Israel won't hesitate to strike, leaders say

JERUSALEM -- Bolstered by U.S. support for Israel's bombing raid in Syria, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday his nation won't hesitate to attack its enemies anywhere -- heightening concerns it may widen the Palestinian conflict by again striking countries it accuses of harboring terrorists.\nSince the attack on the reputed Islamic Jihad training camp in Syria on Sunday, the regional conflict has already escalated with shooting and mortar fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon, where Syria is the main power-broker.\nAn Israeli staff sergeant who also held U.S. citizenship was killed Monday in a shooting Israel blamed on Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group that is backed by Syria and predominantly Shiite Iran. The Israeli military said it raised its state of readiness on the Lebanese border Tuesday because of the increased tension.\nSharon's vow to pursue militants wherever they are also came after Israel accused Syria and Iran of providing key backing to Islamic Jihad, the militant group that claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 19 people in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Saturday.\n"Israel will not be deterred from protecting its citizens and will strike its enemies in every place and in every way," Sharon said, emphasizing that Israel must prepare "as if the next war is waiting just around the corner."\n"We are not immune to surprises," he said at a memorial service for Israeli soldiers killed during the 1973 Middle East war with Syria and Egypt. "Only if we are forever ready will we reach peace, and we will reach it."\nPresident Bush said Tuesday the Israeli airstrike -- the first Israeli attack deep into Syria in three decades -- was part of an "essential" campaign to defend the country, and drew a parallel between Sharon's actions and U.S. policy on terrorism.\n"The decisions he makes to defend (Israel's) people are valid decisions," Bush said. "We would be doing the same thing."\nBut Bush's supportive remarks came with a note of caution that Sharon should be wary of creating "the conditions necessary for" more violence and "fully understand the consequences of any decision."\nSyria has denied having any Islamic Jihad bases, and President Bashar Assad said the raid was an Israeli attempt to provoke war.\n"There is no doubt that the role Syria plays in the various issues in our region is painful to this (Israeli) government. What happened (on Sunday) was a failed Israeli attempt to undercut this role," Assad said, according to a story Tuesday in the London-based newspaper Al Hayat.\n"We can, with full confidence, say that what happened will only make Syria's role more effective and influential in events in the region -- contrary to what this (Israeli) government wants," Assad was quoted as saying.\nSome within Israel were critical of the airstrike, fearing it could broaden the conflict to engulf the whole region.\nThe Israeli daily Haaretz wrote in an editorial that the attack could put Israel on a "steep and slippery slope" to increased tensions with Syria.\nItamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, said the raid signaled a sharp escalation in the conflict, and he questioned its wisdom.\n"As of now, this was a solitary act -- a sort of signal to Damascus and behind Damascus to Tehran -- that Israel is liable to turn the Israeli Palestinian conflict into a regional crisis," Rabinovich, a former peace negotiator with Syria, wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronot. "But does Israel really want this? Is Israel willing to step up the battle with Syria?"\nIsraeli media reports have suggested that more attacks on militants' bases in Syria could follow.\nIsrael's Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday the security Cabinet decided at a meeting Aug. 19 -- following a Hamas bus bombing that killed 23 people -- to target the camp in Syria, but postponed the airstrike for operational reasons. After the suicide bombing Saturday, the army said it was possible to carry out the strike and a group of senior Cabinet ministers approved it, he said.\n"The Syrians have a choice," said Raanan Gissin, a Sharon aide. "They can remove, dismantle the bases of the terrorist organizations in their midst or suffer the consequences of having these organizations and groups operating from Damascus"