Israel Urges Syria To “Stop Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah”
GAZA, May 22 (KUNA) — Israeli Foreign Tzipi Livni said Thursday Syria needed to “distance itself completely” from Iran, the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah party.
“Syria must also stop supporting terror - Hezbollah and Hamas - groups backed by the Islamic Republic (of Iran),” reports reaching here from Jerusalem quoted Livni as saying in statements to the press this midday ahead of meeting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner .
“The Syrians need to understand that peace talks require giving up support to terror groups,” she said, echoing U.S. statements.
The United States and Israel consider Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations because both groups oppose the Arab-Israeli peace process.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a statement Thursday affirming reports on indirect talks with Syria on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights being brokered by Turkey.
The Israeli opposition parties renewed objection to the ongoing talks that could lead to Israeli pullout from the territory.
Likud Party, chaired by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said it would convene an extraordinary meeting by its MPs Thursday to discuss the issue of talks with Syria.
Netanyahu is expected to hold a press conference ahead of the meeting to confirm opposition to withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
Television polls found 70 percent of Israelis, mainly Jewish settlers of the plateau, oppose giving back the Golan Heights to Syria, and believe that Olmert was using the talks to distract attention from the criminal investigation that could force him from office.
Olmert is taking big strategic moves that could endanger the future of the Jewish state at a time he has no public backing, Israel Radio quoted settlers as saying.
Israel captured the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Damascus on one side and the Sea of Galilee on another, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem announced Wednesday in Damascus that his country could not accept anything in the peace talks but Israel full withdrawal from the strategic territory.
“This is not a precondition. It is rather a Syrian right,” he affirmed.
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Baaah! too much talk and not enough defending of their own country. too many maniacal muslims around them to be talking. or does, “we will wipe Israel off the face of the map” not mean very much to them
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pmWith the Hizb and its Syrian & Iranian puppetmasters having taken over Lebanon, I cannot believe Olmert would even consider relinquishing the Golan Heights. Israel should be doing everything in its power to strengthen its northern frontier, not negotiating with Bashar al-Assad’s Alawi mafia. This is suicidal folly.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm“Israel captured the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Damascus on one side and the Sea of Galilee on another, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
Exactly, captured enemy territory after that enemy tried to capture Israeli territory but got it’s ass kicked in the process. Do you think if Israeli’s Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria had won that war they would be giving back Israeli territory today? When you start a war-then lose that war- you lose territory-end of story. Those chicken shit whiney assed Arab nationalists can kiss Israel’s ass as far as I’m concerned. If Olmert is so amazingly stupid as to give back the strategically placed high ground of the Golan Heights to people that don’t recognize Israel, he deserves what he’ll get.
“Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem announced Wednesday in Damascus that his country could not accept anything in the peace talks but Israel full withdrawal from the strategic territory. “This is not a precondition. It is rather a Syrian right,” he affirmed.”
The unbelievable hubris of the Arab mind is beyond description, Walid Al-Muallem must be Bagdad Bob’s cousin.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:42 pmThe beautiful, scarred Golan
A week ago I went to a vacation in the Golan with my wife. Only now I get around to writing about it.
The Golan highlands is a place of low mountains and rocky valleys. Some three thousand years ago it was part of the Kingdom of Israel, part of clan territories of Naphtali and Half-of-Menashe. It was a forested land back then, with pine and gnarled oak covering the land. The Assyrians exiled the clansmen from their wooden fortresses. Much time has passed; empires came and went. The forests were dwindling. Then came the Turks, and cut down most the remaining forests; the British who came after them finished destroying the nature. The barren and tortured land was given to the French, who, by UN decision, left it to the newly invented Syria as they ended their mandate.
Syria, in its turn, turned the land into a staging area for attacks on Israel. These rocky highlands are perfect for artillery, katyushas and hidden terrorist bases - lots of caves to hide in, lots of deep valleys to place weapons in, many hilltops that can be fortified. And the whole place overlooks the most fertile, populated and vital parts of Israel - just take your binoculars, pick a nice kindergarten, hospital, old people’s home or even just a regular buildings block and fire away. Then send your terrorists down through the porous border to kill and maim the survivors. Which is exactly what the Syrians did.
In 1967 Syria and Egypt were preparing for a join attack on Israel - their forces were amassed, the UN observers were kicked out, the war plans were drawn, the guns ready. Israel didn’t wait for them to attack, though, and attacked first, winning thoroughly against both of them and Jordan (that attacked Israel during these 6 days). Golan was taken from Syria, making sure it will not be used again to terrorize Israel.
We took quads and drove around, near the Syrian border. It’s a beautiful place, if horribly scarred - we drove between the ubiquitous mine fields and replanted forests, ruins of Syrian tanks and ancient synagogues, abandoned outposts and cultivated vineyards, bomb craters and blueberry fields. Herds of deer and wild boar returned to the Golan now, and wolves came with them. Small settlements make a living there, mostly from agriculture and viticulture. Herds of cows and sheep roam around, sometimes stepping on mines and blowing up. But the place prospers now. The scars of war are healing, growing over with replanted forests and fields and wild bushes. In 50 years time, if the mines are cleared, this will be just a beautiful, green highlands.
And suddenly we get this. Syria wants the Golan… for “peace”. The same Syria that maintains and commands Hizballah, Hamas, and a whole menagerie of other genocidal terrorist organizations. The same Syria that made deception into an art form. The same Syria that is ruled by a weak dictator and psychopathic behind-the-scenes strongmen. The same Syria that is best friends and quickly becoming the client state of Iran. Why doesn’t this fill me with confidence about peace?
Let us consider a metaphor here. A gangster comes to you with a bunch of his mates and tries to kill you. You kick his ass and take his gun away. This gangster then hires people to harass you and starts working for a psychopath that is obsessed with killing you. And what does the gangster do then? He demands his gun back in return for not killing you. And by-the-by this gangster is known to be a pathological liar that is really keen on holding grudges.
What would you do? Return the gun? Or what?
Is it just me or the whole situation is insane?
from an Israeli friend
a quick résumé of the Golan contest :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights
As Golan heights represent a strategic site, either for Israel (or for Syria before) the Golan heights also represent a source of WATER for both countries
this explains that
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:03 pmIsreal is foolhardy to give up the Golan. Muhammed and his pukes conquered 99% of what used to be Jewish and Christian lands in the ME. And now the jihadis want the other 1% too?
Israel needs a leader in the PM job not another Chamberlain. It’s time to fight. Hudna is out of the question. Live or die Israel, those are your choices.
Tell the Muzzies to go f*ck off.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm