JERUSALEM, (Islamweb & Agencies) -Chances of war are low between Israel and its regional foes Syria and the Lebanese Shiite Resistance men of Hezbollah, despite escalating skirmishes on the Israeli-Lebanese border, said members of Israel's leading think-tanks Tuesday."There is always the danger of miscalculation, but the probability is very low," said reserve General Shlomo Brom, an analyst at the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.
Tension between Israel and Syria has reached a feverish pitch, with Damascus backing Hezbollah in its attacks on Israeli occupation soldiers in the Lebanese Shebaa Farms border territory. (Read photo caption).
Since Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah has kidnapped three occupation soldiers from the Shebaa region and killed three others with mortar and rocket fire.
Israel retaliated by bombing Syrian radar positions twice in the last three months, in what were its first head-on clashes with Syria since 1982.
Israel captured the Shebaa Farms from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, but Lebanon claims the area with Syria's support.
In return for peace with Israel, Syria demands the return of the Golan Heights, the mountainous region captured and occupied by the Jewish state since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Negotiations with Israel have been in deep freeze since January 2000 when Israel refused Syria's demands for the turnover of the whole of the occupied area, including the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Israeli occupation soldiers at an army position at the Israeli-Lebanese border near Har Dov July 1, 2001. Israel played down prospects of war with Syria after Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian anti-aircraft post in Lebanon in retaliation for an attack by Lebanese Hizbollah Resistance men on Israeli occupation soldiers still on Lebanese soil in Shebaa Farm. (Ancho Gosh/Reuters)