RAMALLAH, West Bank, 16 August 2007 — “Israel is not interested in war with Syria, and we believe that Syria does not want war either,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday. “Therefore war shouldn’t erupt,” he added. Barak made the statements while attending a military drill of the Armored Corps’ 74th Battalion in the occupied Golan Heights.
“We haven’t trained enough for five years, and we now plan to train all the Israeli forces’ units,” he said. He implored the media to take measures to assuage Syrian fears about an impending war, and to dissuade them from thinking that Israeli forces exercises in the North are part of preparations for such an event.
Barak told the media, “The last five years we did not train sufficiently and it is our steadfast intent to thoroughly train every unit of the Israeli Army. The training grounds of Israel are in the Golan Heights and the Negev, and on these grounds we will continue to train our forces to be ready for any test that may arise.” In an effort to forestall the possibility of a miscalculation leading to war, Israeli and Israeli leaders sent calming messages to each other Tuesday.
“Israel was not interested in war and was not looking for a war with Syria. With that, the Israeli forces and Israel are prepared for any possibility. We want to emphasize that we don’t want this preparedness to cause any misunderstandings on the other side,” said Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Later in the evening, Syria sent its own calming signals, when Syrian Vice President Farouk Shara stated that while his country is ready to respond to any Israel aggression, it did not intend on starting a war. “The Syrian public does not want war, although he will settle for no less than a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The Arab peace initiative is clear on this issue, and we support it,” he added.
In another development, Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected leader of Likud yesterday, cementing his grip on the main extreme right-wing opposition party currently running ahead in opinion polls. Netanyahu won 73.2 percent of the vote, while his extreme right-wing challenger Moshe Feiglin gained 23.4 percent and the little known third candidate Danny Danon 3.4 percent, official results showed.
“Tonight the internal contest ended and as of tomorrow, we will focus our efforts on bringing a new leadership to Israel,” 57-year-old Netanyahu, who had been widely expected to win, said in his victory speech.
