 Israel's military has been preparing for the increasing prospect of a war with Syria in a confrontation expected to include Iran and Hizbullah. The General Staff has discussed an assessment by the military's Northern Command of an emerging threat from Syria and Hizbullah over the next year. Northern Command said a weakened Syria, under pressure from the United States to withdraw from Lebanon, was likely to approve an Iranian-Hizbullah campaign against Israel. "We might have to fight those countries, which could drive them back a dozen years," Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, chief of Northern Command, said. "We can drive Lebanon and Syria 50 years back. It's an option." Gantz told the LIC-2005 conference on Wednesday that Hizbullah -- backed by Iran and Syria -- has become a strategic threat to Israel. He cited the 15,000 missiles and rockets deployed by Hizbullah along the Lebanese border with Israel and the Shi'ite organization's increasing support of Palestinian insurgency cells in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. |