Last update - 00:00 31/07/2007
PM expects calm summer, fall, despite impending war warnings
By The Associated Press
The summer season will be calmer than some people think, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday, countering persistent reports predicting a new war.
Olmert, speaking at a graduation ceremony in Jerusalem for the Israel Defense Forces' command college, said people on both sides of Israel's borders want peace, not war.
"I firmly believe that the coming summer and fall will not be too hot," Olmert said. "There is no place for creating an atmosphere of 'the eve of war.'"
Ever since last summer's inconclusive war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, which cost Olmert most of his public support, Israeli media, quoting anonymous security officials, have been warning that the probability of another war this summer is high.
"Our neighbors know very well that we prefer to sit with them and talk about peace instead of proving that we are stronger then they are," Olmert said. "In the north and east [Lebanon and Syria], there are millions of people who want peace and quiet, just as we do," he said.
Last month, Deputy Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinsky also said that he does not believe the IDF will go to war with Syria this summer, contrary to past estimates.
"We believe, as I personally believe, we needn't expect a war with Syria this summer," Kaplinsky said at a meeting with military reporters in Tel Aviv on the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War.
Kaplinsky added, however, that "we cannot ignore what we are seeing: a growing Iranian involvement in promoting regional instability, Syrian involvement in the rearming of the Hezbollah following the war in Lebanon, and the preparatory measures being taken by the Syrian army."
In April, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Kassem told the British newspaper the Guardian that the group is rearming and is prepared for another war this summer.
"We are prepared for the possibility of another adventure or the demand of American policy that might push the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] in that direction," Kassem said.