Israel Strikes Syrian Weapons Center

Summary of article: Last week, Israeli air force planes struck a Syrian convoy carrying antiaircraft missiles from Syria to Lebanon, presumably for transfer to Hezbollah. It seems that the Israeli air strike also took out a Syrian army facility principally responsible for developing, testing, and upgrading large numbers of weapons. Click here for article. 

Discussion Outline:

• Map: where is Syria, Lebanon and Israel? Where is Iran? These are the "players" in today's current event. 
• Unlike America, which has friendly neighbors -- Mexico and Canada -- Israel does not have friendly neighbors. (Can show map) Some of these neighbors would love to start war with Israel. 
• Last week, Israel got news that Syria was planning to transfer some of its powerful weapons to Lebanon, with the hopes that the bad guys (Hezbollah) would get them and use them against Israel. If you were Israel and got this news, what would you do? 
• Israel decided to send its war planes into Syria and bomb some trucks on their way to Lebanon carrying the weapons. Israel succeeded in destroying all the trucks and possibly the building that makes most of the weapons. 
• In what way was this attack good for Israel's security? 
• In what ways was it risky for Israel? (Soldiers could have been hurt flying the airplanes; Syria could have declared war on Israel for going into its airspace). 
• Israel has heard that another neighbor, Iran, has similar weapons to Syria, and possibly even worse ones. Israel doesn't know what to do. What do you think Israel should do about Iran?