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As the international community ponders ways to revive the Middle East peace process, Israel responds by launching its biggest war games in five years on the occupied Golan Heights and threatening to launch another war against Lebanon.
During the past three years, the Israeli government has rejected peace overtures made by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Israel occupied the Golan in 1967 and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. More than 15,000 Jewish colonists now live in the area.
Instead of working towards peace, the Israelis embark on provocative exercises, increasing tension in the region. The war games, a naked infringement on Syrian sovereignty, coincide with the Quartet meeting in Berlin. They do not help the efforts exerted to find a way out of the current impasse. According to Israeli officials the exercise is also meant to rectify the "mistakes" made during last summer's war on Lebanon. The humiliated Israeli army began talking about a "stronger and reinforced" Hezbollah probably to justify a new war.
Major Western powers keep accusing Syria of being an "obstacle" to peace in the region. But the fact is that Israel's continuous provocative actions ruin every little hope of achieving a just and lasting peace in this troubled region.
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