By Stan Goodenough
Aug 15, 2007
They want to be able to paint Israel as the aggressor in the event war breaks out between them and the Jewish state, thereby ensuring them a sympathetic international ear when they demand a ceasefire and seek to negotiate terms - like the return of more territory to the Arab side.
This is one likely explanation for why Syria and the Lebanese Hizb'allah simultaneously announced Tuesday that they have no interest in war against Israel.
Syrian Vice-President Farouk a-Shara issued his nation's denial Tuesday.
"Israel knows we don’t want war. We should always be ready to respond to Israeli aggression, but Syria will not start a war,” he said.
Israel, on the other hand, a-Shara was careful to say, is "looking for any excuse to start a war."
Over in Lebanon, the leader of the terrorist Hizb'allah organization that triggered a war with Israel last summer, sending hundreds of missiles into the Jewish state, also chose yesterday to signal his opposition to another war while warning dire consequences of there would be one.
Hizb'allah was not interested in another bout of fighting with Israel, Hassan Nasrallah said, according to the Associated Press.
However, "if you the Zionists are thinking of attacking Lebanon ... I promise great surprises that could alter the fate of the war and the region, insh'allah."
Nasrallah said his group now has advanced missiles that can hit targets anywhere inside Israel.
According to Israel's National Infrastructure Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, "Nasrallah has never lied. He is cocky, he is arrogant, but at least from our experience with him, to my regret, what he has said, he has done.
"And when he says 'I have 20,000 missiles' I believe him," the minister said Wednesday.
Israel responded to what journalists termed "calming" messages from its two northern enemies by attempting to make mollifying noises of its own.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told IDF officers in the north Tuesday Israel "is not interested in war with Syria, but we are preparing for any eventuality."
And Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated: "Israel does not want war, and by our assessment, neither does Syria. Therefore, there is no need for a war here."