While Israel is not interested in opening a front against Syria, the IDF will respond harshly and with its full might if President Bashar Assad decides to attack Israel, a high-raking IDF officer in the Northern Command told The Jerusalem Post Sunday.
"We are continuing with our message that we are not interested in fighting with Syria," the officer said, "But we are fully prepared for a Syrian attack, in the case of which we will strike back extremely hard."
The officer said he believed Damascus had been receiving the clear message Israel had been sending its way that it did not want to fight Syria. Whatever happened on the border completely depended on Assad, the officer said.
"It is up to him, and at the moment we don't know what he plans to do," he said.
He added that Saturday's IAF attack on a road that led from Syria into Lebanon near the Syrian border was meant to thwart weapons smuggling attempts.
The IDF was also concerned about a possible Syrian attack in response to the ongoing IDF operations in Lebanon. It was also known that Syria had increased its alert out of fear in Damascus that Israel might attack.
Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the US that America would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria.
Selon certains sources israéliennes, le Président américain souhaitait l'extension de la guerre du Liban jusqu'à la Syrie. Cette idée a été considéré comme  par certains fonctionnaires israéliens, bien que le Premier ministre Ehud Olmert ait généralement mené une stratégie différente de la ligne dure prônée par George Walker Bush.
Les néoconservateurs croient que les États-Unis d'Amérique devraient utiliser le pouvoir sans égal de leurs forces militaires pour promouvoir sans complexe leurs valeurs dans le monde entier, et, dans cet ordre d'idée, ils croient également que dans le conflit actuel, Israël devrait aller plus loin que le Liban et aller jusqu'en Iran et en Syrie qui soutiennent le Hezbollah.