Today's Situation

IDF IN NO HURRY, September 28, 2007

Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post both lead with the upsurge in violence in the Gaza Strip over the Sukkot holiday, in which at least 12 Palestinians were killed and over 50 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel. Responding to the heavy loss of life, Hamas charged the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah of remaining silent while Palestinians are being targeted.

According to Arutz 7, at least one of the rockets fired over the holiday was an upgraded version of the Qassam, with a caliber of 60 mm. According to the report, the rocket was fired from much deeper within the Gaza Strip than the remainder of the rockets, which have a far shorter range.

According to Haaretz, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, condemned Israel's attacks in Gaza and called for 'an end to the massacre being carried out by the army of occupation against Palestinians in the Strip.'

Haaretz adds that sources in the IDF's Southern Command do not consider the events in Gaza as constituting a significant change in the way it defends against indirect weapons fire. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office, meanwhile, said the strikes did not represent any change in Israeli policy, but rather reflected a continuation of the policy of going after those responsible for rocket attacks.

On the Syrian front, meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post reports that, for the second time in less than a week, IAF fighter jets were scrambled to the northern border after radar systems picked up Syrian helicopters making their way towards Israel. Minutes later, the IAF determined that the Syrian aircraft were not on their way to an attack and the Israeli planes were ordered to return to base.

On the political front, Israel and Syria both denied Thursday a newspaper report that their respective foreign ministers had met in New York to discuss ways to defuse tensions between the two countries.

Senior government officials traveling with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni denied the report, which appeared on the web site of the Nazareth-based A-Sanara newspaper, that she had held talks with her Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem. Muallem also denied the report, telling Al-Jazeera that Israel is spreading the rumor in the Israeli media. He added that no such meeting will ever take place so long as Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights and the oppression of the Palestinians continue.

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman also vehemently denied the report, saying that it is 'one of those nice rumors' that result from casual conversations in the halls of the United Nations complex in New York.

A-Sanara had reported Thursday that the meeting was initiated by Qatari Prince Hamed Bin Kalifa Athani and lasted for more than an hour. It said the Israeli and Syrian ambassadors to the UN also took part. According to the source cited by the paper, the sides reportedly discussed the current tensions between Israel and Syria and ways to defuse them. The paper also said that Livni received Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's permission to attend the meeting. There was no other confirmation of the report.

Both Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv have front-page coverage of the meeting between Karnit Goldwasser, wife of one of the two IDF soldiers who was kidnapped by Hizbollah last summer, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations. Both papers carry Goldwasser's 'exclusive' account of the encounter, in which she describes how she asked the Iranian leader why he was not allowing Red Cross representatives to visit the kidnapped soldiers. Ahmadinejad reportedly ignored her, saying 'next question.'

Yedioth Ahronoth leads, however, with a report by Ron Ben-Yishai from Syria, where he visited the last synagogue in Damascus, as well as the area of an alleged Israeli air strike again what was later reported to be a Syrian nuclear facility.

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