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Israel stays silent on Syria raid Al
Jazeera.net
General Amos Yadlin was told to avoid any mention of Syria when reporting to the foreign affairs and defence committee at a meeting on Sunday. The order came from the panel's chairman, Tzachi Hanegbi.
Speaking to Israel's Channel 10 television, he said an Israeli operation inside Syria would usually involve a very high value target, adding that "a Syrian effort in the nuclear weapons area would qualify". "I think this is a clear message not only to Syria, I think it's a clear message to Iran as well, that its continued efforts to acquire nuclear weapons are not going to go unanswered," Bolton said. He did not indicate having first-hand information about the Israeli raid. Possible targets Israel's silence has spawned several theories, including a suggestion that Israel was on an intelligence-gathering mission to test Syria's air defences and to scout an air corridor for a future strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Another raised the possibility that Israel was trying to hit a shipment of arms destined for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, a close ally of both Syria and Iran. Israel often has been swift to announce such operations in the past but this time, Syria cryptically announced that its air space had been entered and that Israel had "dropped munitions". Syria has offered no evidence of any Israeli attack. Israel has dismissed recent calls by Syria to restart peace talks, citing Damascus' continued support for Palestinian militant groups and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. The last direct military confrontation between the two countries was in Lebanon in 1982.
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