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Nations United Against Israel

Israel ineffectually swats Solana's Syria stopover


By Stan Goodenough
March 11, 2007

Instead of slamming the European Union for its betrayal and appeasement, Israeli officials Sunday weakly decried the union’s foreign policy chief’s plans to visit Syria for talks as “a mistake.”

Javier Solana Friday announced his intention to drop by Damascus for talks with the Assad regime, just days after Israel called on the international community to continue isolating Syria.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni warned EU foreign ministers in a closed-door discussion Monday, that “[t]o engage the Syrian regime, in the absence of any real change in its actions on the ground, would be to reward [it] for policies that have greatly endangered the Middle East and the cause of peace.

“We believe that the international community, including the EU, should make clear to Syria that commitment to peace is demonstrated in actions, not just in words. The message should be that the path to international legitimacy and re-engagement with the international community goes through a clear and decisive shift in Syrian behavior.”

The list of Syria’s crimes in the region is long.

  • Senior officials, possibly all the way to the top of the Alawite government, are suspected of direct involvement in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri two years ago.

  • The United States has openly accused Syria of pro-actively supporting the insurgency in Iraq that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

  • Syria shelters the leaders of top terrorist organizations, including Hamas’ Khaled Masha’al, enabling them to direct violence against Israel with impunity.

  • The Lebanese Hizb’allah terror group, whose activities triggered a war with Israel last summer, has with Syrian assistance been rearmed with missiles and other weaponry in readiness for another round with the Jewish state.

  • Still officially at war with Israel, bristling with VX-gas warheads and rockets to deliver them anywhere in the country, its media daily demonizing the Jews, Syria, along with Iran, is committed to purging Israel from the Middle East.

Livni told her European counterparts that “recent months have seen intensive efforts at rearmament by Hizb’allah, particularly across the Syria-Lebanon border, with weapons supplied by Damascus and Teheran in direct violation of [United Nations] Resolution 1701.”

But, noted The Post, the strongly pro-Arab Solana’s ears were deaf to the Israeli’s appeal.

“I'll go to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and then to Syria,” he said. “The council has mandated me to undertake this trip.”

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