Israel Preparing for War with Syria?

Filed under: Israel, Syria, War — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on April 27, 2007 @ 1:30 pm CEST

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The IDF on Thursday held intensive training maneuvers in preparation for a feared Syrian attack on the Golan Heights.

Hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers, backed by helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, massed in the Judean Desert to drill simulations of war. The training exercise focused on Brigade 401 and its utilization of Israel’s most advanced tank - the Merkava Mark 4 - against the Syrian advanced Russian-made T-72.

Since the Second Lebanon War, Military Intelligence has claimed that war with Syria is now closer than ever, and the IDF is on heightened alert in the North in preparation for the possibility of a surprise attack.

President Bashar Assad, analysts have said, was empowered by Hizbullah’s surprise success while fighting the IDF. The assessment is that he might be motivated to launch hostilities in an effort to retrieve the Golan Heights, either by initiating a surprise attack to capture one or two Israeli communities or by firing long-range ballistic missiles at the home front.

But Nancy said Assad was a good, reasonable man!

Couldn’t resist that snark.

Israel still has the strongest military in the region, an attack by Syria would - most likely - be a major mistake. On the other hand, one also has to keep in mind that the anti-Israel crowd has quite a PR machine going. This PR machine could result in so much pressure on Israel, that Olmert will, once again, pull out too quickly / fight back with too little troops / commitment.

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1 lthomas

April 27, 2007 @ 2:34 pm CEST

The Israeli assessment of the Hezbollah war is such:

1. Israeli troops were poorly trainned. Many of these citizen troops had not been in any training of note in over 5 years.
2. The Israeli command structure was poorly communicated and was unable to make decisions based up information that was sketchy at best. Meaning the poorly trained commanders in the field were unable to make assessments based upon sound military logic in a timely fashion.
3. A comment spoken by one of their Elite special forces soldiers stunned a world and floored the Israeli Military.

“We are children. We are not prepared to face what is down there.”

Israel was floored by this one sentence and as such has demanded once again a return to the training that made her one of the most feared armies in the region.

This is nothing more then Training. Perhaps Israels allies might feel emboldened. If so that is why the Israeli army must return to the training that made her the juggernaut that she once was.

2 kritter

April 27, 2007 @ 4:25 pm CEST

“But Nancy said Assad was a good, reasonable man!

Couldn’t resist that snark.”

And W said that he had looked into Putin’s soul- and seen a kindred spirit. A kindred spirit that controls dissent by poisoning his opposition with radionuclides, LOL!

That’s what diplomacy is, making your enemies into someone you can’t wait to chat with over dinner.