Confronting the old enemy

Analysis By Barbara Plett BBC correspondent in Ramallah

There have been more than 100 suicide bombings during the three-year Palestinian intifada, many carried out by Islamic Jihad.

So why did Israel respond to Saturday's attack - a devastating explosion in Haifa - by targeting Jihad's Syrian-based leadership, deliberately extending the conflict beyond the borders of Israel and the occupied territories?

The Gaza Strip is often the target of Israeli military action

Syria is, of course, Israel's enemy. The two countries have been in a state of war since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

The Israelis have long charged that Damascus uses the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah as a proxy army to launch attacks along Israel's border with Lebanon.

And since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, Israel has increasingly focused on the Palestinian opposition groups hosted by Syria.

It accuses the exiled leaderships of planning attacks carried out by their military wings in the occupied territories, and accuses Syria (as well as Iran) of backing them.

Escalation

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had already indicated he was ready for direct confrontation.

Damascus has never been more vulnerable. It has come under heavy US pressure since the conquest of Iraq

After assuming office in 2001, he attacked Syrian targets in Lebanon in response to a Hezbollah raid.

In recent weeks, media reports have again raised the ante by suggesting that Israel might assassinate the leaders of Palestinian groups in Syria and Lebanon.

And in August, Israeli jets buzzed the holiday palace of Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, in what was widely seen as a warning to rein in Hezbollah fighters.

To some degree, Israeli claims are backed up by sources in the Palestinian Authority.

They allege that in the northern West Bank, some cells of Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - a militia loosely tied to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement - receive support from Iran and Syria via Hezbollah.

US pressure

But at the same time, Damascus has never been more vulnerable.

It is an approach in line with the thrust of US regional policy, and consistent with Israel's insistent message to the Palestinian Authority - if you do not act against the Palestinian militias, we will

It has come under heavy American pressure since the conquest of Iraq.

In response to Syria's anti-war, anti-occupation stance, the US has demanded that it clean up its act to fit the new regional order - one that increasingly defines all armed resistance, whether in Iraq or other occupied Arab territories, as "terrorism."

With the spectre of Iraq hanging over its head, Syria has taken measures to close down the political offices of the Palestinian groups; it says none of the military wings are operating in the country.

According to diplomatic sources, Damascus also urged the exiled Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaderships to accept the unilateral Palestinian ceasefire declared in June.

They did, but the truce has since broken down.

Israeli signal

Such steps have fallen short of US demands - a sweeping crackdown difficult for a regime that officially defines these groups as national liberation movements.

It is in this climate that Israel has chosen to go on the offensive, to send what Israel Radio called a clear signal that Damascus must stop its support of Palestinian "terror groups".

It is an approach in line with the thrust of America's regional policy, and consistent with Israel's insistent message to the Palestinian Authority - if you do not act against the Palestinian militias, we will.