Was Israel Correct in Taking out Syrian Nukes?

[Vistor233]

So far 12 people have indicated that they approve of Israel's action without having seen any official statement from Israel about what the action means.

The reason these folks haven't seen any such a statement is because Isreal hasn't given one! In fact, Israel has no intention of explaining its actions:

Israel keeping mum on Syria to ease tensions says minister
"We have to show restraint, and it is in our interest to say nothing ... This policy has proven itself. The tensions have slightly eased since 12 days ago. The more we bite our tongue, the better it will go," he told public radio.

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php...6-042047-1914r


This is very unusual because without an official statment, it's impossible to get any kind of informed consensus on Israel's legitimacy. It is also a missed opportunity for Israel to clarify policy with the world as a witness.

[FastEddy]

vistor233: " [Here is] Syria's position on the matter (in case anyone is interested) ..."

We should not be interested in Syria's public position. Syria political sources are not privy to the facts nor do they want to be.

The launch hardware that the Israelis destroyed was a part of the WMDs buried in the eastern Syrian desert by Saddamn's minions prior to 2003 (satellite photos may be forthcoming).

The WMD's storage in the desert were then covered over with Iraqi Baathist / Sunni refugee camps.

Recently these launch devices and other military hardware (the WMDs) were dug up within the refugee camps and loaded on Syrian military trucks. (Google maps of the eastern Syrian desert for your own enlightenment ... note the truck routes headed through central Syria toward the border with Lebanon.)

Angela Jolie's media extravaganza provided a diversion for the removal and transport of the WMDs to western Syria.

A careful analysis of the news reports about the bombing run will indicate where the trucks and WMD missle launchers were parked and stored prior to being wrecked by Israel's jets.

Culpable in this: Elements within the Syrian military for aiding and abetting Hezbalah terrorists with storage and transport of the Iraqi sourced launch hardware. Hezbalah terrorist factions intent on launching dirty nuke bombs into northern Israel from the Lebanon / Syrian border region. The North Koreans are incidental and simply another ruse to hide the real source of the WMDs and launchers.
==============

" ... So far [many] people have indicated that they approve of Israel's action without having seen any official statement from Israel about what the action means. ..."

That's because 1) Israel can usually be trusted to be forthcoming and straight in their reports of military activity (they don't usually lie) and 2) Syria can NOT be trusted to be forthcoming and straight in their reports of military activity (they do usually lie) ... and 3) most civilized folks prefer to see the Syrian sponsored terrorists lose in this conflict with Israel, in part because of 1) and 2).

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by FastEddy

The launch hardware that the Israelis destroyed was a part of the WMDs buried in the eastern Syrian desert by Saddamn's minions prior to 2003 (satellite photos may be forthcoming).

Right. Israel has said that they won't be issuing any statement on what happened and (even though they usually make a point of letting the whole world know about such an operation). But now you want us to believe that they're going to share satellite photos.

Time to change news feeds there old buddy. You're getting some seriously flawed analyses. Unless you just make it up.

[Nightpath]

It is just another attempt by the Neocon conspiracy to establish a world dictatorship run by the Jews… least that is what two of your sources are claiming.

As for Israel bombing Syria; Bullseye, sucker.

[FastEddy]

" Right. Israel has said that they won't be issuing any statement on what happened ..."

Right, but I will ...

" ... Time to change news feeds there old buddy. You're getting some seriously flawed analyses. ..."

Time will tell who was correct. And I don't base my above statements and analysis on news feeds ... except for that one about Angela Jolie.

[David]

Connecting the dots on this incident is proving intriguing. London Telegraph
SOURCE

N Korean ship 'linked to Israel's strike on Syria'

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 4:52pm BST 17/09/2007

A suspicious North Korean freighter that re-flagged itself as South Korean before off-loading an unknown cargo at the Syrian port of Tartous is at the centre of efforts today to investigate Israel's recent airstrike on Syria.


Israel has not given any details on the operation in Syria

An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as "cement" on Sept 3.

This was three days before Israeli jets attacked a site in the north eastern desert of Syria, not far from its border with Iraq.

Since leaving Tartous, one of Syria's main ports on the Mediterranean, the ship's trace has disappeared and it is not known whether western intelligence agencies are tracking the vessel.

"I became suspicious after the first reports from Syria about the attack so I traced all traffic into Syrian ports in the days prior to the incident," Mr Solomon said.


"There were five ships but the interesting one was the one with a connection to North Korea - the Al Hamed."

He said he cross-referred to other maritime databases to establish the ship was not a regular visitor to the Mediterranean but had come through the Suez Canal in late June.

It had registered itself for the Suez transit as a South Korean vessel but Mr Solomon said this was standard procedure for North Korean ships seeking to avoid international constraints on North Korea.

Records showed the vessel docked at Tartous on July 28 before going back to sea and then returning to the port on Sept 3. "Since then there is no trace so I have no idea if she has gone up into the Black Sea or is still in the Mediterranean or whatever," Mr Solomon said.

Israel has not given any details on the operation.

Last week, US officials suggested that North Korea had sought to export some of its nuclear technology and equipment to Syria but the Israelis had been tipped off, so they arranged a pre-emptive strike on a sensitive shipment.

Mr Solomon said the Al Hamed was owned by a North Korean business until a few months ago when ownership changed hands to an as yet unidentified new owner.

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by Nightpath

As for Israel bombing Syria; Bullseye, sucker.

Some US commentator's take on this has obviously gone to your head. You realize initial reports indicated that some discarded fuel tanks had been found. Pictured here:

http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20070909...9195100687.jpg

There was no mention of any target being hit. It's all in your mind, big guy.

[FastEddy]

Facts: We have some blown up Syrian real estate = "As for Israel bombing Syria; Bullseye, sucker" pretty much sums up this.

Claim is: Israel destroyed some missle launchers that could have been used to deliver dirty nukes against Israel.

Claim is: Some of the destroyed material may have been delivered on a supposedly North Korean ship.

Claim is: Some of the destroyed material may have been dug up and transported from eastern Syria ... from some repository that may have been located under, in or around one of the Sunni / Baath Party refugee camps.

Claim is: Some of the destroyed material may have been a part of Saddamn's hidden cache of WMDs, possibly dirty nuke material or other.

Proving or disproving one or more of the above claims does not validate or invalidate the rest.

Whether proven or unproven, the claims do not vindicate nor do they condemn Israel's acts. There may be additional reasons for Israel's military acts ... including but not limited to their fore knowledge of a massing of Syrian backed terrorists, intent of launching yet another attack on Israel's home land. After all, the jew haters of the middle east have acted irrationally and in haste before, there is no reason to assume that they won't act irrationally and in haste again ... thus fully justifying any and all of Israel's acts.

Wonder what is actually left undestroyed at the bomb site?? Does anyone know why Syria does not want the area photographed?? What do they have to hide??

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by FastEddy

Wonder what is actually left undestroyed at the bomb site?? Does anyone know why Syria does not want the area photographed?? What do they have to hide??

Your guess is as good as mine.

Since you don't have a link, I assume anyone can speculate. Here's a thought: Many of the reports indicate that Syria fired on the Israeli planes. There may be wreckage on the ground. Maybe Israel made a deal to where Syria would not disclose specifics beyond this kind of very general information:

Our air defences repulsed them and forced them to leave... after the Israeli planes dropped munitions, without causing human or material loss," he said, without giving further information on what exactly was dropped.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070906...a_070906195536

[David]

More connecting the dots. Evidently there is a real argument ongoing within the administration over the veracity of Kim Jung mentally ill and pledges to scrap his nukes. Bolton is the clearest thinker in all of this. He ought to be listened to.

This is an important piece.

Jerusalem Post

Our World: Recognizing the axis of evil
Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 17, 2007

If media reports of last week's IAF raid in Syria pan out, the attack against a North-Korean-supplied Syrian nuclear facility in eastern Syria should serve as a pivotal event in the free world's understanding of the enemy it faces in the current global war. The central question now is whether this clarity will be followed by a strategic shift in the US and Israeli governments' conceptualizations of the challenges facing them in the various theaters of war and diplomacy in which they are now engaged.

What the raid exposed is that the free world faces a cohesive alliance of enemy forces that collaborate closely in their joint and separate offensives against their common foes. Whether or not it is called the axis of evil, after the IAF raid it is undeniable that its members - North Korea, Iran and Syria - collaborate closely in their joint war.

Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, this is not a temporary alliance of convenience among three otherwise unrelated states. It is a strategic alignment of three regimes that have been acting in tandem on multiple levels for decades. Their collaborative operations have served two primary functions. First they cooperate in perpetuating their holds on power. This they do primarily through criminal enterprises. Second, they work together to wage war against their common foes. The second objective is advanced primarily through the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

Furthermore, all three regimes view diplomatic exchanges with their enemies not as a means to solve their disagreements with them, but as a means to gain advantage by forcing US, Israeli and international concessions that legitimize their regimes and enable them to continue to conduct their war.

TIES BETWEEN the countries have been developing since the 1980s. That cooperation blossomed into a full-scale alliance during the 1990s. This is notable because the 1990s marked the period when both US and Israeli foreign policies centered on repeated attempts to appease all three governments.

In 1994, the US embraced appeasement of North Korea when it signed the Agreed Framework that maintained the economic viability of the North Korean regime in exchange for Pyongyang's pledge to end its nuclear weapons program. The US appeased Teheran by embracing the supposedly moderate government of president Muhammad Khatami, and downplayed Iran's role in terrorist bombings of US targets like the 1996 Iranian-ordered bombing of the US Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia.

Israel pursued appeasement through the Oslo peace process with the PLO, its refusal to contend effectively with the Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored Hizbullah forces in Lebanon, and through its conduct of intense negotiations with the Syrians toward an Israeli surrender of the strategically vital Golan Heights.

It was during the 1990s that North Korean-Iranian-Syrian criminal cooperation reached its apex. It was also during this decade that they made the greatest headway in their ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs. These advances were made while all three regimes pocketed concessions made by the US and Israel, and systematically breached all their commitments to both countries and to international treaties of which they are signatories.

ONE OF the inheritances the mullahs received from the Shah of Iran after they overthrew him in 1979 was a US-supplied Intaglio currency printing press. Since at least 1989 this printing press has been used to produce so-called "super-notes."

Super-notes are highly sophisticated counterfeit US bills that are nearly undetectable. The advent of the super-notes forced the US Treasury to print new currency twice in a decade. In 1992 a Congressional Task Force concluded that the bills which proliferated in Lebanon's Hizbullah and Syrian-controlled Beka'a Valley were of Iranian and Syrian origin. In 2005, the first super-notes were intercepted in the US. They were sourced to North Korea.

According to a report Sunday in Yediot Aharonot, Iran has financed its purchase of nuclear and other materiel from North Korea through the provision of super-notes to Pyongyang. The US believes that Pyongyang itself procured a Swiss-made Intaglio press sometime in the 1990s. Intelligence services agree that Iran, Syria and North Korea collaborate closely in their currency-counterfeiting operations.

In 2003, the State Department concluded that the North Korean regime had sustained its economic viability principally through counterfeit currency operations.

IN SEPTEMBER 2005, the US launched a financial offensive against North Korea which could potentially have led to the eventual financial collapse of the regime when it labeled the Banco Delta Asia, a Macau-based bank, an agent of North Korean money-laundering. The move followed a US investigation showing that BDA was North Korea's primary conduit for laundering counterfeit currency. The move effectively cut Pyongyang out of international financial markets, making it far more difficult for the North Koreans to sustain the regime financially.

North Korea's response to the move was to expand its nuclear and missile collaboration with Iran and Syria still further. Throughout the 1990s, the North Koreans provided Iran and Syria with ballistic missiles, and then missile technologies and assembly plants. After the BDA affair, in July and October 2006 North Korea conducted intermediate and long-range missile tests and then a nuclear test. Iranian scientists were reportedly present at all tests.

THE US responded to the North Korean provocations by intensifying its diplomatic efforts. Those efforts led to the signing of the February 13, 2007 bilateral deal between the US and North Korea, in which Pyongyang pledged to end its nuclear programs within 60 days in exchange for diplomatic acceptance by the US and economic assistance from the US and the international community. In exchange for the North Korean pledge, the US secretly agreed to unfreeze North Korean accounts at BDA and so paved the way for North Korean reentry to international financial markets.

While the deal was hailed as a diplomatic triumph, it suffered from several fatal flaws. The first flaw was that it failed to account for North Korea's pattern of breaching its agreements with the US. As former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton has pointed out, the US had no reason to believe that North Korea would honor its commitments; and, indeed, when 60 days after the deal was signed, Pyongyang had yet to shut down its nuclear installation at Yongbyon, it was clear that North Korea had maintained its practice of diplomatic perfidy.

The agreement also made no allowance for North Korea's existing nuclear arsenal or materials, and said nothing about restricting North Korea's proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies. As last week's IAF raid on the reportedly North Korean-supplied Syrian nuclear installation made clear, this oversight is full of geopolitical consequences.

IT WOULD seem that the main reason the US signed such an ill-advised deal with the North Koreans is that the State Department wished to neutralize North Korea in order to concentrate its efforts on Iran and Iraq. By so acting, the US failed to recognize the fundamental truth that last week's IAF raid exposed. Specifically, North Korea is allied with Iran and to Syria, and as a result cannot be set aside or isolated. It is impossible to confront Iran or Syria or North Korea without confronting the entire alliance. And it is impossible to appease one without strengthening all of them.

This truth has been ignored by both the US and by Israel for decades. The Israeli government continues to view Syria as an independent actor and so hopes that eventually it can be sufficiently appeased to accept the Golan Heights from Israel in exchange for a cold peace.

Israel and the US fail to understand the proxy role the Palestinians play for members of this enemy axis, and so view the establishment of a Palestinian state as a means of neutralizing the Palestinian theater rather than recognizing that such a state will serve at best as a safe haven for global terrorists, and at worst as North Korea's new nuclear client.

The US views Syria only in relation to its nefarious role in Iraq, and so misses the connection between Syrian and Iranian sponsorship of Palestinian terrorists in Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah, and the war the US fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israel and the US view North Korea as an isolated Asian nuisance that has little connection to the war in the Middle East. As a result, Israel for decades has been indifferent to North Korean provocations and the US has ignored the global implications of Pyongyang's nuclear program. So too, the US fails to understand how its diplomatic weakness toward North Korea enhances Iran's position at the bargaining table and advances its nuclear weapons program.

ON THE positive side, the muted, even supportive international response to the Israeli raid makes clear that the diplomatic standing of the members of the axis is far weaker than one would have expected. If, as some have claimed, the IAF raid was a rehearsal for an Israeli or US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, then the international reaction to the IAF raid shows that such a mission will likely be met with minimal, if any, retrospective diplomatic opposition.

Yet it is far from clear that either Israel or the US understand the significance of Israel's operation in Syria. A week after the attack, the US announced its intention to give Pyongyang $25 million worth of heavy fuel oil in return for Pynogyang's good faith in their nuclear activities. Members of the IDF General Staff have recommended renewing negotiations with Syria regarding an Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights. The US is permitting Iranian President Ahmadinejad to attend the UN's General Assembly meeting in New York next week even as Ahmadinejad has escalated his nuclear and anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric in recent weeks.

One can only hope that these Israeli and American moves represent simply the death throes of their clearly discredited view of their enemies as distinct and independent actors. Otherwise, the lessons exposed and the advantages gained from the IAF strike will be squandered, and the free world will be weakened as new life is given to the axis of evil.

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by David

[indent]Our World: Recognizing the axis of evil
Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 17, 2007

Very imaginative and well written. Too bad so little of what is described has been verified.

Note that Ms. Glick is a Senior Fellow for Middle East Affairs with Center for Security Policy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Security_Policy

[FastEddy]

" .. Since you don't have a link, I assume anyone can speculate. ..."

Actually there are ways to look at and photograph the bomb site ... from above ... in good detail ... daytime or night ... but the Syrians and other middle eastern jew haters don't want that to happen, because then the secret would be out: dirty nukes, aimed at Israel, justifiably destroyed by Israel, originally from Saddamn's WMD stock piles buried in Syria under those refugee camps. Call it speculation if you must as that is where it will remain until someone from the international media actually goes in there and checks it out ... be sure to take a rad counter when you go.

[David]

Captain's Quarters

The Vanishing Al Hamed

A North Korean ship that purportedly reflagged itself as South Korean to evade Western investigators has disappeared from view after the Israeli strike on Syria last week. The Al Hamed delivered what the Syrians classified as cement in the days before the strike, and an Israeli tracer says the ship has not been seen since:

A suspicious North Korean freighter that re-flagged itself as South Korean before off-loading an unknown cargo at the Syrian port of Tartous is at the centre of efforts today to investigate Israel's recent airstrike on Syria.

An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as "cement" on Sept 3.

This was three days before Israeli jets attacked a site in the north eastern desert of Syria, not far from its border with Iraq.

Since leaving Tartous, one of Syria's main ports on the Mediterranean, the ship's trace has disappeared and it is not known whether western intelligence agencies are tracking the vessel.

The Al Hamed does not make frequent trips to the Mediterranean. In fact, Solomon only found one other listing for its transit, and that occurred in June of this year. In both cases, it flagged itself as South Korean for its deliveries to Syria, even though the DPRK owned the ship until this summer.

Now, however, the ownership appears as murky as its present whereabouts. Solomon discovered that the ship got sold to new interests, but could not discover any information about the new owners. That seems rather coincidental, given its correlation to the Israeli attack. And unfortunately, Solomon can't find the ship after its delivery at Tartous two weeks ago today.

One would suppose that intel agencies for the US and Israel have started scanning the seas for the Al Hamed. If they can find the ship and inspect it, they could determine exactly what it delivered to the Syrians, and the identity of the new owners. It's entirely possible, though, that the ship will never sail into any port again after the Israelis uncovered its mission.

SOURCE

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by David

The Vanishing Al Hamed

A North Korean ship that purportedly reflagged itself as South Korean to evade Western investigators has disappeared from view

The plot thickens. Israel allegedly hits a nuclear cache in Syria - the existence of which has never been confirmed - which was allegedly delivered by a North Korean ship which has disappeared.

Btw, doesn't anyone have the ability to detect particulate radioactivity ?

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by gary

And you accuse Isreal of violating the rights of Syria!

What are your thoughts on Israel "annexing" Syria's Golan Hights?

[FastEddy]

" ... Israel allegedly hits a nuclear cache in Syria - the existence of which has never been confirmed - which was allegedly delivered by a North Korean ship which has disappeared. ... Btw, doesn't anyone have the ability to detect particulate radioactivity ? ..."

Unconfirmed? Of course, that's because it was supposed to be a Syrian military secret, and it is in Israel's best interest to let Syria spill its own beans.

Detection of CRAP? (carbon, radiation and particulates) ... Yes, from above with the better NSA satellites and with those cute little palmtop computers issued to US Secret Service Agents, et al ... for details consult DARPA and the DOD or you local Israeli jet pilot.

[FastEddy]

http://www.goldtalk.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=276

http://www.goldtalk.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=277

[FastEddy]

" ... Did you have a link for us or are you making it up? ... "

Sorry, privilaged info ... film later on this week along with news and views. For now this will have to do: http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/...?section=world

Latest from the left leaning loonietunes calling themselves news reporters:
" Israeli airstrike targeted possible Syria nuke site; North Korea suspected of aiding program; China calls off disarmament talks ... " From: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/articl...94/1033/NEWS01

Noteworthy errors in the piece above:
* The dateline is supposed to be New York, not Washington = these New Pork Times writers always do this while sitting on their fat fannies in New York and trying to make their readers believe they are in Washington.
* Calling the Syrian Dirty Nuke Bomb Program "rudimentary" when anyone with a lick of sense knows that the sand dabs in that part of the desert are too stupid to even have a "nuclear program", let alone a rudimentary one. All of this nuke stuff there in the Syrian desert is the leftovers from North Korea's busted up nuke bomb making program ... N. K. assuming that it is easier to sell this stuff to the unsuspecting Syrians than to keep it hidden from the Chinese, et al.
* Saying that the Israelis had been "monitoring the site for some time before the ship arrived" is also a bit disingenuous, the Israelis have been watching the site because of all of the other armaments stock piled there = an obvious staging area for missle operations against Israel. (Also left out is the detailed information about Saddamn's WMDs that were at the site and where they came from ... )

[David]

Israelis give their support. AFP

Israelis back reported air strike on Syria

12 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The vast majority of Israelis support the apparent air strike on Syria, a poll showed on Tuesday, as North Korea denied helping Damascus to build a nuclear facility alleged to have been the target.

Asked if they supported the reported raid nearly two weeks ago -- over which Israel has kept silent and which foreign press reports have said was aimed at a nuclear target -- 78 percent of Israelis polled said "yes."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's dwindling ratings also rose 10 percentage points on the back of this support to 35 percent, according to the survey.

The figures continued a trend that has seen his ratings recover from single digits where they wallowed for months because of last year's inconclusive war in Lebanon and a string of corruption scandals implicating the government.

Continuing the official wall of silence, President Shimon Peres on Tuesday refused to comment on the September 6 incident after which Syria said its air defences had fired at Israeli warplanes deep inside its territory.

But days after the Israeli military intelligence chief claimed in allusion to the strike that Israel had regained its "deterrent capability," Peres said that tensions between the two neighbours officially still at war had eased.

"The nervousness in the relations between Syria and ourselves is over," said Israel's elder statesman. "Just as the prime minister said, which is sincere and serious... we are ready to negotiate directly with the Syrians for peace."

In an interview with Russian-language media late on Monday, Olmert was reported to have said that he had "great respect" for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and that "Israel is ready for direct negotiations with Syria, without preconditions."

Peace talks between the two neighbours collapsed seven years ago over disagreements over the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Damascus in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

Syria has filed an official complaint with the United Nations over the mysterious attack, but has likewise remained tight-lipped over the details.

The only quasi confirmation has come from anonymous defence officials in Israel's main ally the United States, who have said that a "quick" strike was carried out to send a message to Damascus not to continue supporting Hezbollah, with which Israel fought a war last year.

With scant official information available, most of the speculation over the strike has been in foreign media reports, which first said the raid was aimed at weapons financed by Israel's arch-enemy Iran.

But over the past week, more and more reports have alleged that the strike was aimed at either a nuclear facility or nuclear material provided by North Korea.

Syrian official media have blasted such reports as "lies" that could be used as a pretext for attacking Damascus, and on Tuesday the North Korean foreign minister also rejected the allegations.

"Recently some US media including the New York Times have been spreading allegations that we are secretly helping Syria with its nuclear programme. Such reports are groundless and misleading," a ministry spokesman said.

"We, as a responsible nuclear power, already declared in October 2006 that we will never allow the transfer of nuclear materials, and we have been sticking to this declaration," the spokesman said in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Allegations about secret nuclear cooperation are nothing but a clumsy plot set up again by vicious forces who do not want progress in North Korea-US relations and six-party talks," he said.

The United States has long accused North Korea, which carried out a nuclear weapons test in October 2006, of weapons proliferation. American officials have also charged Syria with bankrolling terrorism groups in the Middle East.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said his country would have a "real problem" if Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.

[Vistor233]

Originally Posted by David

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's dwindling ratings also rose 10 percentage points on the back of this support to 35 percent, according to the survey.

Maybe that's what this is about. Olmert's ratings have been the pits since the war last year.

I was talking to an Israeli native today. I wonder to what extent the Israeli population sees the importance of Israel-Syria negotiations. About time, isn't it?