Reports From Lebanon: Syria Calls Up Reserves

Yesterday, the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported from Syria that some of the reserves have been called up. The newspaper noted that the reservists were not told whether the call-up was done in the wake of reports that Israeli aircraft had penetrated Syrian airspace. However, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said yesterday in Ankara, “While we are ready to protect ourselves from any possible Israeli attack, our paramount goal is peace.”

An-Nahar is a consistently anti-Syrian newspaper and even has a long score to settle with it. Less than two years ago the newspaper’s editor, MP Gebran Tueni, was killed in a mysterious explosion in Beirut. His close associates accused Syria of the deed.

IDF Fortifies Emergency Warehouses In Northern Region

The Israel Defense Forces Home Command is currently completing a large project of fortifying emergency warehouses in the country’s northern region.

The project, which is part of the lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War, is intended to allow the emergency mobilization of tens of thousands of reservists in the northern region in a scenario in which the entire area comes under rocket attack from Lebanon and Syria.

In past years, the Northern Command began groundwork to prepare for the possibility that during a call-up of the reserves, emergency warehouses throughout the northern region would be attacked by dozens of missiles and heavy rockets. Yet until the Second Lebanon War, no real action was taken, mainly because of the assessment that the likelihood of a conventional war in the northern region was very low. The last war proved otherwise.

During the Second Lebanon War, hundreds of rockets were fired at military targets. At a certain stage, officials of the Northern Command even considered calling up reservists from other regions of the country that were not under rocket attack. But in the end, most of the units of the Israel Northern Command were called up in areas near the emergency warehouses.

But the rising tension with Syria has brought the IDF back to recognizing that Syria is capable of raining down far deadlier and more accurate fire on the emergency warehouses and on army bases in the northern region, and therefore it is necessary to install fortifications in the call-up compounds, in the emergency warehouses and in vital bases in the Northern Command.

Huge Rearming

Effort Of Syria

Under Bashar Assad, Syria’s efforts to obtain non-conventional arms has received an even bigger push than under his father. For example, in May 2002, satellite photos revealed a huge complex constructed by the Syrians in A-Safir in northern Syria.

This is where the Syrians produce chemical non-conventional weapons. This is also where they store their modern Scud C and D missiles, which are capable of striking any part of Israel.

Compared to earlier satellite photos, significant changes can be seen, in addition to massive construction, mainly of areas connected to the new Scud D missile. The missile is brought from another site and is stored in underground tunnels. The site, which is spread over dozens of miles, has several parts, surrounded by patrol roads and high fences. It is possible to see the huge production area for non-conventional chemical weapons, its storage area in concrete bunkers, missile storage areas and surface-to-air batteries to defend the site.

Syrian arming with non-conventional chemical weapons began with Soviet Russia’s consent to provide Syria with dozens of Scud B missiles with a range of 200 miles. But this range only covers part of Israel, and only if the missiles are stationed very close to the border, at a range vulnerable to Israeli attack. In 1991, the Syrians purchased from North Korea 150 Scud C missiles with a range of 300 miles.

However, in order not to be dependent on external favors, in 1995 they began to produce a series of Scud C missiles. But in order to also cover the nuclear plant in Dimona, they needed to station missiles near the border. The Syrians wanted to upgrade the range of their missiles and make them more accurate.

In July 2001, a modern Israeli system for spotting missile launchings identified the launch of a Scud D missile from the Aleppo area in northern Syria that landed 500 miles south of there.

In contrast to the Syrian air force, which has not received a serious modern system for at least 12 years, the Syrian missile system has received the Scud D and is operating and investing in solid fuels.

In addition to the missile system, the Syrians decided to acquire what is called, “the atom bomb of the poor,” i.e., chemical weapons.

They did this as a strategic response to the nuclear weapon that they claim Israel has. Syria did not sign the convention against chemical weapons, and it does not seem that it will do so in the near future.

In the mid-nineties, Syria succeeded in producing the most lethal and desired of chemical weapons, VX gas, which, unlike other chemical weapons, does not disperse after several days. A personal adviser to President Yeltsin for dismantling chemical weapons was fired from his position after he smuggled materials into Syria for the production of this gas in 1995.

Four sites for the production of chemical weapons were identified with certainty, one of them being A-Safir: In the satellite photos, it is possible to clearly identify the special cooling towers that characterize installations for the production of non-conventional chemical weapons.

Ancient Jewish Passageway Discovered

The Israel Archaeological Authority has discovered a drainage canal in the ancient city of David near the Jerusalem city walls where the Jewish rebels against the Roman conquest took cover, according to Josephus, during the Jewish rebellion, 66-70 A.D.

Approximately ten feet underground and about one kilometer long, underneath the main street from the Second Temple era is an enormous canal that drained winter rainwater that flooded the tiled streets of the city into the Kidron River and the Shiloah Pool.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem, according to Josephus, found cover there during the great revolt against the Romans, the siege of Jerusalem and its fall, and through it they escaped toward the Kidron River and the Judean Desert.

“It is a very moving experience. One doesn’t need to talk much. You go in there and you go out without a word,” says Eli Shukrun, the archaeologist who discovered the tunnel. “To think that for two thousand years we were not there, and that the last people to be there were rebels who were fleeing from the Romans – it is a very strong feeling.”

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2007