More on the Elephant...Syria calling up Reserves

Continuing on our elephant in the room thread...

Totally unreported on Israeli media (as of 11:23 AM), the daily newspaper an-Nahar reports that the Syrian army is calling up some of its reserves. Assad says that his land [the Golan] is occupied, so he needs "peace to regain his land"...and when asked about Iran's call to wipe Israel off the globe, Assad replied, "This is freedom of speech. Any person in the world has the right to express himself freely. This is just an expression."

Sure.

Judge for yourselves:

Syria was reportedly calling its reserve forces as its president Bashar Assad said he is working for peace with Israel, denying charges of channeling Iranian weapons to Lebanon's Hizbullah.

The Daily newspaper an-Nahar, in an un-attributed report, said Syria has "called to service part of its reserve force."

Meanwhile, Assad told CBS: "We call for peace talks. We had peace talks 15 years ago … We work for peace with Israel … Our land is occupied and we need peace to regain our land."

He denied charges that Syria was channeling Iranian weapons to Hizbullah, saying Damascus supports the party "politically because they have a just cause."

"We have not allowed Iran to provide Hizbullah with Weapons and missiles. Where is the evidence for such a charge?" Assad asked.

He said charges regarding Syria's involvement in smuggling weapons to Hizbullah in Lebanon "have been made for a year. Intelligence services, probably from all over the world, operate on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria and the Israelis fly over Lebanon … I told them provide us with a single evidence that we have sent one missile to Hizbullah. These are fake claims."

Syria, Assad said, supports Hizbullah politically.

"We do not provide anybody with safe haven. They have their safe haven among the Lebanese people. This is the source of their strength," Assad said.

"As for support, this depends on the kind of support. We have good relations (with Hizbullah) and we support herm politically because they have a just cause," he added.

Assad also denied that Damascus airport is being used by terrorists as a springboard to fight the U.S. forces in Iraq.

"They enter illegally across the border and we've managed to arrest them," Assad stressed.

Asked to comment on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenjad's call to wipe Israel off the Map, Assad said: "This is freedom of speech. Any person in the world has the right to express himself freely. This is just an expression."

Beirut, 09 Sep 07, 09:19

In the weeks before the Yom Kippur was in 1973, the IDF and Israeli government were aware of many signs indicating war.

Are we doomed to repeat history?

President Shimon Peres on history: "It is a great mistake to learn from history. There is nothing to learn from history."(M'aariv interview, 1993)


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

The Elephant in the Room.

The elephant has been here for a few months, but only recently has it started getting bigger.

Taxi drivers discuss it with their passengers...

It is axiomatic that the news media is the last to know in Israel. From the time we arrived here, we have been told "the taxi drivers know." This could simply be urban legend, as I would very much like to believe, but recently I have been paying more attention as the taxi driver contingent in Jerusalem somehow gets wind of things ranging from sports to diplomacy to gossip and has oftentimes proved correct.

The news media is full of dire reports of Syrian units moving up to the Golan; of an Arab daily in London claiming Hezbollah's "surprise" for Israel is chemical and biological weapons; Nasrallah's boast that he is more and better armed than last summer; the upsurge in diplomatic Double-Talk about how no one wants war but everyone will respond to Other's "aggression," and so forth....(from "A Baka Diary")

Today's JPost subtly mentioned war with Syria as well:

The problem with a large-scale operation right now is that the timing is off. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is busy preparing for the November peace summit in the US; a major operation that would most definitely draw many casualties would cause its cancellation. The IDF is also still concerned about the possibility of war with Syria; an operation in Gaza could turn that fear into a reality.

So while everyone knows about and it's even Shabbat table talk, no one is coming out right to say it. Today, Israel still refuses to admit anything...but the elephant grows even larger.

Syria: Air defenses fired at Israeli aircraft over our airspace

Syrian air defenses opened fire on Israeli aircraft that violated Syrian airspace overnight Thursday, a Syrian military spokesman said.

The Israelis broke the sound barrier and "dropped ammunition" over deserted areas of northern Syria overnight, the spokesman was quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency. (JPost)

YNET:

"The Israeli enemy aircraft infiltrated into the Arab Syrian territory through the northern border, coming from the Mediterranean heading toward the eastern region, breaking the sound barrier," the spokesman said. "Air defense units confronted them and forced them to leave after they dropped some ammunition in deserted areas without causing any human or material damage."

Military sources declined comment on the report, saying "the IDF does not comment on reports of this nature."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said it was looking into the report.

Wish I could end this posting off with something optimistic, but the elephant is listening.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Syrian Muslims Love: Israel?

Reading articles like this remind me that:

1. Not everyone out there wants us dead....not even all the Muslims. (I know this, but it's good to be reminded of it)

2. We do lots of things right, even if our government leadership is corrupt

3. I feel sorry for this guy, he's probably going to need even more protection than Salman Rushdie.

Why I Admire Israel
Farid Ghadry May 6, 2007

Washington DC -- As a Syrian and a Muslim, I have always had this affinity for the State of Israel. As a businessman and an advocate of the free economic system of governance, Israel to me represents an astounding economic success in the midst of so many Arab failures. I measure achievement not in terms of trade or dollars going in or out (Saudi Arabia is best at that) but in terms of scientific prowess that ultimately churns the economic engine of success.

While many Arabs view Israel as a sore implant, I view it as a blessing. I should provide an example of what I mean.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, we learned that friends of ours lost a daughter. Some ten days later, we visited them at their house with some other friends. Conversation surrounding the tragedy ensued and one of my dearest friends whom I have a lot of respect for objected to the story he heard about how the Israeli Ambassador to Washington, through connections, was able to have the body of Liviu Librescu delivered to his family, for religious reasons, before anyone else could have any access to their loved ones. He was fuming against the Ambassador more than against the authorities' unwillingness to deliver simultaneously the bodies of Muslims who also perished, in particular the Egyptian student Waleed Shaalan. I asked him "Did the Egyptian Ambassador call to have Shaalan's body delivered early to his family in accordance with our religious traditions?" He did not know the answer to the question but nonetheless kept fuming against the Israeli Ambassador. It was as if the Israeli Embassy did it to spite him or any other Arab. For me, it confirmed the admiration I have for a country that respects their own.

After some heated argument, almost all agreed that Arabs do not have any measure of respect for our own people (due mostly to lack of accountability) and that Arabs must embrace self-empowerment by learning how rather than why Israel begets results.

Israel's democracy and its economic prosperity are all needed in our midst in the hope that we can learn self-empowerment. It is not hard to imagine our young people learning about empowerment when they watch Israeli democracy on their television sets, but it is hard to imagine they will be able to apply it living under an authoritarian system of government. That is the reason why Arabs send their own young people as suicide bombers instead of nurturing them to grow and become citizens of the world so that one day they can use their connections to help their people like the Israeli Ambassador to Washington helped the Librescu family. How could they nurture them in an environment void of hope for their future?

Israel has, in less than 60 years, built an economy ten times that of Syria with one-fifth the population. How does one explain this fact? It is very simple: Israel is a vibrant democracy. For no fault of our own, Syria has suffered from one occupation after occupation, the latest being organically grown represented by the Assad family. One would think that a Syrian family occupying Syria is less harmful than the French occupying Syria. The truth is, it is much worse. The not-so-civilized Assad family uses much worse despotic techniques. The result is that not only Syrians suffer from lack of opportunities and stifling liberties but they also suffer from lack of hope, dignity, and pride as well; a good formula to create suicide bombers.

When the renowned Berkshire Hathaway of Omaha fancied to invest in the Middle East, it bought shares in Israeli industrial companies on the basis of merit. I do not know of any western investment company who has bought shares in Arab public companies except for the lucrative cellular business, which are unmanageable without western know-how and equipment. That does not mean it won't happen one day, but it will certainly not happen to any of the countries surrounding Israel any time soon (with maybe the exception of Jordan) as long as self-empowerment is absent.

It is said that approximately one third of all scientific Nobel prize winners are Jewish. The ratio is mind boggling. One third comes from a universe of 15 millions Jews and the remainder two-thirds from the much larger pool of 6 billion-plus people. Arabs (mostly Egyptians) have two or three Nobel Peace and Literature Prizes (From a pool of 350 million people) but no Arab has ever won a Nobel in sciences be it chemistry, physics, or medicine. Any argument here as to why Israel is so important to the region?

The assertion made today by the likes of the ignorant Ahmadinajead, who aspires to wipe Israel off the map, and the violent Hamas, some members of which covet throwing the Jews to the sea, reminds me of the story of two factories built side-by-side. One is very successful and its employees take a good paycheck and the other is not so successful and its employees are economically deprived. The manager of the not-so-successful factory spends all his time striving to destroy the successful factory when he in fact should be spending his time learning and imitating the successful factory for his people to luxuriate in similar prosperity. If some of the Palestinians are not willing to learn (Many do want to imitate the success of the factory next door but are not given the chance to express their views or to be elevated to positions of power), we Syrians want to learn and imitate.

James A. Baldwin said: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." To me, any dispute over shared lands is secondary to bringing prosperity to my people.

Copyrights - 2003-2007 - Reform Party of Syria (RPS) except where otherwise noted - all rights reserved.





Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael