Israeli officials repeatedly said not attacking Syria as Golan left
unprotected
Aaron Lerner Date: 18 August 2006

Amir Rapaport, military analyst for the Maariv, revealed in a report today
that during the course of the first two weeks of the war in Lebanon, while
the Syria army went on full alert and massed forces near the border, the IDF
relied on the standard deployment of a small force of mostly patrolling
reserves to defend the Golan Heights from a Syrian invasion.

"We had great luck that the Syrians didn't make a grab," said a security
source. "They could have taken over the communities in the Golan Heights
with their 8,000 residents before we would have recovered and started to
defend the area."

Rapaport notes that during this period various Israeli officials repeatedly
declared that Israel had no intention of clashing with Syria.

The IDF only deployed forces to defend the Golan from the threat of the
massed Syrian forces after members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense
Committee, including MKs Yuval Steinitz, Effie Eitam and Matan Vilnai met on
the matter and even toured the area.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il