As Syrian Fighting Nears Border, Israel Considers Its Options
Israel Prepares for an Uncertain Future:
With Hezbollah joining in Syria’s two-year-old civil war, Israeli
Defense Forces staged military exercises to prepare for a potential
conflict with northern neighbors.
By JODI RUDOREN
Published: June 6, 2013
ELYAKIM, Israel — Syrian rebel groups briefly took control Thursday of
the only crossing between Israel and Syria, bringing the intense
violence of that nation’s civil war closer than ever to the Golan
Heights, where farmers were told to stay out of their fields, tourists
were turned away from cherry-picking and roads were closed.
Related
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Syrian Forces Chase Rebels Who Fled Fallen Town (June 7, 2013)
Ammar Awad/Reuters
Israel is dealing with the complex reality of a civil
war just across the border and a war with Hezbollah that it
increasingly sees as inevitable.
Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times
Israeli reserve soldiers simulated a clash with
Hezbollah on Thursday in a mock Lebanese village in the Elyakim base in
Israel, about 70 miles from Syria’s border.
European Pressphoto Agency
A Syrian Army tank on Thursday, near a border crossing with Israel in the Golan Heights.
At the same time, not 70 miles away, scores of Israeli soldiers engaged
in an elaborate combat exercise preparing for what is increasingly seen
here as an inevitable war with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant
group that has come to the aid of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The confluence of events confronted Israel with the complex reality of a
civil war just across the border in which both sides are hostile to the
Jewish state. Hezbollah has vowed in recent weeks that it would
facilitate attacks on Israel through the heights. And the most effective
rebel force is made up of radical Sunnis aligned with Al Qaeda, while
many of the other militias are led by self-identified Islamists.
The result has been a kind of paralysis in Israeli society, where
options are debated but no clear consensus has emerged about which
outcome of the Syrian crisis is preferable or how to prepare for it. The
situation grew even more worrisome for Israel on Thursday with hours of
fierce battle at the Quneitra crossing, after which the Syrian
government claimed it had regained control and the United Nations
peacekeeping force that has patrolled the area for 40 years was at risk
of disintegrating.
“It’s definitely a heightened risk, if only because it blurs the
situation,” said Daniel Nisman, a Middle East intelligence expert at Max
Security Solutions, a Tel Aviv geopolitical risk consultancy. “What it
means is that the Golan Heights is a lot more unstable and requires a
lot more vigilance.”
On Thursday Austria pulled its 380 troops from the 1,000-member United
Nations force that has patrolled the so-called buffer zone between
Israel and Syria since a 1974 armistice deal. In a statement, Israel’s
Foreign Ministry said it regretted Austria’s decision and hoped “that it
will not be conducive to further escalation in the region.” Analysts
said a withdrawal of the United Nations force could turn Israel’s
quietest border into a no man’s land where terrorists are free to
operate.
“This is going to be one of the most complicated situations we are going
to face in the near future,” said Amnon Sofrin, a retired Israeli
general who lectures at Israel’s National Defense College.
Israeli military and political officials insist that they do not want to
get involved in Syria’s internal conflict, but that they will not
hesitate to protect their own interests: stopping advanced weapons
transfer to Hezbollah, or ensuring the safety of citizens in the
heights. In recent weeks, the focus has been on a series of Israeli
airstrikes targeting weapons convoys in Syria bound for Lebanon. But
Thursday’s escalation in Quneitra, during which at least three mortar
shells fell in open areas, returned attention to the cease-fire line,
where the Israeli military has recently replaced reservists with highly
trained soldiers, increased patrols and added heavy equipment.
“It’s really a situation that is not clear, and can take a turn at any
moment,” warned Aviv Oreg, a major in the military reserves who founded Ceifit,
a firm offering research and analysis on global jihad. “As soon as one
bomb would leak and hit a kindergarten, that’s a whole new ballgame.”
Though there have been frequent clashes near the Golan Heights, with
dozens of errant shells falling into Israeli territory, Thursday’s was
the most serious threat yet to the territory, analysts said.
A rebel group claimed on Facebook to have “liberated the border crossing
with Israel” and to have “inflicted overwhelming losses” on the Syrian
Army, destroying four of its tanks. Hours later, SANA, the Syrian state
news agency, said government forces had “repelled terrorist groups” that
tried to take over Quneitra, referring to the rebels. The Israeli
military said that two severely wounded Syrians were taken to an Israeli
hospital, but that a number of others who tried to cross were treated
and then returned through a different location.
Israeli residents of the area reported loud explosions and thick walls
of smoke over Quneitra starting at 4:30 a.m. and lasting much of the
day. “This is the worst it’s been so far,” said Nadav Katz, who lives in
Merom Golan, a 500-member kibbutz very close to the crossing. “We hear
bombs, we hear mortars, we hear light arms, we hear bombardments of
heavier weapons — whether these are tanks or cannons, I’m not sure. We
hope at some point it will stop and things will calm down.”
The army closed some roads and fields, but children remained in school
and adults at work. At Kibbutz Ein Zivan, a community of about 80
families, tourists were not allowed to pick cherries as usual, but still
visited the chocolate factory and rode on horses and tractors.
David Spellman, 69, said he was supposed to have furniture delivered on
Thursday but the store in Haifa called to cancel. Otherwise, he said,
“The effect on life here is minimal.”
“The dogs are going crazy,” Mr. Spellman said. “But we’re used to that from the exercises of the army.”
As that was playing out, Israel continued to plan intensively for a
third war in Lebanon, where it believes Hezbollah has amassed 60,000
rockets aimed in its direction. Military leaders say that they have
learned the lessons of their 34-day battle with Hezbollah in 2006, and
that the next round will be short, deadly and urban: one top general
recently described Lebanese homes as having “a living room and a missile
room” right next to each other.
That is why the army built a mock Lebanese village here at the Elyakim
base, complete with three fortified underground tunnels, similar to what
Hezbollah uses to store supplies.
On Thursday morning, a battalion of reservists culminated a five-day
exercise by storming the village with gunfire, grenades and eventually a
trio of tanks that rolled through its hills. Eight enlisted men in
American-made camouflage uniforms mimicking those worn by Hezbollah in
2006 played the enemy.
“It seems really important now in this time, with all that’s happening
in Syria,” said one of the Hezbollah actors, Ishay, who is 21 and spoke
on the condition his last name not be used, according to military rules.
“What they have here is what they do there.”
Ishay and another actor, Adir, 22, said they fired at the reservists
through windows and doors to attract them to a house, then threw fake
grenades and shot their rifles, which were loaded with blanks, to stall
them. They sneaked from building to building for about 90 minutes, then
were declared defeated, as many of the reservists collapsed in naps on
the floor after days with little sleep. “We always lose — like the
enemy,” Adir said. “Our enemies lose, too, in the end.”
Isabel Kershner and Alyza Sebenius contributed reporting from
Jerusalem, and Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon.
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As Syrian Fighting Nears Border, Israel Considers Its Options
New York Times (blog)-Jun 6, 2013
ELYAKIM, Israel — Syrian rebel groups briefly took control Thursday of the ... of that nation's civil war closer than ever to the Golan Heights, where farmers ... clear consensus has emerged about which outcome of the Syrian crisis is ... it had regained control and the United Nations peacekeeping force that ...
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