plates as the news broke on TV. One of the waiters rushed to get the remote control, and the TV's volume - normally background noise - was raised. For a few minutes, everyone, both staff and customers, was quiet. Over the past few months, many people here dismissed the talk of war as a lot of hot air. This reported incident might challenge that assumption. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2007/09/06 18:05:38 GMT © BBC MMVII 88888888888888888888' Israeli press fears new Syria tension Papers in Israel are unanimous that a reported incursion into Syrian airspace by their country could lead to a serious ratcheting up of tension, with some warning of the possibility of war. There is little doubt in the papers that the incident took place, and most say it threatens to destabilise an already fragile situation. One writer thinks Israel is hoping to avoid "a Pandora's box" of international involvement by keeping silent. REUVEN PEDATZUR IN HA'ARETZ The person who decided to send the planes is well aware of the high level of tension and misunderstood the significance of penetrating Syria's airspace... Just like 40 years ago [before the Six-Day War] both sides could lose control over developments and war could break out. YA'AKOV KATZ IN JERUSALEM POST The IDF thinks Syria does not really want armed conflict with Israel but has been preparing for war. Syria might be planning to use this incident as an excuse to accuse Israel of an act of aggression that leads to war. OFER SHELAH IN MA'ARIV Dialogue between Israel and Syria has been complex and tough for many months... There is still a chance of a misunderstanding or a dead end in which one side concludes there is a need to move to a different kind of dialogue. If this happens, God forbid, we will remember this night. AMOS HAREL IN HA'ARETZ No-one expects President Bashar Assad to react with all-out war. It appears more likely he will look for indirect ways of getting revenge... But Israeli intelligence does not always understand the behaviour of the Syrian leader... His reactions could be very different from what Israel expects. PROF EYAL ZISSER IN YEDIOT AHARONOT There's a new fragile reality between the two countries since the Lebanon war... Every incident could lead to a major conflagration. It is to be hoped that the two countries will be wise enough to contain the incident - if indeed it happened. JACKY HUGI IN MA'ARIV Syria has no interest in a confrontation with Israel and will not seek gratuitous provocations. The incident shows the fragility of the situation in the Middle East. Tragically, it happened only 10 days after Israel's government said it saw no chance of a military confrontation with Syria. ALEX FISHMAN IN YEDIOT AHARONOT Since we are unable to say what lies behind this sortie, we can only hope that we can rely on the people who decided to do it... Declarations in Israel about the decline in tension with Syria were premature. BEN KASPIT IN MA'ARIV It is possible to assume that the Syrians didn't invent the incident and that if they had Israel would have taken the trouble to deny it. But Israel is silent, as is the US... The summer is over but the heat lingers on. HERB KEINON IN JERUSALEM POST If Israel admits to aerial activity over Syria it would open up a Pandora's Box... To prevent this, Jerusalem is keeping uncharacteristically mum, letting the Syrians enjoy a media circus today in the hope that international interest will fade if only one hand is clapping. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2007/09/07 11:42:34 GMT © BBC MMVII -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.