From YNET (HT Chris at Home):

Report: Israel gives Syria ultimatum

London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat says Israel gave Syria 72 hours to stop Hizbullah’s activity, bring about release of kidnapped IDF troops. ‘Israel will not end military activity until new situation created that will prevent Syria, Iran from using terror organizations to threaten its security,’ newspaper quotes Pentagon official as saying .

The London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday that “Washington has information according to which Israel gave Damascus 72 hours to stop Hizbullah’s activity along the Lebanon-Israel border and bring about the release the two kidnapped IDF soldiers or it would launch an offensive with disastrous consequences.”

The report said “a senior Pentagon source warned that should the Arab world and international community fail in the efforts to convince Syria to pressure Hizbullah into releasing the soldiers and halt the current escalation Israel may attack targets in the country.”

Al-Hayat quoted the source as saying that “the US cannot rule out the possibility of an Israeli strike in Syria,” this despite the fact that the Bush administration has asked Israel to “refrain from any military activity that may result in civilian casualties.”

Also, PowderTracks wonders if Imad Mugniyah is back. (Scroll down).


And from yesterday's program:


Ambassador Dennis Ross:


[I]f Israel feels that the price they're paying at home, and they lost two more dead today from a katyusha rocket, the fact is I think if at some point Israel decides that they're not able to stop these, they may decide that they have to go after the Syrians. The Syrians, they don't get to sit on the sidelines, helping to promote and foment this kind of a crisis and pay no price, and hoping that that will then change the Syrian calculus so that they would become more involved, at least in terms of restraining what Hezbollah might do.


Mark Helperin:


This whole thing stems from the great, big fact...the very, very important fact that the United States is bogged down in Iraq, and Iran, with a new leader, Ahmadinejead, now feels that it can act with impunity, more or less, or almost. And it's gone on the initiative, and at the same time, it presses its surrogates, in this case, Hezbollah and Hamas, to do its bidding, in another part of the Arab world, and in Palestine, so that...because it knows that the Arab world will be receptive to this, because the Arab world's very angry now, and because it knows that it can act freely, because we're tied up.


Both transcripts are available at Radioblogger.com, as is the audio from yesterday's program.