Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed

On the heels of what it views as a Hizbullah victory against the Jewish state, Syria is forming its own Hizbullah-like guerilla organization to fight Israel in hopes of “liberating” the Golan Heights, an official from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Baath party told WorldNetDaily.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria learned from Hizbullah’s military campaign against Israel the past month that “fighting” is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to gaining territory.

Hizbullah claims its goal is to liberate the Shebaa Farms, a small, 200-square-kilometer bloc situated between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The cease-fire resolution accepted by Israel last week calls for negotiations leading to Israel’s relinquishing the Shebaa Farms.

The Baath party official said the new Syrian “resistance” group is calling itself the Front for the Liberation of the Golan and is already in the process of being formed. He said it seeks to ensure the return of the Golan Heights, strategic mountainous territory captured by Israel after Syria used the terrain to attack the Jewish state in 1967 and again in 1973.

The official said the Front was created last month and will eventually attempt attacks against Israel. The official said the group currently consists of “hundreds” of Syrian volunteers, many from the Syrian border with Turkey and from Palestinian camps in Syria.

Abu Oudai, chief rocket coordinator for the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank, said in an interview that Hizbullah’s “tremendous victory” has emboldened his group and other Palestinian organizations to immediately coordinate violence against Israel and to focus their “resistance” on rocket attacks.

“We learned [in the past few weeks] what we already started to discover after Israel’s Gaza withdrawal was implemented – that if there is faith and real commitment to Jihad we can beat and defeat the Israeli army,” said Abu Oudai.

“If we succeed to have improved rockets – and we are doing our best to have them – and to shoot them even if the army will invade us, it would be the beginning of the end of the Zionist entity.”

Oudai, whose group openly coordinates attacks with Hizbullah, said there was “no chance” an international or Lebanese force would stop Hizbullah from maintaining arms or from regrouping in south Lebanon.

“Only dumb, stupid and blind people can think that any international or local force can prevent the organization from keeping its military posts in the south and from receiving arms supplies from all around the world. And can you imagine Hizbullah being defeated by thousands of soldiers who will be deployed with no political interest and with no enthusiasm on the ground?”

The terror leader conceded, though, that the Jewish state’s performance in Lebanon may have been the result of poor Israeli leadership.

“In the Koran it is written that there is a rotation in the power of people, and we believe it is our time and if we respect Allah’s instructions this land will be Muslim forever.”

Hizbullah has returned to many of its strongholds in south Lebanon and is capable of launching another round of attacks against the Jewish state, Israeli and Lebanese officials said.

The statements follow scores of reports that Iran and Syria were attempting to rearm Hizbullah the week after the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect.

One senior Israeli security official said the Israeli Defense Forces estimates Hizbullah members were among the tens of thousands of Lebanese who returned to the country’s southern villages after the cease-fire was imposed last week. The official said some Hizbullah members returned south in full view of the Israeli army, which has ceased most operations in Lebanon.

The official warned Hizbullah maintains the ability to fire hundreds of rockets per day into northern Israel. He pointed to a volley of 240 rockets fired by Hizbullah one day before last week’s cease-fire was imposed, the largest number the group has launched. One Israeli civilian was killed in the attacks; 26 others were injured.

“The message sent is that Hizbullah absolutely maintains the capability of firing hundreds of rockets per day into Israel,” commented the official. “Wasn’t one of the military campaign̓s main goals to eliminate the rocket threat?”