last september, israel did far more than just threaten syria, it bombed a syrian military installation, and risked an all-out war. and the syrian response was very telling: lots of bluster, but not even a limited reprisal raid. now syria is sabre-rattling and mobilising its reserves. in typical arab fashion, they accuse israel of what they themselves are doing, which is useful as it indicates their intentions. this is a clear threat to israel. a failure to respond will NOT result in syria backing down - why should they? their entire purpose is to probe for israel's "red line". deterrence may or may not be enough to stop syria, but keeping silent (verbally or militarily) suggests weakness, which only encourages further escalation. unless israel wants an outbreak with syria, it is wisest to respond clearly and sharply to any syrian threats.

With regards to the article by Dr.Shmuel Gordon . Why not give to the Syrians our troop deployments and if that is not good enough their names and addresses. Why do all our experts have to show to our enemies our weaknesses and even assuming they already know our weaknesses is it necessary to have them reassure the enemy their information is correct. The up coming wars and there is no doubt it is looming will see the deaths of Israeli citizens and much destruction to our cities,if however the otherside is paying a much higher price then ultimately we will over come. One must hope that during the upcoming war the esteemed Gent is not allowed to write too much as it is very likely he will bolster Syrian confidence. With regards Brian Morris

Hizballah does not care if the Lebanese people suffer from their actions. On the other hand Assad will have to answer to his people if their towns and infrastructure is destroyed; he will be forced to end any rocket attacks by the suffering of his people.

If the author believes in what he wrote, he should keep his mouth closed. Is not silence golden?

"Damesek will soon stop being a city; it will become a heap of ruins." This is what Yesh'yahu says. This has never happened, so you can be sure it will. Not because Israel is now serving HaShem, because they aren't. But, it will be for His own Will. Just as Israel has seen many miracles in the wars of the past 60 years, it will see more.

This is a clearly wrong and misleading article. Shuiel, your entire conclusion was based on the one paragraph that says that the lw2 established a "number" of misiles that Israel agree to absorb---that is wrong,wrong,wrong!!! THE NUMBER THAT REALLY COUNTED WAS THE NUMBER OF ISRAELIS KILLED WITH THOSE ATTACKS. IF YOU RECOGNIZE THAT YOU WILL SEE THAT ISRAEL RESPONSE WILL BE SWIFTER AND CRUSHING TO THE ASAD REGIME!! YOU ARE NO EXPERT! THIS IS A POLITICAL TWISTED ARTICLE.

The author is saying sitting back and doing nothing, but build our defense systems, while the enemy builds their stockpiles, will lead to less civillian deaths????? Lets all just sit back and wait to be killed? Typical Leftist logic.. If you have a cancer tumor on your body, you dont wait till it goes away. You get rid of it as quick as you can in any way or treatment, before it grows and eventually kills you. I would rather have Israel disfigured with scars, but alive, then slowly eaten up by the cancer that our enemies represent.

"This way they could claim a large number of casualties, deal a serious blow to the civilians' morale, weaken the government institutions, and undermine Israel's perceived deterrence and its international standing." If anything Syria causing large scale civilian casualties would inflame public opinion in Israel - just as 9/11 did in the US - not lower morale. From there on in it would be all-out war which Syria would undoubtedly lose - meaning the end of Assad jnr's regime. Somehow I doubt he'd want that. Keeping the status quo is what he really wants - sitting on his throne as an uncrowned king for ever more.

Somehow Shmuel Gordon is passing himself off as an expert on national security and counter terrorism when in actuality he is an idiot. He expresses how Israel will be demoralized, but says nothing about how Syria will be demoralized by an Israel attack. His reason for saying this is he doesn't want Israel to respond. Israel can best protect itself by inflicting massive casualties, both civilian and military, on it's enemies. Only by doing so will you gain their respect and stop further terrorism. However should any terrorism again raise it's head , once again inflict massive casualties. The idea of waiting out the terrorists and then replying in a tit for tate mode will be the end of Isarel. I REPEAT, SHMUEL GORDON IS AN IDIOT

from what? all it is is just israel doing the talking and threatening. so much for your "restraint threshold" "national security and counter terrorism specialist." indeed, silence IS golden, which, infact ya'll have failed to accomplish. just looking at the first paragraph says enough about syria's threat...that "if" should be capitalized