NY TIMES REPORTS ISRAEL ATTACKED SYRIA LAST WEEK

It appears that Israel sent airplanes to attack Syria last week. Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper write in today's The New York Times that officials in Washington said that Israel most likely was going after weapons caches, perhaps including nuclear weapons obtained from North Korea, located in northeastern Syria.

Write Mazzetti and Cooper:

"Officials in Washington said that the most likely targets of the raid were weapons caches that Israel’s government believes Iran has been sending the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through Syria. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah’s primary benefactors, and American intelligence officials say a steady flow of munitions from Iran runs through Syria and into Lebanon."

"One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.

"“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief."

Wait. Israel has no legal right to do this under international law. A country cannot just send its war planes to bomb another country's installations even if there were nuclear weapons located there. This matter should have been brought to the attention of the Security Council of the United Nations. Taking military action on its own, Israel threatens to start a region-wide and maybe even a world-wide war, possibly involving nuclear weapons. This is like Bush and the neo-cons in the U.S. starting a war against Iraq. Both Israel and the U.S. are wrong to think that bombs and tanks can solve their perceived international problems, or that shooting missiles will make their countries any more safe or immune from the world's odium.

Note that Israel has offered no verifiable proof or evidence that Syria has a cache of nuclear weapons, or that Iran has been sending weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. Also note this statement in the NY Times story:

"“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief."

So just because Israel "thinks" North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria, that is justification for an Israeli raid? This is obviously ludicrous. Attacking another sovereign nation because you "think" or suspect something is going on involving nuclear arms sales is not legal justification. Again the correct procedure would have been to bring this to the attention of the U.N. Another method would have been via diplomacy and negotiation including serious talks between the governments of Israel and Syria.

This unilateral action of Israel is most dangerous and reckless. I cannot but suspect that Bush and Cheney are behind this Israel attack of Syria, and that it is a harbinger of an air attack by the United States against Iran.