Israeli Warns of Mideast War

The source, who spoke on condition he not be identified by name or title, said only Syria could prevent Hezbollah guerrillas from attacking Israel. If it does not do so, "We will have to look for the Syrians in our response."

Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon.

Syria's new President Bashar Assad does not understand the consequences of his policy of supporting Hezbollah, the source said.

"We can find ourselves in a war that neither wants," he added.

In May Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon to a line the United Nations set and marked on the ground, calling it the Blue Line. Hezbollah crossed that at an area Israel calls Mount Dov in the northern Golan, and on Oct. 8 abducted three soldiers.

On Nov. 26 Hezbollah guerrillas penetrated 500 meters south of the Blue Line and planted a powerful explosive charge that killed a soldier. A third Hezbollah bomb caused no casualties.

Israeli intelligence believes Hezbollah is planning a major attack.

Hezbollah has claimed it was fighting to "liberate" that area, which it says is Lebanese.

The Israeli military source said that area never was Lebanese. Israel captured it from Syria in the 1967 war, and "there is a lot of evidence" to prove it. He said the area fell within the mandate of the United Nations forces on the Golan Heights, UNDOF, according to a map signed in 1974. UNDOF inspects that area once a week, he noted.

The Lebanese claim is based on the fact that 40 or 50 years ago a Lebanese rented an area called Shabaa Farms from the Syrian government and cultivated it.

But that does not make that area Lebanese, the source argued. "If I bought a farm in England I don't think the Israeli government could claim it is part of Israel," he said.

The source indicated, but did not explicitly say, that Israel might launch air attacks on Syrian interests in Lebanon if Hezbollah attacks continue. He said Syria had 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers, headquarters, military equipment and other interests in Lebanon, "not necessarily military."

He did not anticipate artillery shelling of the Syrian property or soldiers, because they were too far from the border. But, he said, "We have the military capability to cause significant damage to Syria in Lebanon without the need to enter Lebanon."

That could lead to Iraqi intervention, he said. Syria's late President Hafez Assad had been suspicious of the Iraqis and did not want military cooperation with them. But his son and successor, President Bashar, expressed readiness for cooperation.

The source was particularly critical of UNIFIL's conduct along the border.

UNIFIL has six battalions, many observation points along the border but "they do nothing," he said. Its mandate requires it to verify Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, which it did, and to help Lebanese armed forces assume responsibility in the south and restore international security.

Beirut had decided not to deploy its troops along the border, so it is difficult to help someone who does not want help, the source said. But UNIFIL does not try to stop cross-border hostilities, he charged.

He said an Indian unit had been only a few hundred meters from the spot where Hezbollah guerrillas abducted three Israeli soldiers. The weather was good that day, there was a clear line of site, and the source said he believed the U.N. soldiers saw what was going on but neither reported nor alerted Israelis.

The Hezbollah fighters who captured the Israeli soldiers probably did so using UNIFIL equipment such as uniforms, vehicles, radio, weapons and flags, he said. The source said he has "some good evidence" on which to base his "guess" that that is what had happened.

"It is not a wild guess. We have good reasons to suspect what they did," he said.

The source said he tends to accept UNIFIL's explanation that if their equipment was used, then the guerrillas took advantage of the fact UNIFIL was there and that no one in UNIFIL, at any level, authorized the use of its equipment.

"That's what they say and I tend to believe them," he said.

UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel told United Press International that the day after the kidnapping UNIFIL reported finding parts of uniforms, badges, blue berets, car decals, and U.N.-like license plates in the car used for the kidnapping.

But, he said, the car was a black Range Rover, not the U.N.'s white vehicles, and the U.N. equipment had not been used. The U.N. spokesman said all the objects found at the scene could be bought in Lebanon. They did not come from the Indian battalion, he said, and the license plates did not bear numbers UNIFIL uses.

"We protested very strongly with the Lebanese government and Hezbollah," Goksel said.