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Arab/Muslim States

Syria will face all-out war


By Stan Goodenough
July 17, 2007

If Syrian dictator Bashar el-Assad is stupid enough to attack Israel, he will find himself face to face with an IDF that has learned from its mistakes against Hizb'allah and is prepared for all out war.

And any "Palestinian" terrorist groups that try to make mischief inside Israel in the run-up to, or event, of an Arab state's attack will also find Israel's army more than able to deal with them.

This was the warning conveyed Monday by the deputy commander of the IDF's northern command during last summer's war in the north, General (res) Eyal Ben-Reuven.

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Ben-Reuven said the Hizb'allah had dealt Israel "a ringing slap" that had awoken the IDF to the fact it had made a terrible mistake when it hurriedly pulled its forces out of southern Lebanon.

Contending - against the opinion of others - that Israel did not actually lose the Second Lebanon War, the general said his country had nonetheless "failed to utilize [its] strength and meet [its] objectives, due to faulty leadership."

Israel's efforts to police [rather than destroy - Ed] "Palestinian" terrorism had limited its ability to prepare for full scale war.

"We can deal with Palestinian terrorism in the course of preparing for all-out war," he said, "but we can't prepare for war while dealing only with terrorism."

Ben-Reuven said that, when conflict breaks out with Damascus, Israel would be challenged by Syria's willingness "to take military and civilian hits [while striving] to harm Israeli civilians so as to make future gains in a political process and further pit the Israelis against each other.

Because of this, "the IDF's mission will be very focused and will have to be quick, in order to neutralize as quickly as possible the strategic areas threatening Israel's soft underbelly, thus preventing Syria reaching its coveted goals."

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