A senior Israeli general on Monday confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are training for a full-scale war with Syria, and that plans have been laid for a swift victory. But in the event of a conflagration, will Israel’s leadership allow those plans to be implemented? Continue reading »

Driving to work this morning, I passed a sign that read “Assad is waiting for Olmert to make peace.”

It never ceases to amaze me that all the Arabs have to do to “prove” they want peace is utter a few semi-conciliatory words in English, while Israel is required to give something tangible or risk being viewed as an obstacle to peace.

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In an address to academics in Jerusalem on Monday, US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones indicated that despite their nearly identical behavior in regards to anti-Israel terrorism, Washington accepts the “Palestinians” but rejects Syria.

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Senior Israeli defense officials and politicians are trying their best to downplay talk of war with Syria in the coming year.

But their words tend to ring hollow amid the contrary assessments and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s order to the IDF to prepare for war just in case.

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Is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert trying to prepare Israelis for the surrender of the Golan Heights to Syria?

On Monday, Olmert explained in detail to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the only thing that would buy Israel peace with Syria would be ceding the entire Golan. He expounded on the issue despite stating that he remains opposed to negotiations with Damascus at this time.

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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested following talks with her Saudi counterpart on Tuesday that the Arab world has come to a concensus on the need to recognize Israel’s right to exist as the Jewish state.

Either Rice is visiting a Middle East in some parallel universe, or she is severely out of touch with the will of the Arab street.

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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem Saturday indicated his nation is ready to resume some kind of peace process with Israel. That news got Israeli ultra-leftists, some foreign diplomats, and the mainstream media all excited.

But this purported peace overture must be seen as a deception, just like every one before it.

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Rightly did Prime Minister Ehud Olmert state that Syria and Iran represent, along with their Hizb’allah proxy, an “axis of evil” determined not only to wipe out the Jewish state, but to bring the entire Judeo-Christian West to its knees.

Amazingly, a growing number of senior Israeli ministers now want to treat with one of the main components of the axis - Syria. And this just days after Syrian dictator Bashar Assad delivered his most venomous warning yet that the Jewish state had better meet his nation’s demands or face a war of annihilation.

According to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, handing over the Golan Heights and signing a piece of paper with Syria will cause the latter to drop its anti-Israel affiliation with Iran and other nasties.

For some reason, many Israelis continue to think they can deal with the Middle East on a state-to-state basis, apparently ignorant of the fact that their Islamic enemy is one, united in its desire to see the “Zionist entity” eliminated. This is evidenced by the fact that the issue of Israel alone is able to cause Sunnis, Shi’ites, Wahhabis, etc to set aside their differences for a common cause.

Israel now risks traveling the route taken by a Neville Chamberlain-led Europe prior to World War II, when it attempted to appease Hitler by sacrificing Czechoslovakia. We all know now, of course, that the concession only whetted Hitler’s appetite for conquest.

The combination of rogue Islamic regimes and terrorist organizations is a recipe for instability and mass bloodshed, and was consequently one of the primary justifications behind America’s invasion of Iraq.

Terrorist organizations are far more likely to, as the Saudis put it, engage in “irresponsible adventurism.” They only lack the resources available to a sovereign state.

Throw in an Iran, add a little Syria, and you have a well-armed, technologically-advanced, foaming-mouthed terrorist organization like Hizb’allah that is light years ahead of its “Palestinian” allies.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and all their buddies could not in their wildest dreams hope to knock out an Israeli warship.

Thank God the US took out Saddam Hussein, or we may be in a lot more trouble than we are today.

Damascus is looking to score a few propaganda points over the ongoing fighting in Lebanon and northern Israel.

Syria’s new UN ambassador, Dr. Jafar Ja’afari, told reporters in New York Friday that prior to US-backed efforts to end Syria’s occupation of Lebanon, the presence of the Syrian army resulted in far fewer attacks on northern Israel.

Lebanon’s own military, by comparison, has no chance of reining in Hizb’allah.

“They have no army. It is small, it has little control and everyone knows this.”

Washington is well aware of this fact, insisted Ja’afari, and therefore bears a certain degree of responsibility for the current crisis.

Of course, that is all a load of crap. Northern Israel suffered far fewer attacks during those years because the IDF had military control over southern Lebanon. Not because the Assad regime, which is still technically at war with Israel, was calling the shots in Beirut.