War (of Words) with Syria
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Monday, Apr 14, 2003
[British recap of Ha'aretz interview, plus settler reaction.]
The Guardian via Dratfink -- April 14
Sharon softens stance on Palestine
by Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem and Nicholas Watt
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave his strongest indication yesterday that he expected to see a Palestinian state and was willing to evacuate controversial settlements to achieve peace.
But Mr Sharon was given a taste of the dangers of taking a moderate stance. Ezra Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Yesha Council, the settlers' pressure group, described his remarks as "pathetic".
"He has completely divorced himself from the history of the Jewish people. If you do not have the right to live in Shiloh and Beit El, you don't have the right to live in Tel Aviv. The UN declaration in 1948 is not the justification of the state of Israel, it is Jewish history."
National Post (Canada) via AEI --- April 5
A Peaceful Approach to Regime Change
By David Frum
So--what's next? The question may seem premature: Allied troops have barely begun, let alone won, the battle for Baghdad. Yet already you hear anti-war critics demanding to know who will replace Iraq in the Bush administration's gunsights. These critics fear that the administration is determined to launch an endless sequence of wars to reshape the whole Middle East.
But while reshaping the region is very much on the administration's mind, more wars in the region are not. Instead, the administration's long-range thinkers are planning three different approaches borrowed from the recent past to the area's three most troublesome states--and all three approaches are non-military.
For Iran, the approach might be compared to the approach the United States and other democratic states took to Poland in the 1980s. ....
For Syria, think Libya in the 1980s ...
As for Saudi Arabia, it shares more than a set of initials with South Africa. ...
Today's summary and conjecture. The war of words is heating up. After letting lower level officials till the ground, Bush is speaking up on Syria. Lists of current and past offenses by Syria are circulating in the US media. Increasing US pressure on Israel to make concessions to Palestine is likely to increase Israeli pressure on the US to do something about Syria. US is likely to continue to ratchet up pressure, but has little international backing for this rhetoric. Assad may be forced to allow US strikes against anti-Israeli organizations in Syria and Lebanon to prevent full-scale invasion.
[Report on Israeli-Syrian War of Words]
Ha'aretz -- April 14
Mofaz: Syria must lift Hezbollah threat to Israel
By Daniel Sobelman and Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies
Syria must lift the threat of Hezbollah attacks against Israel and expel the leaders of terrorist organizations from Damascus, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted as saying Monday, amid fast-rising tensions between Syria and the United States.
"We must monitor what it happening there. The Americans have taken out a 'yellow card' on them, and were right to do so," he said in remarks broadcast on Army Radio, referring to a soccer referee's warning card for players who have broken the rules of the game, and, if infractions continue, may be expelled.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk a-Shara said Sunday that if the United States decides to attack Syria, Israel will also be harmed as a result. Shara also rejected claims that Syria was providing shelter to senior Iraqi leaders, and said that the Americans "know well that these accusations have no basis."
Former prime minister and foreign minister Shimon Peres, currently in the United States, said Washington no longer tolerate "two faced policies" regarding terrorism. "A nation can either fight terror or aid terror. They will not allow a nation to pretend it is fighting terror, while it actually aids it."
Peres said that some 10 headquarters of terrorist organizations in Damascus. He added that Washington's approach to Syria was likely to be "uncompromising," but "I don't think that the next step will be use of military force. I think that what America will try to do is to truly forge a coalition to tell Syria to decide where it's really headed."
whitehouse.gov -- April 13
Remarks by Mr. Bush upon Arrival from Camp David
Q Could they face military action if they don't cooperate?
BUSH: They just need to cooperate.
[Analysis of Syria-US relations from Israel.]
Ha'aretz -- April 14
Bashar Assad's nightmare is coming true
By Daniel Sobelman
The editors of the official Syrian government newspapers have in recent days lowered the rank of U.S. administration officials to one reserved until now only for their Israeli counterparts: Nazi war criminals.
"The UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly must transfer the leaders of the American administration to the International Criminal Court, so they can be judged as war criminals, equal in rank to the Nazi war criminals," said one of the editorials of the newspaper Tishrin two days ago.
[Analysis of international reaction to US neocon policies.]
International Herald Tribune -- April 14
Call it imperialism or unilateralism, America worries the world
by Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
The speed of the Iraqi victory is being seen as likely to bolster the prestige and influence of those in Washington who, Europeans believe, would now like to embark on further military conquests, in Syria, Iran or possibly North Korea. "Traditionally the U.S. has emphasized its great convincing and coercive power on other states," Parmentier said. "Its foreign policy managed to convince other heads of state that what they were doing was in their national interest, and this was American's great strength.
"Today, the U.S. is affirming a much more blunt and brutal stance," Parmentier added. "Its vision for foreign affairs has somewhat retrograded to a more national or even nationalistic definition, in the most limited sense of the term, as it was understood in the 19th century."
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Zee News (India) -- April 14
New evidence extremist groups use Syria as base: Time
London: A key operative of an extremist group suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network operated out of Syria until last month, the European edition of the US news weekly time reports in its issue appearing today.
"Beginning last January and continuing through the first week of the war, mullah Abderrazzak -- a Tunisian member of the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group -- made satellite telephone calls from Syria to Milan-based Islamic terrorists, according to court papers filed in Milan," the weekly said in a statement.
Abderrazzak wanted the terrorists to leave Europe and join the fight against US and British troops in Iraq, an Italian anti-terror investigator told time.
His location does not prove the Syrian government knowingly harbored him, but the investigator told time "activity like this can't happen without (Syria's) security service knowing."
[Coverage of Bush's comments and Syrian response. With added depth on Syrian response. Mention of Time article about alleged al-Queda link with Syria.]
Al Jazeera -- April 14
Washington ups the ante against Syria
by Amal Hamdan
In an escalating confrontation of words, the United States accused Syria Sunday of possessing chemical weapons, charged its nationals had engaged US troops in combat in Baghdad, provided a safe haven for fleeing Iraqi officials.
In today's instalment, US President George W. Bush stopped short of threatening force against Damascus. Asked if Syria could face military action Bush replied, “They just need to cooperate.”
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spoke to his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad, hours after Bush reiterated US allegations. Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported the two leaders discussed “developments in the Iraqi question and the global situation in the Middle East,” without giving further details.
To add to the pressure, the latest European edition of Time magazine has reported that a key Al-Qaeda operative was allowed to operate out of Syria with the full knowledge of the country's security services.
"Beginning last January and continuing through the first week of the war, Mullah Abderrazzak -- a Tunisian member of the Ansar Al Islam terrorist group -- made satellite telephone calls from Syria to Milan-based Islamic terrorists, according to court papers filed in Milan", said the US news weekly.
Abderrazzak wanted the "terrorists" to leave Europe and join the fight against US and British troops in Iraq, an Italian anti-terrorist invesitgator told Time.
[An analysis of how Israeli interests influence US policy.]
Asia Times -- April 12
A roadmap for Israel, with a detour via Damascus
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Will it be the roadmap to Israeli-Palestinian peace or the road to Damascus that will next grab the attention of US President George W Bush's administration in the wake of its convincing conquest of Iraq?
While senior officials, including Bush himself as recently as Monday after meeting in Belfast with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have insisted that getting an Israeli-Palestinian peace process back on track will be the top regional priority after the Iraq war, speculation that administration hawks have their eyes set on Syria suggests a possible detour.
"They are saying, 'Why should we immediately get all involved in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, especially with the Europeans and the UN, before the Syrians, Hezbollah [in Lebanon], and Iran have time to fully absorb the real meaning of our victory'?" said one former senior official. "It's part of their 'shock and awe' strategy, only it's directed beyond Iraq."
The hawks also have strong support in Congress, where the so-called Israel lobby, in the form of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been flexing its muscles over the past several weeks.
It is lining up support from both the Republican and Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives to break with the road map's plan for Israelis and Palestinians to take parallel steps, and instead require the Palestinians to enforce a total halt on attacks on Israelis and implement more far-reaching political and economic reforms before Israel is obliged to begin withdrawing its forces or even dismantling illegal settlements. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has even asked Bush to repudiate the quartet altogether.
While Bush cannot afford to go that far, DeLay's words were clearly a shot across the bow by a strong party leader who sees the administration's staunch support for Sharon to date as a major opportunity to woo Jewish votes and political organizations and funding from the Democrats in 2004, an opportunity that is also recognized by Bush's own political guru, Karl Rove.