[eDebate] CLEAN BREAK REPORT TEXT--essential reading for any foreign policy student

[Jake Stromboli]

operation syria rollback in action --- the full text and not just this quote 
that outlines the motivation of the "new" war is available @ this site.  
don't be fooled --- this is not about 2 soldiers:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1438.htm

       We must distinguish soberly and clearly friend from foe. We must make 
sure that our friends across the Middle East never doubt the solidity or 
value of our friendship.

Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and 
Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort 
can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important 
Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s 
regional ambitions. Jordan has challenged Syria's regional ambitions 
recently by suggesting the restoration of the Hashemites in Iraq. This has 
triggered a Jordanian-Syrian rivalry to which Asad has responded by stepping 
up efforts to destabilize the Hashemite Kingdom, including using 
infiltrations. Syria recently signaled that it and Iran might prefer a weak, 
but barely surviving Saddam, if only to undermine and humiliate Jordan in 
its efforts to remove Saddam.

But Syria enters this conflict with potential weaknesses: Damascus is too 
preoccupied with dealing with the threatened new regional equation to permit 
distractions of the Lebanese flank. And Damascus fears that the 'natural 
axis' with Israel on one side, central Iraq and Turkey on the other, and 
Jordan, in the center would squeeze and detach Syria from the Saudi 
Peninsula. For Syria, this could be the prelude to a redrawing of the map of 
the Middle East which would threaten Syria's territorial integrity.

Since Iraq's future could affect the strategic balance in the Middle East 
profoundly, it would be understandable that Israel has an interest in 
supporting the Hashemites in their efforts to redefine Iraq, including such 
measures as: visiting Jordan as the first official state visit, even before 
a visit to the United States, of the new Netanyahu government; supporting 
King Hussein by providing him with some tangible security measures to 
protect his regime against Syrian subversion; encouraging — through 
influence in the U.S. business community — investment in Jordan to 
structurally shift Jordan’s economy away from dependence on Iraq; and 
diverting Syria’s attention by using Lebanese opposition elements to 
destabilize Syrian control of Lebanon.

Most important, it is understandable that Israel has an interest supporting 
diplomatically, militarily and operationally Turkey’s and Jordan’s actions 
against Syria, such as securing tribal alliances with Arab tribes that cross 
into Syrian territory and are hostile to the Syrian ruling elite.

King Hussein may have ideas for Israel in bringing its Lebanon problem under 
control. The predominantly Shia population of southern Lebanon has been tied 
for centuries to the Shia leadership in Najf, Iraq rather than Iran. Were 
the Hashemites to control Iraq, they could use their influence over Najf to 
help Israel wean the south Lebanese Shia away from Hizballah, Iran, and 
Syria. Shia retain strong ties to the Hashemites: the Shia venerate foremost 
the Prophet’s family, the direct descendants of which — and in whose veins 
the blood of the Prophet flows — is King Hussein.

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