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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (29587)	10/5/2003 12:09:26 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 89467

A "probing" of Syria. Israel sent a warning to Syria with its bombing of what it said was a training base for radical Palestinians on Sunday, calculating it would not lead to a wider confrontation, Israeli officials and analysts said. The air attack was launched after a suicide bomber from the group killed 19 people in a restaurant in the northern port city of Haifa on Saturday. The army said it targeted a base near Damascus used by militant groups including Islamic Jihad. "We have no intention of escalating," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman told Reuters after the first Israeli strike deep into Syrian territory since the 1973 Middle East War. In the Arab world, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned an "aggression against a brotherly state". German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, speaking at a joint Cairo news conference with him, described the action as "unacceptable". A diplomatic source in Damascus said Syria planned to ask the United Nations Security Council to hold a special session. But Israeli analysts said Israel calculated it would not lead to a wider confrontation with its northern neighbour with whom it is still technically at war. Syria, with a military that was no match for Israel's armed forces and already under U.S. pressure to kick out groups on the State Department's list of terrorist organisations, was unlikely to take retaliation beyond diplomacy. "It was a very clear, focused message to the terrorists and to Syria that these activities must stop...and to (Syria) to start dismantling the terror organisations that operate from its territory," Gissin said. Islamic Jihad, in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beirut, said it did not have any training bases or military presence in Syria. Israel and the United States say that Islamic Jihad has its headquarters in Syria. "The significance of the operation is more in terms of its symbolic message to the Syrians and the terror organisations, said Eran Lerman, a retired senior Israeli military intelligence officer. "It simply says that nobody is immune". from timesofindia.indiatimes.com In some ways you have to stand in awe of the gall, that will allow Sharon to say "We have no intention of escalating," when he just has. JMO lurqer