Israel is happy to see a major strategic threat removed/put pressure on
Syria and Lebanon/aljazeera/27, April

http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=3164&version=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258

Sunday 27, April, 2003 / Last Updated: 1:54PM Doha time, 4:54AM GMT

Israel is happy to see a major strategic threat removed

Israel's military intelligence chief said on Saturday the removal of Saddam Hussein had eliminated a major strategic threat to the Jewish state and put pressure on its two enemy neighbours, Syria and Lebanon.

"It is a new Middle East," Major-General Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash told Israel's Channel 10 television.

"There is no Iraqi military which can pitch in on the eastern front, so the potential for attack on Israel is small. There is no eastern front," he said.

Israel made peace with its southern neighbor Egypt in 1978 and its eastern neighborﾝJordan in 1994. Israel considered Iraq, which lies next to the Hashemite kingdom, as a threat to its security. The Jewish state says Iraq backed Palestinian groups that are militarily active against the Jewish state.

Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, killing one person.



Israel links its continued occupation to the West Bank, which it seized in 1967, to its need for a buffer zone from Iraq.

The United States hasﾝmentioned security benefits in the Middle East from Saddam's ousting. Egypt, to Israel's south, signed a peace agreement with the Jewish state in 1978. With the Mediterranean sea to its west, the only enemies now annoying Israel are Syria and Lebanon.

But Ze'evi-Farkash said the Iraq war had also had an impact on them. "Bashar Assad has been isolated as a result of Iraq's defeat," he said, referring to Syria's president who openly sided with Saddam Hussein during the US-led war. Diplomatic tensions have since been high between Washington and Damascus.

Turning to southern Lebanon, which is controlled by Hizbullah, Ze'evi-Farkash said the resistance group was baffled by the failure of Iran to fight on behalf of fellow Shia Muslims who constitute the majority of Iraqis. Iran backs Hizbullah financially and shares with it the same ideology.

In a reference to Hizbullah's past logistical support from Syria, Ze'evi-Farkash said: "(Hizbullah leader Hassan) Nasrallah is under pressure and he understands that Syria has no supply line without Iraq.

"Nasrallah understands that he is liable to complicate things for the Syrians, Iranians and Lebanese if he takes any drastic action."

Hizbullah forced Israel to end its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000 and remains openly hostile to the Jewish state. But the Israel-Lebanon border is mostly quiet.

Ze'evi-Farkash welcomed the appointment of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister as part of international efforts to crack down on Palestinian militants and renew Middle East peace talks, but he said it was not enough.

"(Palestinian President Yasser) Arafat is the central problem, not terrorism," Ze'evi-Farkash said.

Israel accuses the Palestinian president of instigating violence in the intifada (uprising) that began in September 2000.

"The danger is that under the cover of a ceasefire the terrorist organisations will recover and regroup," Ze'evi-Farkash said.

"(Abbas) is the first person to understand that. There is room for optimism if we are very careful and vigilant."

Ze'evi-Farkash said the removal of Saddam was no cause to relax Israel's state of strategic alert.

"The threat of non-conventional weapons and ballistic missiles is the threat on Israel, and Iran is the one holding such materials," he said.

Iran, like Israel, does not discuss its non-conventional capabilities. US President George Bush named Iran, North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq as an "axis of evil" because he said they possessed or could develop weapons of mass destruction.