Yet another bad news story involving Syria: A Chinese news agency reports that Israel has proof Syria was involved in a recent attack there and is briefing European leaders:
JERUSALEM, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) — Israeli Military Intelligence insisted Monday that Israel has proof of Syrian’s involvement in last Friday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, in which five Israelis were killed, local newspaper Haaretz reported in its online edition.
; The head of Military Intelligence, Major General Aharon Ze’evi Farkash, and senior officials from the Foreign Ministry, briefed European diplomats on Monday to explain the extent of Syrian involvement in the attack.
A team of defense officials will leave Israel in the coming days for Washington, London and Paris, where similar briefings will be held.
Normally even if the Israelis had it, it might not move some governments to want to take any action against Syria. But Syria is under intense international scrutiny these days due to allegations that it was involved in the assassination of a popular Lebanese leader, and continuing charges that it has given at the very least covert enabling support to insurgent forces in Iraq.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Saturday accused Syria and the radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad (Holy War) of standing behind the murderous attack in Tel Aviv.
Normally if Israel went to certain European governments with this kind of info it might not even then have much of an impact. But the international context has now changed with Syria being accused of involvement in the assassination of a popular Lebanese leader — plus continued allegations that Syria is at the very LEAST covertly enabling the Iraqi insurgents.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.