Peretz: We won't respond to Syria's peace mutterings
In memorial ceremony for fallen Golani soldiers, Defense Minister Amir Peretz says Israel must not respond to Assad as long as Damascus is in contact with Iran and terrorist organizations
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Thursday, "We mustn't respond to the peace mutterings of Syria as long as it continues threatening war and as long as it is in contact with Iran and the terrorist organizations."
Peretz made these statements at a memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers of the Golani Brigade at the brigade's memorial site in the lower Galilee.
Recently, Syrian President Bashar Assad has spoken out a number of times on the issue of peace and has expressed willingness to start peace negotiations with Israel, starting from the point they left off.
However, Assad warned that if Israel does not respond to his overtures, it is likely that the only option will be war. For instance, in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper, the Syrian president said that his country is prepared for "the Israeli aggression."
According to Assad, "The natural thing is that we must expect that there will be no peace and perhaps there will be war." In an interview with the BBC, he said that he was prepared in principle to hold talks with Israel, but claimed that the conditions for such have yet to be achieved.
Praise for Golani
Peretz also commented on the Golani Brigade's performance during the second Lebanon war. The minister said that in every battle Golani fighters were involved in during the war, Israel had the upper hand. "Even now soldiers of the brigade are deployed along the northern border to defend the citizens of the country."
Peretz added that the terrorist organizations have not stopped trying to carry out murderous terror attacks. He referred again to the smuggling of weapons in the Gaza Strip and promised that Gaza won't become another Lebanon. "The war on terror is vital not only to save the lives of Israeli citizens and innocent Palestinians, but is also intended to allow us to impose peace.
"We truly and whole-heartedly aspire to peace with the Palestinians, with Syria, Lebanon and the entire Arab world. I appreciate Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), but we can't hold negotiations with the Hamas government. We can't tolerate a government that doesn't recognize the State of Israel. Hamas doesn't honor the agreements signed with them, and they fan the flames of terrorism."
However, Peretz added that if Israel is coerced into a military operation in Gaza, this will happen only after all other attempts to solve the problem of the Qassam rockets and smuggling weapons have failed.
Halutz: Full support for division commanders
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz also addressed those assembled, saying that the war against Hizbullah posed difficult challenges to the IDF.
He said the IDF was currently performing a series of inquires to figure out “where we went wrong and where we performed well. The inquiries are being held without trepidation or bias, and therefore we asked former commanders to lend a hand.
“IDF commanders, and I as their leader, won’t belittle the lessons learned, to be better prepared for future challenges and for our moral obligation to the soldiers that fell in the war. In spite of all this, I emphasize my full backing of the whole chain of command, from the division commanders to the officers to every last soldier in the field,” he said.
The Golani Brigade has lost up until now 1,379 fighters. Twenty-one of them were killed during the second war in Lebanon.
