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Israel punished violations, such as guerrilla rocket attacks on northern Israel, with large-scale bombings, not just of Hezbollah targets, but also of Lebanese infrastructure points.Hezbollah attacks on Israeli troops, on the other hand, usually triggered only a routine air strike of Hezbollah bases.Sneh said the pattern of responses has changed, noting that this week’s strikes against Lebanese power stations came in response to attacks on soldiers, not civilians.”The important change oin Lebanon, including damage to infrastructure, not in response to firing of Katyushas (rockets) at civilians but in response to casualties inflicted on our soldiers in Lebanon,” Sneh told Israel radio.”We have done it for the first time and this is also a message for the future,” he said.Sneh said Israel was justified in making the change because it was trying to negotiate a peace treaty with Syria, the main power in Lebanon.Israel maintains that Syria is the conduit for Iranian weapons intended for Hezbollah, and that in some cases Syria even encourages Hezbollah attacks in hopes of extracting concessions from Israel at the negotiating table.If Syria is serious about negotiating a peace treaty, it will have to restrain Hezbollah, Sneh said. The coming days will show, Sneh said, whether “Syria truly wants negotiations or wants to deliver dictates under the threat of terror.”Israeli-Syrian negotiations broke down in January over Syria’s demand that Israel promise upfront to withdraw from all of the Golan Heights, Syrian fused, but there have been intensive behind-the-scenes efforts to get negotiations resumed.A peace treaty with Syria would help Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak keep the key promise of his seven-month-old administration – to withdraw Israeli troops from Lebanon by July. If troops pull out with Syria’s blessing, it would ensure calm along Israel’s northern border.Israeli media reported Thursday that Barak’s self-imposed deadline, combined with the recent increase in casualties, has undercut morale among Israeli troops serving in Lebanon.Israel radio and the Haaretz daily quoted several soldiers as saying they favored an immediate withdrawal, not wanting to be the last ones to get killed. Amos Harel, the defense correspondent for Haaretz, said that at the Yakinton outpost in Lebanon, nine out of 10 soldiers favored an immediate pullback.. Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy’s threats to burn Lebanese soil if Israel was attacked by rockets evoke memories of the “Nazi era,” a Syrian newspaper said. Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy’s threats to burn Lebanese soil if Israel was attacked by rockets evoke memories of the “Nazi era,” a Syrian newspaper said.
Levy’s threats have demonstrated that Israel could never abandon its policy, which is based on “aggression and terrorism,” the ruling Baath Party’s Al-Baath newspaper said.South Lebanon witnessed the heaviest fighting in eight months this week when Israel retaliated for Hezbollah guerrilla attacks, bombing Lebanese power stations on Tuesday.

The fighting continued Thursday amid Hezbollah threats that it has the option of firing Katyusha rockets on northern Israel.On Wednesday, Levy called foreign diplomats to Jerusalem and told them that if Hezbollah fires rockets, “the soil of Lebanon will burn. Let everyone hear: vital interests of Lebanon will go up in flames, and it will take many years to restore them.”Al-Baath said “all those who witnessed Levy on television screens, as he was threatening Lebanon, imagine that memory has taken them back to the Nazi era.”The paper warned that the Israeli policy poses a menacing danger not only for the Arabs but also the world, which should “rein Israel’s hostility especially as the Israeli leaders have turned into war generals.”The criticism echo similar harsh words in other Syrian government newspapers on Wednesday. The increasing hostility has put further strain on Israel’s peace prospects with Syria and Lebanon. Syria wields great influence on Lebanon.Syria-Israel peace talks that resumed in December are deadlocked on a Syrian demand for an Israeli commitment to return the Golan Heights it captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War. Israel says it can’t give such a commitment before settling security issues.. Yemeni tribesmen today released the American oil executive they kidnapped on January 26. Yemeni tribesmen today released the American oil executive they kidnapped on January 26.
Kenneth White, 54, from Arizona, said he had been treated well and never abused by his abductors.”I feel great,” White said his hotel in the Yemeni capital, San’a.”I’m in surprisingly good health,” he said, adding it had taken time to get used to tribal food.White, who was seized in the eastern Marib province, was released through mediation.

The demands had included releasing tribe members from jail and other “personal” matters.White said he did not know why he had been released.”I had a good rapport with (the kidnappers). Maybe they thought it was time to let me go,” he said.Nor did he know to which tribe or group the kidnappers belonged.Initial reports said the kidnappers belonged to the al-Faheed tribe, but the government later said the abductors worked for an investment company with close links to Yemen’s Islamic Islah Party, which calls for establishing a democratic system based on Islamic sharia laws. The party denied the allegation.”They never expressed to me who they were,” White said of his kidnappers’ identities.He plans to leave Yemen on Saturday for the United States. He declined to reveal his hometown as he hoped to return quietly and promptly go on vacation to Mexico.None of the kidnappers was arrested, tribal sources said on condition of anonymity. Their whereabouts were not immediately clear.Halliburton officials would not comment and calls to the American Embassy in San’a went unanswered.Yemeni tribesmen often kidnap foreigners to pressure the government into providing money or better services, such as new roads, for their impoverished areas.The kidnappers usually treat the hostages as guests and release them unharmed.