The IDF attacked a Syrian target in Lebanon

Background:

1. On May 24, 2000, the Israel Defence Forces withdrew from Lebanon and immediately deployed south of the international border, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425. The Secretary General of the UN and the Security Council itself certified that Israel had fully discharged its obligations under Resolution 425.

The Government of Lebanon, in contrast, refrained from imposing its control on its sovereign territory by deploying its forces to the border with Israel. Instead, it left the border area under the control of Hizbullah.

Syria, which in effect controls Lebanon, supports Hizbullah, allows and facilitates the delivery of arms shipments from Iran to Hizbullah operatives through Syrian territory, allows Hizbullah to maintain training camps in the Beqa'a Valley, and allows (and encourages) this terrorist organization to operate against Israel.

2. Since the IDF left Lebanon almost a year ago, three soldiers have been killed and three others have been kidnapped. Hizbullah admits that it has also abducted an Israeli civilian.

3. On April 16, before dawn, the Israel Air Force attacked a Syrian Army radar target in Lebanon, at Dahar al-Baidr, north of the Beirut-Damascus highway. The attack took place for the following reasons:
The Government of Israel has proclaimed repeatedly that it would attack terrorists and those who aid and dispatch them. This time, Israel focused its anti-terror struggle on those who control the Hizbullah organization and provide it with active and continual assistance.
Since the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon, Hizbullah has attacked Israel repeatedly. The IDF refrained from responding. Israel, displaying a maximum of restraint, sent Syria numerous messages stressing Syria's responsibility for the situation. It is worth bearing in mind that in November 2000, the media reported that then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak sent Syria a message via President Clinton, stating that Israel views any disruption of quiet on its northern border with great severity and would attack Syrian targets in Lebanon upon any recurrence.
The IDF attacked a Syrian target in Lebanon because Syria is the party most responsible for the deterioration in the security situation along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel, as stated, fully complied with UN Security Council Resolution 425. In contrast, a de facto government (Syria) is operating in contravention of this resolution and directs and abets terrorist activity against Israel. Syria prevents the de jure Government of Lebanon from performing its duty, under Resolution 425, to deploy its forces in the southern part of that country, along the border with Israel. This, in fact, renders Syria responsible for the vacuum that has been created on the ground, into which Hizbullah forces have stepped without interference. Violent activity against Israel has been taking place in this vacuum. (Since the withdrawal, Israel has presented the UN with 712 grievances concerning violations of Resolution 425.) The fact that Israel has not responded to each violation and offensive action attests to maximum restraint on our part.
Without backing from Lebanon and by actively supporting Hizbullah, Syria has also been acting against UNIFIL. Hizbullah has been dislodging this UN peacekeeping force from its positions and using them as bases from which to attack Israel.

Points

1. Israel has complied with the Security Council Resolution to the letter, as a UN committee has certified (an unusual occurrence in itself).

2. It is Israel's duty and right to defend itself, its inhabitants, and its soldiers, and to attack terrorists and those who aid and dispatch them. Until now, Israel has displayed a maximum of restraint and sent messages and signals - in vain. Emphasize that the IDF action followed hundreds of violations and several killings and kidnappings.

3. Israel urges the international community to apply its influence on Syria to halt and prevent the terrorist activity and violence from Lebanese soil, as Security Council Resolution 425 requires.

4. Israel is interested in maintaining peaceful and neighborly relations with Lebanon. Israel urges the Government of Lebanon to deploy its army along the border and calls on Syria and Lebanon to honor and implement Security Council Resolution 425.

5. Syria, which wishes to win a seat on the UN Security Council, is not only failing to honor the Council's resolutions, but is preventing the Government of Lebanon from doing its share under Resolution 425.

6. Note that even though the Lebanese government (which, of course, is subject to Syrian pressure) has issued no direct condemnation of the Hizbullah actions, in the aftermath of the most recent attack at Mt. Dov (April 14), in which an IDF soldier was killed, Hizbullah's action elicited several critical remarks, including one from a member of the parliamentary faction of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri - the political editor of "Al-Mistaqlal" (Hariri's newspaper), and an indirect condemnation from the Lebanese Minister of Culture.

7. In sum, the Israel air force action against Syrian targets in Lebanon was legitimate, was based on the obligations of self-defense, and was undertaken in response to the Hizbullah action on Saturday, which itself was a violation of Resolution 425.