Memo To Syria: Rethink Chutzpah

From IBD:
Posted 7/24/2006

Axis Of Evil: Syria has said if Israeli troops enter Lebanon in force, Damascus will enter the conflict. But the Syrians are already in it. In fact, they helped provoke it. Time to call their bluff?

The latest warning came from Syrian Information Minister Moshen Bilal. After meeting in Madrid with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moaratinos, Bilal told Spanish newspaper ABC that "if Israel makes a land invasion of Lebanon and gets near us, Syria will not stand by with arms folded. It will enter the conflict."

This bravado came after Sami al Khaymi, the Syrian ambassador to London, said in an interview with the BBC on July 14 that Hezbollah should stop firing missiles at Israel. "Syria is not interested in joining the battle," he said.

But those missile warheads stuffed with Syrian-made ball bearings suggest differently.

The object of Syria's concern, as Bilal expressed it, is that "if Israel makes a land entry into Lebanon, they can get to within 20 kilometers of Damascus."

To us, that seems more of an opportunity than a problem, an opportunity to rid the world of a state sponsor of terror and a threat to Middle East peace.

If the Israelis wanted to march on Damascus, they wouldn't have to go through Lebanon to do it. Israel already holds the Golan Heights, which is Syrian territory. The reason they hold the Golan is to prevent it from being used to bombard Israeli towns and villages, as has been the case in the past.

Hezbollah now does that for Damascus using either missiles transshipped through Syria from Iran or missiles directly from the Syrian army inventory, a factoid that doesn't seem to bother Bilal.

The current conflict began when exiled Hamas warlord Khaleed Meshaal gave the order from Damascus — the Club Med for terrorist groups — to attack an Israeli patrol near Gaza, killing two Israeli soldiers and kidnapping another. Hezbollah followed suit. And when Israel responded in self-defense, Hezbollah began raining missiles supplied by Syria or through Syria from Iran on Haifa and other Israeli cities and towns.

Hezbollah's ability to hit an Israeli ship with a missile and reach deep into Israel surprised many observers. But it's the warning by Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in a recent TV appearance, vowing to surprise Israel by land "just as we surprised you at sea," that both intrigues and concerns us.

"Israel doesn't know our capabilities on every level," Nasrallah said, and we wonder whether those capabilities include the biological weapons smuggled into Syria from Iraq just before Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Earlier this year, Moshe Yaalon, who was Israel's top general at the time, said Iraq had transported such weapons to its fellow Baathist dictatorship in Syria six weeks before the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Gen. Georges Sada, the No. 2 official in Saddam's air force, says Hussein smuggled his mass-murder weapons into Syria using two hollowed-out Boeing jets, making a total of 56 trips. Could they be what Nasrallah means by a "surprise" awaiting Israel?

If there were regime change in Syria, Iran would find it well nigh impossible to supply and arm Hezbollah. There would be no Syrian intelligence operatives to interfere in Lebanon's internal affairs even to the point of assassination of those who resist Syrian interference.

Beirut might then find the courage, backed by the international community, to take on Hezbollah and enforce U.N. Resolution 1559.

We would benefit as well. Syria has served as a sanctuary for jihadists moving in and out of Iraq, prompting Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, to call Syria the Cambodia of the Iraq War. It would be a major victory in the war on terror to eliminate one of terrorism's state sponsors.

Yes, we realize that Iran, and not the marionettes in Syria, is really pulling the strings in this conflict. And yes, Israel needs to be careful not to provoke those Arab nations that — as long as Hezbollah has been the focus — have been remarkably restrained in their reaction to the Israeli strikes.

Still, if the Israelis want to hang a right when they get to the Beirut-Damascus highway, don't expect us to stop them. Mideast peace might be only 20 kilometers away.