'The focus should be on Damascus'

[bemildred]

Efraim Inbar, a professor of political science at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, says Israel's priority is to stop Hezbollah's rocket attacks on Israel and then disarm the group.

Aljazeera net: What are the Israeli goals in Lebanon?

Efraim Inbar: The goals are simple: To remove the missile threat to Israel, to push Hezbollah out of South Lebanon and to try to damage its military capability as much as possible. The direct responsibility is with Hezbollah which has a clear intent to destroy Israel and is a declared enemy of Israel. The Lebanese government may be formally at war with Israel, but it does not pursue any measures against Israel. The problem with the government is that it is unable to extend its sovereignty to all the state, which allows Hezbollah to operate as an independent militia and to build a state within a state.

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Would Israel consider attacking Iran or Syria?

The government that can make a difference is not the Lebanese government; it is the regime in Damascus that can cut off support for Hezbollah.

I advocate attacking Syria – to some extent we are wasting ammunition in Lebanon. But I'm not sure the Israeli government thinks in those terms. It has been making statements that it does not want to escalate the situation by attacking Syria.

Iran is too distant and so I think w'’re more likely to leave the Iranians to the Americans – for now

al Jazeera

[whistle]

1. Very nice neocon wet dream, an expanded war into all targets

...of the middle east. BushCo has promised Israel that the U.S. will support if not actually join in with Israel to take out Syria and Israel will return the favor by doing whatever necessary to neutralize the nuclear capability of Iran. According to "informed sources" as the MSM and the administration so conveniently like to use to cover themselves, Israel has amassed a nuclear weapons stockpile (over 250) of hydrogen nuclear bombs of substantial megaton capabilities, which could wipe out Damascus, Iran, Hezbollah and any other group which stands in Israel's way.

By having the current Israeli government do Bush's dirty work and using nuclear devices to accomplish the task, BushCo, the U.S. and the neoconservatives who are now controlling the U.S. government can forever take away the stigma that has hung over U.S. foreign policy for 61 years, as the only country to have used nuclear bombs against another country. Those bombs were dropped at the direct orders of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan on August 6 and August 9, 1945.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki