Military

DATE=10/07/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

NAME=ISRAEL'S SYRIA RAID

NUMBER=6-130118

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: Much of the American press is viewing the Israeli air raid into Syria as a significant escalation of the Middle East conflict. While describing the Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 19 people on the eve of Yom Kippur [the Jewish Day of Atonement] as "horrific," many papers are editorializing that the Israeli response may broaden hostilities. We get a sampling now from V-O-A's ___________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Israel carried out a raid Sunday on an alleged terrorist training camp in Syria after a Palestinian woman blew herself up in a crowded restaurant in Haifa, killing 19 people and wounding more than 50 others.

As terrible as the bombing was, most American dailies are equally upset at what the New York Times calls the "recklessly inappropriate" Israeli response, hitting a target only about 17-kilometers outside Damascus. The Dallas [Texas] Morning News wonders what may be next.

VOICE: This is a moment of maximum peril in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After suffering a spectacularly gruesome suicide bombing on the eve of their holiest day, the Israelis have taken their war on terror to neighboring Syria, and are swearing to do more. Will that include killing or exiling Yasser Arafat, as many prominent Israelis demand? We desperately hope not. . The only thing worse than having Mr. Arafat in power would be for the Israelis to remove him by force.

TEXT: After condemning the restaurant attack and calling for its condemnation in the Security Council, Michigan's Detroit Free Press also criticizes Israel's response.

VOICE: . the . decision to violate sovereign air space to send a message to Syria, a nation . too hospitable for too long to terrorist factions, is an ominous development... In the past few weeks, the so-called road map for peace appears to have been folded up and shelved in favor of a return to. retaliation and the possibility of a widening conflict.

TEXT: Houston's [Texas] Chronicle fears the Israeli air force attack could cause the region "to spiral out of control," while in Florida, Fort Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel, calls the events a "dangerous escalation," but understands Israel's position.

VOICE: Israel's raid on a Palestinian terrorist training camp in Syria came on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the start of Yom Kippur war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. . a good indication of what's at stake in trying to calm tensions. . But Israel has a right to defend itself against an ongoing scourge, just as the [U-S] is doing . in Afghanistan and elsewhere. U-S support for Israel's right of self-defense must remain solid.

TEXT: More strong support for Israel comes from the New York Post, which makes this analogy.

VOICE: Fully two years ago, President Bush warned that the War on Terror would be waged not only on the terrorists themselves -- but [also] on those who gave them aid and comfort, too. . Now Israel -- which faces the onslaught of terrorism on a daily basis - has demonstrated that it, too, is prepared to act if the rest of the world will not. . [Mr.] Bush . is well aware -- even if much of the rest of the world has forgotten -- that Syria has long been a state sponsor of terrorism.

TEXT: In Oklahoma, The Tulsa World contemplates the worst case scenario from this latest escalation.

VOICE: Should Syria and Israel drift into war, what would the United States do? With a full army in nearby Iraq and [Mr.] Bush's conviction that Syria is a pipeline for Islamic terrorists who are attacking Americans in Iraq, who knows? .There are many scenarios. But it seems clear. the [U-S] could drift into the equivalent of World War Three, .an all-out conflict of the Arab world against the [U-S] and Israel.

TEXT: Lastly, from Ohio, Cleveland's Plain Dealer has a key question, but no answer.

VOICE: It is easy to understand why Israel felt it had to act in the pre-dawn hours ... Sunday -- even to understand why it felt that for the first time in ... years, it needed to strike a target deep within Syria. What's harder to understand is how this serves the cause of peace. . How can the cycle of violence, now generations old, ever be interrupted unless all parties change their ways?

TEXT: With that question from the Plain Dealer, we conclude this editorial sampling of reaction to the latest escalation in the Middle East conflict.

NEB/ANG/KL