Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel on alert after Golan threat
Israel has gone on heightened alert over a possible war with Syria amid reports that President Bashar Al Assad may be considering military strikes to regain the Golan Heights.
- By Harry de Quetteville, The Telegraph Group
- Published: 00:00 October 1, 2006
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel has gone on heightened alert over a possible war with Syria amid reports that President Bashar Al Assad may be considering military strikes to regain the Golan Heights.
For years Israeli military intelligence has down-played Syria's capacity to launch a meaningful attack against Israel, and the threat level has been kept "low".
But Israeli reports have revealed that the threat level had been raised after intelligence assessments that Damascus is "seriously examining" military action.
The raised threat level comes as Israel prepares for tomorrow's Day of Atonement, known as Yom Kippur.
It was on Yom Kippur in 1973 that Israel was caught by surprise as Syrian and Egyptian forces launched a joint attack and inflicted heavy losses before being repelled.
"The first two days of that war were huge defeats for Israel," said Professor Uri Bar-Joseph, an expert on the 1973 conflict. "All the intelligence analysts failed."
Israel is determined to make sure that it is not surprised again, flagging up Syrian military preparations and signals from Bashar that his country might be readying for war.
The Syrian leader said last week that he "wanted to make peace with Israel". But he warned that his "hopes for peace could change one day". "And if this hope disappears, then war may really be the only solution," he added.
That mixed message has proved divisive in Israel, renewing debate about whether to stay tough, or engage with Syria and solve the decades-long dispute over the strategically important Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War.
Jewish colonists now populate the territory, which is crucial to Israel as a buffer zone with Syria and as a vantage point over its hostile neighbour, as well as providing Israel with a large proportion of its water supply.
Senior Israeli politicians and commentators are split about whether the time is right to start negotiations which would lead to a peace deal between the countries.
Few doubt that such talks would end with Israel returning the occupied land.
In return, however, Israeli advocates of the hand-over say the deal would split Syria from Iran, and would constrain Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups which have headquarters in Damascus.
The Speaker of the Israeli parliament, Dalia Itzik, is one of those pleading for talks to begin.
"Syria is sending signals all the time and I am not sure that we have the luxury of wasting opportunities like those," she said.
"Imagine a new alliance with Syria. It is possible. Should we miss it?"
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