(Reuters) – Israel said it fired into Syria on Sunday and destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war along a tense front.
It was not immediately clear whether Israel held Syrian troops or rebels responsible for what a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had been a deliberate attack on Israeli patrols in the occupied territory.
Israeli forces “destroyed a Syrian machine gun nest that fired twice in the last 24 hours on Israeli patrols operating to safeguard the border,” the spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, said on his Twitter page.
Shells have fallen several times inside Israeli-controlled territory during Syria’s civil war. Some of the incidents have drawn Israeli return fire.
Syria’s southern provinces bordering Jordan and Israel have become an increasingly significant battleground as the capital Damascus – in Syria’s south – comes into play and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces fight hard to prevent rebel advances.
The Israeli military said one of its vehicles was hit late on Saturday by shooting from across the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line on the Golan Heights, but no one was hurt.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, said, “Our understanding is that it wasn’t stray fire.”
After a second incident on Sunday, Israeli soldiers “responded with accurate fire toward the Syrian post from which they were fired on”, the military said.
Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement that Israel viewed shooting from Syria “with severity” and would not allow “the Syrian army or any other element to violate Israeli sovereignty by firing at our territory”.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the strategic plateau in 1981 in a move that has not won international recognition.
“Any … fire from the Syrian side will be answered immediately by silencing the sources of fire when we identify them,” Yaalon said.
Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defence Ministry official, said battles between Syrian government forces and Syrian rebels sometimes take place just a short distance from Israeli lines.
“At times, shells or bullets are fired at Israel. Usually the shooting (from Syria) is not deliberate, but it doesn’t matter,” he told Army Radio.
“Israel should not be the target of any attack, whether intentional or unintentional – because after all, if you accept something that was unintentional, that could lead to something intentional in the end,” Gilad said.
Israel has said for months that it expects Assad’s government to fall and has voiced concern that its chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas and al Qaeda.
Israeli President Shimon Peres has called for Assad to step down.
(Reporting by Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Louise Ireland)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/24/us-syria-israel-idUSBRE92N06020130324
“destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in ”
Could it be…could it possibly be…that the Syrians were defending themselves IN THE FIRST PLACE?! Is there a possibility that the isra-hellis – those child killers -had been attacking the Syrian soldier’s first? Eh?
What about the fact that the golan heights are not “Israel”, never have been either. They article acts as if this area is Israeli, when everyone knows the Golan Heights are Syrian.
Building excuse to invade and grab more of the Golan Heights.
Always with the whining and blaming others:
MANY MORE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENTS ………
A Wedding in Ashdod during the War with Hamas
Posted by Mordechai Friedfertig at 10:06 AM
[Question from Ha-Rav’s radio call-in show from this week]
Question: Is it permissible to travel to a wedding in Ashdod (in Southern Israel) which is in range of the Kassam and Grad rockets or is it forbidden based on the commandment of “You shall surely safeguard your soul” (Devarim 4:15, 23:11)?
Answer: It is permissible. There is a clear distinction in Halachah between a high-probability danger and a low-probability danger. If this were not the case, we would not be able to travel in a car since every year, to our great distress, six hundred people are killed in car accidents in Israel. Many more people have been killed in car accidents since the establishment of the State of Israel than all of the Kassam rockets and all of the terrorist attacks and all of the wars, even when they are added together. We nonetheless travel in cars, obviously with the required cautions, since this is called “a non-frequent damage” in Halachah (Pesachim 8b). In our time there are statistical tools to verify the frequency of a danger. There is a halachic responsum on this subject by Ha-Gaon Ha-Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein, Rabbi of “Ramat Elchanan” (neighborhood in Bnei Brak). A student was learning in a yeshiva in “Yesha” (Yehudah, Shomron or Gush Katif) and his parents were concerned about the danger. Rav Zilberstein proves that “a frequent damage” is five percent. This means that if – G-d forbid – five percent of the students of the yeshiva were murdered, it would be forbidden to learn in that yeshiva. This is obviously far from reality – Baruch Hashem – since the Kassam and Grad rockets are not killing five percent of the population. In fact, Ha-Gaon Ha-Rav Yitzchak Isaac Herzog in Shut Heichal Yitzchak proves based on Shut Rabbi Akiva Eiger (#60) that a frequent danger is not five percent, but one in a thousand, but – Baruch Hashem – Kassam and Grad rockets are not killing one in a thousand people either.
Furthermore, it is permissible to take a “small risk” for the sake of a mitzvah and bringing joy to a groom and bride is a mitzvah. The Tiferet Yisrael discusses this principle on the Mishnah in Massechet Berachot at the end of chapter one. There is a story about Rabbi Tarfon who said the Shema at night while reclining according to the view of Beit Shammai. He endangered himself while doing so and the Sages admonished him for following the view of Beit Shammai instead of Beit Hillel. But the question remains: Why did Rabbi Tarfon endanger himself, since reciting the Shema is not in the category of “Be killed and do not transgress,” i.e. requiring one to sacrifice his life for its fulfillment? The Tiferet Yisrael explains that it was permissible since there was only a small risk of danger. There is an additional proof from when Rabbi Akiva was in jail, and he used the water he received for “netilat yadayim” (ritually washing his hands) instead of for drinking. The halachic authorities ask: How could Rabbi Akiva endanger his life for this practice? The answer is that Rabbi Akiva understood that he would obtain more water, the danger he was taking was extremely minute and it is permissible to take a small risk for a mitzvah. This is also the ruling found in “Pitchei Teshuvah” (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 157).
In conclusion:
a. A non-frequent danger is not considered a danger according to Halachah and the danger in Ashdod is a non-frequent one.
b. It is permissible to take a minimal risk for a mitzvah and bringing joy to a groom and bride is a mitzvah.
Mazel Tov!
With all these powerful accurate small arms weapons used by much bragged about elite soldiers everywhere, the accuracy level seems to be rather low. You think?
As in I don’t believe it. As in I believe it like I believe the TV shows where the mob’s best hit man has the hero sighted in and BLAM, he misses..
Yeah, that’s the ticket.