ARTICLE: “Israel and Syria: Rumours of war, and peace,” The Economist, 18 August 2007, p. 37.

Weird to watch the mini-me version of our building war tensions with Iran unfolding with our respective proxies, Israel and Syria.

There’s the usual reasons for fear on both sides, primarily having to do with Lebanon, but nothing is really ramping up the notion of potential war per se right now (Hezbollah is mostly regrouping), other than the assumption that it must be near. It’s almost like a tension spillover from Tehran-v-Washington.

The article surmises that maybe Damascus was impressed by Hezbollah’s efforts last August and believes they signal some significant weakness on Israel’s part. The weakness is definitely there, but it’s hard to see how Syria would exploit it. Most likely it would just get its ass kicked--as usual--in conventional terms.