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On Golan Heights, IDF Fights to Keep Israel Safe

(Times of Israel) Judah Ari Gross - The relative quiet on Israel's border with Syria can be shattered by Hizbullah, the Islamic State or another jihadist group seeking to make a statement about its dedication to the fight against Israel, a senior IDF official warned on Monday. The larger groups - the al-Nusra Front and the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade - which control the areas surrounding the Syrian border, have little incentive to attack Israel at this stage, the officer from the IDF Northern Command said. The more immediate threat comes from jihadi groups that are less interested in capturing territory, and more interested in either anti-Israel ideology or a desire to please Iran by carrying out attacks against Israel. Israel must strike a balance between keeping its cool in the face of accidental spillover, while maintaining its vigilance against deliberate attacks, the senior IDF official said. There have already been some deliberate attacks against Israeli forces and civilians, mostly in the form of light gunfire at IDF jeeps, in addition to the occasional errant mortar or missile fire on the Golan Heights. "If someone gets hurt or they hit an Israeli village and we see the tank that did it, we'll destroy it. We've done it in the past."
2016-03-18 00:00:00
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