Word: syrian
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Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed, and beleaguered, as Pope John Paul II has discovered on his tour of Syria. The pontiff found himself at the center of a familiar Middle Eastern political firestorm Monday, as his Syrian hosts took him to the ruins of Kuneitra, a town bordering the Golan Heights that was destroyed by Israeli forces in 1974 and has been maintained as a ghost town ever since. And while the pope prayed for peace and for the victims of the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence, Israelis expressed outrage at remarks by Syria's President Bashar Assad in welcoming...
...ridge is as about as stable as a disputed border can be. There are none of the skirmishes and violence that blow up around the separate U.N. force a few kilometers away in southern Lebanon. Though two Austrians were shot dead three years ago - probably by criminals on the Syrian side of the border - the Japanese have managed to send 11 contingents for six months apiece without so much as losing a pair of socks...
...Matt Rees: Not a peep. In the cabinet vote on hitting the Syrian radar stations, two members voted against - Shimon Peres and Ephraim Sneh, both of the Labor party. But neither was complaining about the principle of hitting the Syrians. They were concerned about the timing of the air strike, because it occurred during the visit to Israel of Jordan's foreign minister - the first Arab minister to visit here since the intifada began. And Peres and Sneh though this might not be the best moment to drop bombs on the Syrians. Even then, a number of other Labor party...
...course, the Syrian attack was fairly significant, particularly if it recurs. But the wild card is whether Syria wants to allow things to settle down in the West Bank and Gaza. Right now, it appears as though they don't. Israel had achieved a measure of success with Arafat in calming things down a little, and then there was suddenly the Hezbollah attack on the northern border over the weekend. Israelis believe the mortar attack on Sdarot inside Israel came from Arafat's people, as an expression of solidarity following the air strike in Lebanon, ahead of Arafat's visit...
...Benjamin Netanyahu and taken almost to the point of conclusion by Ehud Barak. But Sharon made clear in an interview published over the weekend that he believes Israeli withdrawal from the Golan is unacceptable under any circumstances, and that he won't consider it. In other words, from the Syrian point of view, Sharon is signaling that Damascus has nothing to discuss with the current Israeli government - and by that logic, little incentive to rein in Hezbollah. Sharon may be trying to create such an incentive with air strikes, but in the short term that's more likely to escalate...