Monday April 16 3:59 AM ET
Israel Raises Middle East Stakes with Raid

By Brian Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel on Monday bombed a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, raising the military stakes in the Middle East and casting a shadow over the Jordanian foreign minister's visit with new Palestinian peace proposals.

Monday's dawn raid, just 35 km (22 miles) east of Beirut, killed three Syrian soldiers and wounded six in the first Israeli attack on a Syrian position in Lebanon since April 1996.

Israel said the raid was a clear message to Syrian leaders that they would pay if they did not stop supporting Hizbollah guerrillas in their fight against the Jewish state.

Israel Army spokesman Brigadier General Ron Kitrey said the message to Syria was: ``Enough.''

Lebanese security sources said the raid was carried out by four jets that fired six rockets at the radar station and one at a nearby hillside Syrian position.

It followed a special security cabinet meeting chaired by right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and was retaliation for the killing on the Lebanon-Israel border on Saturday of an
Israeli soldier by Hizbollah guerrillas, who are backed by Syria and Iran.

Nabil Amr, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said the Israeli action was ``a new and dangerous development and is an expansion into the sphere of war.''

Calling Washington

Amr called on the United States to again get directly involved in Middle East peace efforts after its mainly hands-off involvement since President Bush took office in January.

``This dangerous move should make the United States immediately move to stop this deterioration and try to put the Arabs and the Israelis back at the negotiating table,'' Amr said.

Sharon and foreign minister Shimon Peres were scheduled to meet later on Monday Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdulilah al-Khatib, who is making the first visit to Israel by a Jordanian minister since Sharon came to power last month.

Authoritative sources said talks were in progress in Amman about whether Khatib should cancel the visit in view of the raid.

Also on Monday, Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs are scheduled to meet at the U.S. ambassador's home near Tel Aviv for the second time in less than a week to discuss ways to head off violence.

Khatib, who met Arafat last Thursday, will present a Jordan-Egypt initiative approved by Arafat to reduce tensions and resume peace negotiations.

Palestinian sources said the plan calls for an end to violence, lifting of travel bans on Palestinian-controlled areas and implementation of existing Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Israel has already poured cold water on the plan because it is believed to set a timetable for a final peace agreement. It has also made clear there can be no peace negotiations without an end to the current nearly seven months of violence.

A Serious Message

Raanan Gissin, a senior Sharon aide, said the Israeli bombing was a serious message to Israel's opponents not to underestimate its determination to protect itself.

``Certainly regarding the Syrians there will be a need for them and for Hizbollah -- and for the Palestinians, by the way -- for them to reassess the situation vis-a-vis Israel's preparedness, readiness and determination to respond,'' Gissin told Army Radio.

Gissin also indirectly suggested that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon last May may have been a mistake.

``After all, the way that we left Lebanon caused an erosion of our power of deterrence not only in Lebanon but in the Arab world as a whole and had ramifications also regarding the explosion of violence in the Al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising).''

Since Sharon took office, Israel has adopted a tough policy of pre-emptive and retaliatory strikes against attacks on its territory and citizens.

In the past week alone, the Jewish state has carried out its first daytime missile strikes on Palestinian targets since the uprising began, two of its biggest incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory, first bombing raid on a target in Lebanon for five months and now the first raid on a Syrian target for five years.

Kitrey said Israeli authorities had so far not ordered citizens on the Lebanese border to take precautions like moving to bomb shelters in case of Hizbollah retaliation for the raid.

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