Syria is no different from Hamas or Hezbollah

so what! your enemy is still a threat regardless!

Rules of war. With the increase in targeting accuracy and delivery methods being able to take chem/nbc/bio weapons within minutes of population centers, war for Israel will always existental from now on. Israel must make it clear that war will be taken to her enemies population and the UN for turning a blind eye at isreals enemies is as culpable as they are for their civilian losses.

hey syria! grow up. israel is your s.w. neighbor.

Israel needs to learn it is Tuesday February 16 2010 not 4 000 B. C. RIGHT grow up Syria is real and so is Lebanon and so is Iran learning to live with neighbors is a esential part of adult life development RIGHT ??? Thank You... M. S.

a few questions for you eric...what land is occupied and specifically where? part b to that question eric is, how did that land become occupied? do you know? who owned it before? last question eric, what was established in 1964 and if you know, can you tell us why? many thanks eric from new mexico. By the way, you're living on stolen land there eric. better move.

i bash its policies towards the palestinian people, it's settlements on palestinian land, and the people who steadfastly maintain and support them both. and other than that, i do NOT bash israel or israelis.

bashing Israel?

How many did Sadaam hit when he tried to convert the Gulf war into an Arab/Israeli war by bombing Israel? Which military targets were Lebanon bombing with the Katyusha barrages all over N Israel that they used to start the Lebanese war? How many military targets did they hit in Haifa? ETC etc

ready to start again,as did Hezballah.While their puppet masters Iran need an enemy and a distraction.

The name 'pacifist' means he is not trying to pick a fight with you, but will win if you pick one with him. Got it? The purpose of those wars was not to kill Jews. It was to remove some crooked, sleazy land bandits, many of which (unfortunately) are Jewish. Your underhanded technique, apparently common among Israelis, of trying to force all Jews to accept the Jewish mafia as their spokesman will be turned against you whenever it is convenient. You may destroy a lot of Jews with you, if you choose (and that is what Zionists have been choosing), but you won't hear the last laugh unless you wise up.

the problem lies in your zionist perspective which maintains that israel has the right to do as it pleases without ever being held accountable; no matter WHAT it does in defiance of international law and the accepted norms of justice and human rights. and the difference between your view and his? he has both his eyes open, while you have one and three-quarters of yours tightly shut.

It appears your name is incorrect. You are no pacifist at all. You condone wars against Jews and violence against Jews. Your whole writing fails to mention one little detail. The intention of all those wars was the wholesale murder of Jews. BTW- Do you condone the murder of Jews at the Buenos Aires Jewish center in far off Argentina? Was this a terrorist act? Or do you the "pacifist" condone this too?

Change the focus away from Settlers, Settlements and Jewish Fanatics vs. Liberals.

Palestinians and Lebanese have Previously witnessed at their hands.

"[Israel] possess[es] several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force?. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under".Iran, Syria, hamas and hizbollah know the abovementioned. I can only deduce from this that they are all suicidal, if they decide to launch an attack against Israel.Period.

sure israel has nukes, but syria has chemical, so if israel nukes, syria will chem all of tel aviv, and it will happen, because NO defense system can handle more than 50 rockets at once let alone 300. rememeber israel iran and syria trained hezbollah, and they kicked you ass.

There is nothing like a common enemy to unite two sides. Ever heard the expression "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? This is the foundation of the present peace initiative: The US appoints Slowman as peace mediator between Israel and Syria, say. The Syrians want US involvement? Give it to them this way. Over time, the two sides realize whom they are dealing with. They get annoyed to death by his sloooowness and duuuumbness, band together against him, and get rid of him in some joint operation. (Both Mossad and the Syrians are experts in this sort of thing.) There is no bonding like joint war against a common enemy. Peace will follow for sure. You want another peace deal? How about Israel and the Palestinians? Do the same thing, but you will have to go to the Himalayas to catch another Abominable Slowman. There aren't many of those left, so might become a real bottleneck. I suggest you start looking for a few Slowmen right away. Good luck, and Peace be on Israel. Inshallah. P.S. We, the Talkback contributors, are reluctantly willing to deprive ourselves of the services of a censor we grew to love to hate, but only because of the enormity of the mission. May his demise serve as our atonement. Amen.

Well, maybe the Syrian FM just said, you can beat us anytime, but this time you'll pay a heavy price when you try to. The concept is known as deterrence. Where does the author read aggressive intentions, what are the Syrian's offensive capacities?

The title of the article is "Syria is no different than Hamas or Hezbollah". Is that a good choice of words? Is the purpose to delegitimize Syria (as a country) or to legitimize Hamas and Hezbollah (as aspiring factions). If you were talking to small children that language might be ok.

The American armed forces just killed 12 civilians with an errant missle strile including four children. Where is your outrage? Or is the IDF the only army not allowed to kill civilians when they are used as human shields?

since i have a pointed head and an eye in my left toe, i am not qualified to join the idf. now, listen carefully. never once did i advocate attacking syria. what i do advocate is extreme prudence on the part of assad and his crowd. assad should learn the old dictum that silence is gold. he should also know that if he starts a war with israel, he will be the loser.

since i have a pointed head and an eye in my left toe, i am not qualified to join the idf. now, listen carefully. never once did i advocate attacking syria. what i do advocate is extreme prudence on the part of assad and his crowd. assad should learn the old dictum that silence is gold. he should also know that if he starts a war with israel, he will be the loser.

since i have a pointed head and an eye in my left toe, i am not qualified to join the idf. now, listen carefully. never once did i advocate attacking syria. what i do advocate is extreme prudence on the part of assad and his crowd. assad should learn the old dictum that silence is gold. he should also know that if he starts a war with israel, he will be the loser.

since i have a pointed head and an eye in my left toe, i am not qualified to join the idf. now, listen carefully. never once did i advocate attacking syria. what i do advocate is extreme prudence on the part of assad and his crowd. assad should learn the old dictum that silence is gold. he should also know that if he starts a war with israel, he will be the loser.

You really dont see any conection between the Katiyshas and Kassans sent to Israel as a first attack and the fierce answer from Israel? If they dont want to see a devasted attack in urban areas tell them to stop provoking Israel.

If Syria states it intends to willfully target Israeli cities in the next armed conflict it declares in fact its intention to committ a war crime. Where is the outcry,Durson?

kill or be killed. I was amused for a second by the article in the NYT that said the Taliban know the US ROE and use it against US and allied forces. the Taliban actually hide their weapons and walk a way to get knew ones, as US forces look on , because of the ROE, what nonsense.

I hope your ID was successful and you can now rest in peace. I was hoping this would be helpful. Now it is cigar time, enjoy it.

"What military targets were Hezb.,Syrias clients,bombing when.." Now Hezbollah are Syria's clients...not Iran's.. nice twist "...when they decided to cover their kidnap murder by opening fire over Nth Israel?" A) Military. Legitimate target. POW's are captured. Soldiers are killed in action. B) The area is NOT Israeli, it was never annexed to Israel. "What military targets did a kindergarten in Sderot pose before Israel hit BACK in Cast Lead?" A) Syria did that? Amazing!! B) Maybe folk who who once lived in Najd did it. C) Israel was hitting back before Cast Lead and since.. "What miltary target was the Israeli old age home that was hit by Lebanon after the Lebanese war.?" Was it Lebanese forces or some militant group? Meanwhile, aren't Israeli cities protected by the IDF? Sheeeeshka. Rather slack...

You may have forgotten that Israeli citizens have been targeted by terror attacks for many year including suicide bombings and rocket attacks. You have also, obviously, forgotten Netanyahu's "Hiroshima" joke during the last Gulf War. It is doubtful Syria, Lebanon, and Iran have.

Can you then explain me why Denmark has today such problems to allow immigrants into the country according to wikipedia? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark#Demographics And can you explain me why the Danish immigration policy uses selective systems to choose their "good immigrants" like the "GreenCard Scheme" and "leaving bonus" for" anti-social" foreigners? http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/11/22/danish-immigrants-to-receive-leaving-bonus/

I see, you are an expert in all manner of things including vomit. Tess said she felt the same way about you [vomit inducing], insisting that she should not contact certain posters if she wanted to retain contact with you. Nice to know you keep looking up my posts, even those without info in the headers.Good.Keep reading.

Historically, there is nothing about what Israel has done that will make even the least- informed condone what the IDF intends to do. From forcibly taking Palestinian lands and driving innocent Palestinian Arabs out in 1948, to the destructive, US-backed wars of 1967, 1973 and the Intifada of 1982, none of the resolutions or actions by the international community were met by the Israeli government. Those who claim Hamas and Hizbollah are terrorists should consider looking at themselves as such. The solution: The American people, a majority of whom support a 2-state solution should pressure our government to stop military funding to Israel if it refuses to return lands as agreed upon after the 1967 war; refuses to permit the Palestinians the right to self-determination; continues settlement building in the West Bank although it had previously agreed to return 96% of the land captured during their terrorist incursions and wars. Israel will not act unilaterally without US support.

If you have anything of interest to say about the current Middle East, which I doubt, please do so, and spare us any of your further incursions into Jewish history, culture, or religion, which you have been demonstrating your complete ignorance of here for years now, because you make anyone who has devoted some time to the study of this subject matter want to vomit.

Close but no cigar. "Rabbi Zera asked Rabbi Abuhu: If a piece of meat resembling a donkey [an unkosher animal] falls from heaven, may it be eaten? Rabbi Abuhu replied: Foolish yarod [a desert bird possibly related to an ostrich], they already told you that nothing unkosher descends from heaven." Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 59b. The humour is the same but the hermeneutics...oy vey.

Israel's urban centers and the civilians who reside there, how different is he from Hizballah or from Hamas? He is not, because he indirectly has called, being the official representative of this UN member state, to commit crimes against humanity! We, Israelis, have known Syria's nature all along. But the world has been fooled by its regime for decades, as evidenced by the fact that the UN and its agencies and/or member states were silent after this foreign minister issued his warning to target with rockets Haifa, Tel-Aviv and smaller cities and towns. It is precisely this nature of the Syrian regime that is at the heart of Israel's people total refusal to ever hand over any territory to Syria!

Very well said. I couldn't agree with you more!

When will the world understand, that searching for / politicizing / creating biological links, identities, relationships, and therefore hierarchies (yes, Zionism for instance, but also other ideologies in the past), is shameful? Nationalism and its racial/ethnic claims are dangerous and utterly nonsensical. Widen your horizon instead of reproducing malicious patterns of the past!

Between Stockholm and Tehran, Israel of today is much closer to Tehran. From birth to death, from circumcision to funeral, from the establishment of the state to the establishment of the last of the illegal settlements and outposts in the West Bank - Israel is operating in the shadow of the commandments of religion. Israelis should be honest with themselves and admit it already: The country is too religious and its going to be like Saudi Arabia

"If a piece of meat resembling a donkey [an unkosher animal] falls from heaven, may it be eaten? Of course, feel free to ignore the question if you see no merit in it." - Roo The fact is, I don't see merit in this question (other than your ID objective), but will answer it anyway. I take it that the "meat" is dead meat, for if it were a live animal falling down from heaven, in no way should it be eaten but kept for the messiah to ride on when the Day comes. Assuming the meat is dead, of course Jews are not allowed to eat it, for it is not known whether the animal was killed in the required procedure (shechitah). The fact that the meat is suspected to be a donkey's meat would in any case eliminate any doubt about the prohibition. If I were you, I would donate the meat to the zoo and claim a tax-deductible contribution.

As St. Augustine stated in the sixth century ...... a pirate with one ship is a terrorist, but a pirate with a fleet of ships is an emporer. It seems that terrorism may be practiced by all the states and organizations mentioned in the article. Israel just happens to have a bigger fleet of weapons.

"it may be worth considering the possibility of officially publishing the IDF's ethical principles" Lets hope they are in line with the Geneva conventions, The writer seems to imply otherwise, In that case publishing them might be self incrimination. Not so wise,

Unlike Sadat and the late King Hussein of Jordan Assad refuses to meet with any Israeli officials face to face and has publicly stated this his vision of peace does NOT include cultural exchanges, trade, or cooperation in the areas of medicine or science, or even sports. Assad will NOT sever his ties with Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran and has stated this publicly several times. It is quite clear that what Assad wants is land, not peace. It would be a catastrophic mistake for Israel to return the Golan to Syria. Israel would gain absolutely nothing from this and would put its cities in grave danger. To return a strategic asset to a country that refuses to look your officials in the eye or shake your hand is absolute lunacy.

Yes, you are redolent of a former poster on here who is much missed. Just to clinch it could you answer the following question. If a piece of meat resembling a donkey [an unkosher animal] falls from heaven, may it be eaten? Of course, feel free to ignore the question if you see no merit in it.

Siboni was the one who formulated the "Dahiya Doctrine", applying a disproportionate force and massively destroying civilian infrastructure so as to cause a prolonged period of reconstruction after the conflict, thus to deter the beaten side from generating another conflict. In the present article Siboni imagines that Israel will be able (after the fact) to convince the world of the justness of his method used in Gaza, which the Goldstone Report explicitly denounces. Good luck... The Syrians are not as stupid as Siboni imagines. They possess chemical weapons, but would not use them because they fear Israeli nuclear weapons. The same is true for attacking Israeli cities. I consider the Syrian statement to refer to Hizballah and Iranian missiles. Incidentally, the rise again and Hutzpa of Hizballah shows the failure of the Siboni doctrine. To prevent a war you need to remove the cause of war (Golan), not just talk threats.

You right winger Israelis are all up in a lather because one little thing by the US, to make a gesture towards another country, you were not able to control. But you know the money will come and will buy your wishes to be done. It is time the US got a spine and played fair. Green Line, bottom line. Ah, but you do not recognize the Green Line or any other line, do you?

1. The Golan belongs to Syria by international law, so as long as Israel occupies it there is motivation for the Syrians to go to war. They will not succeed, as Sadat failed militarily, but won his Sinai back anyway. Why go through a war to do the obvious? 2. Peace with Syria means also peace with Lebanon, as Asad has achnowledged. 3. Hizballah will be cut off from its arms supplier Iran. Israel controls the sea approaches, has good intelligence, and can stop such arms shipments. 4. Iran will be weakened by losing its northern arm. Hizballah now deploys missiles as an implied threat to Israel if it attacks Iran. 5. Hamas will be weakened. Mashal will be kicked out of Syria, and also no arms to reach Hamas from Lebanon. 6. The Palestinian position in general will be weakened, being last in the peace line with no real state support. They will be easier to deal with. 7. Netanyahu can deliver this peace. He can`t make peace with the Palestinians: Likud is too ideological.

You said "Just suggesting that Israeli reservists stop hiding among the civilian population and live in special barracks so they can be targetted without endangering the civilian population." Israeli soldiers wear uniforms on duty and live in barracks outside of the civillian population when on duty and firing their weapons. The fact that most Israelis serve in the army in your logic lead you to think that its OK to target all Israelis, wherever they are, whether they're in uniform or not. Unlike Hezbulla and Hamas who fire their weapons in civillian clothing from population centers breaking the rules of war, Israeli soldiers wear their uniforms in battle and don't launch missles or other weapons from Israeli population centers, like Hezbulla and Hamas do. Get it?

Where is the IDF HQ?

When we did our observvationjobs we saw Israel grabbing as much fertile land as possible and driving away as many Palestinians as possible. We saw indeed also Palestian freedomfighters in answer receiving assistence through Arab neighbouring countries. We reported it all.

israel does not learn the lessons of history, self distruction revisited.

Just suggesting that Israeli reservists stop hiding among the civilian population and live in special barracks so they can be targetted without endangering the civilian population. You accuse the Palestinians of hiding behind women and children. Well lets have all combatants in clearly marked areas on both sides. Then you can lob three ton warheads at each other to your hearts content with the knowledge no civilians are being killed. Won't happen though will it?

over towns in N Israel? How many times did the elected government of Palestine warn before their thousands of Qassams.?Their sucide bombers?The bombs planted in say a university cafeteria? Did your side offer a truce to allow their civillians to leave,after they had been warned,so they could fight the IDF like the men of honor they claim to be or did they just keep firing and damn the civillians from whom they were often indistinguishable.? Would "men of honor" set up a firing base next to a Red Cross shelter?

Seems you find it justified that the IDF can bomb civilians but its satanic to aim a paper ball at Israel. I think you're the perfect example of someone who will push the red button when they are told without thinking about what they're doing. Well let me tell you Israel is only contributing to its own demise. All we could ever justify ourselves with is a moral highground and unfortunately we dont have that. If its a terrorist act for them to bomb our civilians then its a 2-way street. The world can see this double-standard, its not a matter of opinion/perspective its just fact. You just have to look from outside the box.... "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Ghandi

Who was it that said that Israel will treat an attack from a country as an attack by that country and soon thereafter, forgot all about that statement? Where's your balls Israel? Getting pecked to death is not very pleasant is it? Peck back!!!!!

Didn't they did they do this in 2006? Just before strafing the fleeing civilian convoys on their way out of Southern Lebanon. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/6.htm

"This is no excuse for Israel causing such instability in the m.e,Israel causes all the trouble these days and not a person in the world believes Israeli propaganda any longer." Would you be so kind as to explain to me how Israel is responsible for the violence in Yemen and the Saudi intervention therein?

When you were doing all of this observing, did you manage to observe the weapons being delivered to Hizbollah, or were you looking the other way along with the rest of UNIFIL?

.. by Israel. Just to place your unqualified crap here and for a little bit of anonymous self-esteem which you anyway dont have? Why you dont place your garbage at the arab news, you know, the good guys, at least you can chant there in unison with the local mob. Israel will do as neccessary for its national survival now as in time to come and the story will end as forseen in the Bible.

so r u saying isrl never targeted civilian areas? all of gaza is civilian! 23 square kilometers is what gaza consists of with over 1.5 million people. where is it that they can run to when all borders r closed. it was a turkey shoot, and u know it. by the way isrl was the first to break the cease fire, several times as a matter of fact. what is it that u want for the arabs to lay down and die? isrl does not have exclusive rights to self defense, especially when they r the ones who r starting all the wars. Isrl is a anti-semitic nation, who needs to be dealt with with a heavy hand. and the sooner the better.

Didn't they did they do this in 2006? Just before strafing the fleeing civilian convoys on their way out of Southern Lebanon. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/6.htm

When I was at school we were taught about how the Jews got a rotten time for being Jewish,This is no excuse for Israel causing such instability in the m.e,Israel causes all the trouble these days and not a person in the world believes Israeli propaganda any longer.Just go behind your own borders and help those around you,peace with your nieghbours will follow,the world has had enough,we saw Israels greed and need for war,wipe your nose Israel.

I have travelled through the Shiite part of Lebanon so I guess for the period I was there I was not an innocent civilian.

However as in total for five years in official observationjobs at the spot my collegues and I saw that Israel is the most provocative one. o

Read through the comments in this forum. Those that claim that Israel purposely targeted population centers are either ignorant or disingenous. Those that think that Israel fighting a guerilla war in the heart of Gaza city to stop missles from flying at Israeli schools is the same as Syria launching missles with 3 ton warheads on Israeli cities are the bread and butter of the loonie left and Arab distortion of facts regarding wars. They don't see beyond blood versus blood. They don't distinguish between soldier and civllian, they want their revenge, and all Israelis are fair game.

really? so when the IDF piled a bunch of people including children into a building then bombed it to the ground it was precise in their mission? what exactly is their mission? moral my arse, isrl in the worlds eyes is a terrorist state, who wants to make sure every country who knows the truth is shut up for good, and complies with isrl. just because u have the western gov'ts under ur spell doesn't mean u can get everyone under it. hell u r only making it worse for urselves by being so arrogant. for a people who claim to be the chosen, u have showed just the opposite. may God have mercy on ur souls.

actually the report by goldstone, showed that no weapons were shot from civilian areas. u r just mad because ur lies r no longer adhesive. let me give u a little lesson.In the first place the UN without the consent of the majority of the people of Palestine did not have the right to decide to partition Palestine or assign any part of its territory to a minority of alien immigrants in order for them to establish a state of their own. The truth of the time was that the Zionist state had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist UNLESS ? Unless it was recognised and legitimized by those Zionism had dispossessed of their land and their rights. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved.

Israel is no different to Nazi Germany in it's basic ideology that Jews are the chosen people and the rest of the world are untermensch. If you don't agree with me I suggest that you go and see a Psychiatrist. Afterall it is all about lebensraum to the East isn't it? Won't get published but imagine his face if it did lol

wow do u seriously think u won in lebanon? lol u got a beating, sure u attacked innocent civilians, but the fact is u didn't get what u set out to grab. so u got even by attacking Gaza, a people who r very defensless, and on top of that u used chemical weapons on civilian populations. yeah yr real tough, u can only attack people who u have starved for 2 years and made sure they don't get any weapons to defend themselves with. yeah real tuff guys. like burning ants with a magnifying glass.

Could you clarify how "financial crisis at the hands of 'Wall Street firms'" fits into your thinking/sentence about what the "world" (the spokesman for which is apparently you) sees in Israel's behavior?

It's economy depends on it therefore warmongers must start a war. Lieberman and others started the threats game first against Lebanon and Hizbullah then against Syria Hamas and can't forget the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel doesn't want peace not now not ever.

in Lebanon had nothing to do with Hizbullah. Ethical Israeli military my A** what a bunch of crap. The radical Natanyahu Lieberman and Barack regime is trying to cover it's tracks before it starts another war with it's neighbors. the neighbors Israel continues to tell the world it wants peace with. Peace with it's neighbors, ya right...

Requires Israel's enemies to put a sticker on their forehead (preferably a target) and post on Google Earth, we are here. It's assymetric warfare you dingbat, Lebanon does not have thousands of air conditioned Merkava tanks or hundreds of American brought and supplied F16's. As a result they have changed the way they fight. You might not like that, but Syria targetting reservist soldiers hiding amongst Israeli civilians is exactly the same as what Israel did in Gaza

govt minister that threatened to destroy Damascus? With your source of course. Really simple Linthwaite "We will destroy Damascus".Who,where and how OFTEN? Just the exact quote as you claim will do from ALL those people.

Israelis threaten to destroy Syria's cities and then complain when Syria complains and threatens to do the same cry foul. It is almost as if Israeli Jews cannot internalise that they can be targeted in a war just as they target civilians. Pure chutzpah.

I will send you funds for a new pair of glasses so you can see and read the realities in the mideast conflict. Your write very well from the pages of leftist brain texts which seems to take pleasure in criticizing Israel for defending her Jews and arab population. You know that the hamas and Hizzy terrorists only know how to fight in civilian areas. Your royal mounties would cause far more damage in these areas if they were protecting your fat tuches. You ought to commend Israel for doing what you hope your own govt. would do for you someday. If the glasses don't help, I will cover you for one session with a shrink. honesty is a virtue and your orientation is 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

in Lebanon. Hamas IS the elected government of Palestine.Their constitution allows the President Abbas certain powers including controll of the military,etc. The Hamas putsch in Gaza changed that.

they decided to cover their kidnap murder by opening fire over Nth Israel? What military targets did a kindergarten in Sderot pose before Israel hit BACK in Cast Lead? What miltary target was the Israeli old age home that was hit by Lebanon after the Lebanese war.?

Israel and Israelis often threatens to destroy Damascus. Yet if someone returns the favour Israel has a hissy fit.

Your comments come precisely from the book of anti-Israel agitators- a pretty lopsided group of people never caring what the arab agenda is against the state of Israel. Your yellows shine forth of a cowardly stance when criticizing Israel for defending herself. If you were in the same boat, with a neighbor sworn to your destruction and sent missles over, tell me in your own words now, what would you do. Oh, and by the way the neighbors terrorists hid in residential areas, hospitals, mosques, hoping they not be targeted. Wake up from your fantasy world and learn to accept facts and not your handlers fictions. Your comments are quite transparent and a big laughing joke if it were not so sad. Let's really see what your motivation is and not just plagiarized dribble.

not directly impacting their major civilian population centres whilst the Israeli military targetted anything they wished. It now appears that states such as Syria have now got the capability to do what Israel did to Beruit in 1982 and Israel is crying foul. This is not about Arabs been able to destroy buildings in downtown Tel Aviv. This is about the willigness of Israelis with second passports to stay in Israel or to move back to their country's of origin. We saw Israel cease to function in 1991 because of a couple of Scud missiles with exoduses from Israeli cities and Israelis leaving the country in their droves A constant threat for far worse will affect Israel's ability to attract investment and with that retain those talented individuals such as Doctors, scientists who will have to leave Israel to find work. Interesting times.

of ignorance. for not knowing the facts of local warfare and letting his anti-Jewish/Israel fetish get in the way of normal brain wave patterns. If your heroes of warfare Hamas and Hizbulla chose to confront Israel on the battlefield, which they will never do, There would be few civilian casualties. But your comrades in brains cowardly operate in the cities. Sorry, if the people support these islamic monsters, they are lucky it was Israel attacking and not the usa or uk or russian that would have created 10x the casualties. Honesty is a virtue, Lou, and in the category, you seem to be the Lou-ser!

Both are sovereign countries. Hamas and Hezbollah are factions denied the power given to them by the ballot box. Stupid title for a depressingly familiar kind of article. How about one on talking about problems as an alternative to turning our surroundings into one giant gravel pit every time we've got a gripe?

....and not a little rural village. As Johnboy and others pointed out here, Israel did not hesitate for a second to bring war into a big city in 2006, so please, Mr. Siboni, do not throw with stones, while sitting in a glass house....

of course i read your post. maybe you want to clarify your position so simpletons like me can understand it better. until you do, my original response stands.

Israel has never targeted Gaza or Beirut; only Hamas and Hezbollah targets in those cities. Terrorists from Hamas and Hezbollah intentionally hide in civilian buildings. But IDF is pretty precise in their missions: civil casualties are minimum.

They are all warriors, gangs and mercenaries for the Iranian regime.

"The Syrian minister's comments show the extent to which Damascus has adopted a terrorist modus operandi that is no different from that of Hezbollah or Hamas"..... .... and Israel, of course. Look, sunshine, the Syrians aren't stupid: they saw in Lebanon and in Gaza that the IDF did not hesitate to lay waste to their opponents towns and villages. Their expectations must be that in a shooting war with Syria the IDF will do the same thing to Syrian popln centres. After all, it does appear that this is about the only thing the IDF still does well. So sorry, but if the Syrians are of the opinion that the IDF wants to play that game, then they may as well play it too.....

When Israel attacks it's neighbors it only bombs empty fields, and before the bombs fall it drops leaflets warning the mice and cows to find another field to live in lest they get hurt. Give us a break.

israel is being threatened on all sides. war is abount winning, and in the case of israel, about surviving.

any attack on israel would result in an unimaginable destruction of syria. assad and his crowd seem to have been misled by the bowing and scraping of the west. assad overestimates his own significance and the significance of his country. his past collaboration with the killers of americans should not have been rewarded by the obama administration with an ambassador.

any attack on israel would result in an unimaginable destruction of syria. assad and his crowd seem to have been misled by the bowing and scraping of the west. assad overestimates his own significance and the significance of his country. his past collaboration with the killers of americans should not have been rewarded by the obama administration with an ambassador.

Israel should not publish it's war plans in advance. This is wrong. If Syria attacks, they will find out what the consequences will be. Israel will of course drop evacuation leaflets before bombing if rockets are shot from Syrian towns. however, Syria cannot expect that it's towns will be left standing if fire emmanates from those towns. and Syrian citizens who don't evacuated themselves... well what can I say... they get an early visit from 72 virgins. Assad should remember... Olmert and tzipi are not in charge. Bibi is. They might embark on war to retrieve the Golan only to loose Damascus. Oh well.

Kasher was fully published and is dead wrong on many points, factually and ethically. Maybe he should take his thesis to Geneva and see how many nations want to sign on. He's talking about changing Geneva IV, so it no longer prohibits what it currently prohibits.

"The Syrian minister's comments show the extent to which Damascus has adopted a terrorist modus operandi .." Did he say target civilians? Nope, seems not. Sloppy journalism? Or just the usual scaremongering? Israel can target military/militants in cities in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine....By that criteria, it's just as valid that war reach Israeli cities.... If Israel can kill other countries leaders and militants via targeted assassinations....same If Israel can illegally acquire other folk's territory by war, illegal annexation, illegal settlements, illegal facts on the ground......same If Israel can target what it only 'suspects' as being Nuclear weapons facilities, then other countries surely have the same right to target Israel's.

What a ridiculous argument. Cities and other population centres have always been legitimate targets during wars, especially since the evolution of 'total war' in the early twentieth century. Just ask the survivors of the attacks on Dresden, Hiroshima, the Chechen capitol, London, Beirut, Gaza and so many others. So what you are actually saying is this, namely that Israel should for some reason enjoy immunity from such tactics?

well now, we all know isrl has a habit of attacking civilian populations. yet when an arab country tells isrl that if they do it again they will return with the same act. so if ur going to call the syrians war criminals what is it that you call your own war crimes? self defense will not work again.

... we might have to live with that, but we should see it clearly and honestly...

It should be added that a lot of noise was heard about Israel's foreign minister Lieberman, who is ostensibly "not diplomatic" enough. What about Syrian foreign minister Walid Moallem who actually calls for genocide against Jews? Should he be held responsible like nazi foreign minister Rosenberg, who was hung in Nurenberg?

the indigenous are the resistence to you land theift....and it is you who threaten and carry out attacks on civilian populations to get them to leave so you can steal more land

That's all we have heard from Israel for decades now and we are sick of it. No matter how you try to sell it, the world isn't buying it anymore. All they see is refusal to give back lands, refusal to halt settlements and a continuous cry for more wars, and oh, financial crisis at the hands of 'Wall Street firms'. Save your money. No amount spent will change world opinion. YOU are seen as the world's biggest problem by every rational person across the world.

I think firstly Gabriel, you need to take into account the context that the Syrian foreign minister made that comment especially the threats Israel has made not only to Syria but to Lebanon and just about everyone in the ME. Comments along the lines of "the gloves are comming off" and specific threats to lebanon as a whole infrastructure and all. Even so Gabriel how do you know Syria will not release fliers to the citizens of Israel before they bomb their cities??? Do the dropping of phamplets make it any more democratic and justifiable???. War is War!! Gabriel.Lets talk about how to prevent it rather than the rules of engagement.

The days of bombing cities I hope are long gone. The Syrian Foreign Minister ought clarify his statements. One persons acceptable collateral damage is another persons innocent victim of excessive force. We all need to realise we live in a global village and innocent bystanders are likely to be people from any part of the globe.

Gaza City, Jenin, etc. over the years, you have the audacity to claim that a vague Syrian threat to target your cities (which DO contain valid military targets, by the way) is a contravention of the laws of war? YOU RAZE CIVILIAN RESIDENCES PRACTICALLY EVERY DAY. The occupation constantly targets civilians! This is Israeli hypocrisy at its finest. If you actually believe anything you just wrote, I have no choice but to consider you completely insane. Please isolate, restrain and medicate yourself IMMEDIATELY.

I have no serious expectation of this comment being shown. "Syria is acting in contravention of the laws of war." On television a year ago, we watched Israel attack hospitials and U.N. compounds, use white phosphorous, and kill hundreds of women and children. Since then, we have watched Israel use collective punishment to deprive civilians of food, medicine, and building supplies. That Israel has the unmitigated gall to criticize Syria regarding the laws of war is breathtaking in its hypocrisy.

and innocent women and children. Israel will receive what is long overdue when their goofy politicians start the next war. With interest. Salaam/Shalom

Words matter.The treathening declaration of this moalem "minister" is by itself a CASUS BELLI,THE SAME WAY THE TREATHS FROM THE iranian mad dog...In a perfect world,Israel has all the right to respond with military actions...If one syrian firecracker reaches Israel,the IDF should demolish damascus

In the 2006 war, Israel bombed and shelled southern Lebanon for a week before the IDF troops advanced to meet Hizbollah. Hizbollah was much more formidable than Israel had anticipated. Over 100 IDF men were killed and the Merkava tanks were also being destroyed by shoulder launched missiles. The IDF retreated back to the border and contented themselves with bombing and shelling southern Lebanon for the rest of the war. perhaps if the IDF had better success against Hizbollah, then the loss of Lebanese civilian lives would have been less. All this becomes moot though because the IAF was all the while bombing apartment blocks in Beruit, far from Hizbollah and the action. In fact, the IAF bombed civilian targets all over Lebanon. Banks, gas stations, radio and TV stations, the airport, the oil refinery, roads, bridges, etc. As for the IDF "code of ethics", it is to laugh. In Israel, ethics is a study of what can be gotten away with.

it is you zio's who threaten and carry out attacks on civilians and use it for 'deterrence' and it is you who rightly so have been accusec by goldstone for it...thats not over yet and you are already lying the next war

ok, so syria says it will aim for mutually assured destruction if it is targeted for regime change, and the author considers this "terrorism", since it involves planning for the murder of large numbers of civilians. i can certainly understand the point of view. but please tell me where, exactly, does strategic doctrine in israel suggest that its nuclear bombs will be dropped if the country is threatened with total defeat? into the sea of galilee, or on top of damascus or teheran, killing millions of civilians? syria's strategic doctrine is in this regard absolutely identical to israel's, even if the types of WMD are different, and this article is a sham. sure one should worry about syrian missile capacities, but to try to dress syria's gas warhead deterrent up as being somehow morally different from israel's nuclear deterrent is nonsense.

Is there really such a thing as ,"the burden of the laws of warfare". Warfare by definition seems to have no laws to it. Isn't war itself a crime? Why is the world so critical of Israel when her enemies get a free pass? I believe the author is right. Syria threatens Israel population centers and is no different than Hezbollah or Hamas, but everyone knows that Syria and those groups are essentially one and the same.

Israel destroyed suburbs of Beirut last time. Israel destroyed large swathes of Gaza last time. (see Goldstone report) What is the difference if Syria aims to destroy a few suburbs of a number of Israeli cities. They can send out a warning and then fire their missiles. Just like the IDF does and the writer above suggests. Many Israelis are in the Israeli military forces as reserves so any suburb could arguable be said to be a target of where these people hang out. If you do not want the area to be targeted, the IDF reserves should leave their homes otherwise they are sheltering in a civilian population and, under IDF rules, fair game. Or. Israel can sit down and negotiate. Return the Golan Heights to it's lawful owners and make peace with it's neighbors. The day is coming when Israel will not be able to conduct war without consequences for it's citizens. There will be many deaths on BOTH sides and next time, probably many more Israelis will die. This will be unfortunate.

"After all, the enemy will weigh seriously the price it will have to pay in such a confrontation" Oh? If you are referring to Hamas or Hezbollah, your arguments fall flat. I have never detected any real thought behind their actions. Hamas (Jan 2009): Gee, I never knew that the rockets were really bothering Sderot THAT much. Hezbollah (Sept 2006): Gee, if I knew the kidnapping and killing of the IDF soldiers was going to get them THIS upset, we never would have done it.

This holier-than-though attitude - particularly after Operation Cast Lead - is really a bit much... " Even though, unlike those groups, [Syria] has still not moved its rocket launchers into population centers whose residents are meant to serve as human shields, Israel is obliged to immediately issue a warning, in every important venue in the world, that Syria is acting in contravention of the laws of war. "

To continue to occupy oppress confiscate arrest bomb without any retaliation. It's Israel that needs to hear from the world that it's behavior is unacceptable and that the ticket to worldwide acceptance is to live within its borders

Israel the only country in the world that target population centers. Doosh

The words terrorist and antisemite are meaningless when israeli media uses them

Reality Check: Of course Syria has the right to attack legitimate military targets in Israeli cities like power plants, bridges, roads, war factories, airports...not to mention Milk factories, UN buildings and innocent civilians in red cross convoys. An eye for an eye and an innocent civilian for innocent civilian is the way it will happen. We all know the numbers of civilians Israel butchers.