A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

April 2, 2008 Tension with Syria?

Today news in Israel was dominated by the story that Syria is calling up their reserves in anticipation of a potential conflict with Israel.  It is not clear what has caused Syria to act now.   The concern, similar to that of last summer, is that there is some miscalculation since clearly neither Israel nor Syria wants a war.  One scenario is that when Hezbollah retaliates for the killing of Imad Mughnieh, it will result in a more general war that Syria will be drawn into.  The second scenario is that if Israel launches a very large-scale action in Gaza, Hezbollah will attack from the North, opening another front that will result in a larger war.  Is this just a question of the media making more out of just normal maneuvering?  Maybe.

The Knesset enters its Passover recess tomorrow.  On its last day, it passed an important piece of legislation.  The new law is to provide legal protection for reserve soldiers.  The bill limits the amount of time that a reserve soldier can serve, and provides for the first time substantial compensation to reserve soldiers.