I never threatened him and no Syrian intelligence officer has ever pointed a gun to his head.

That U.N. Security Council resolution requires getting Syrian troops and intelligence officials out of Lebanon so that the Lebanese can have elections here this spring that are free and fair and free of outside influence.

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria you've got to be prepared as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan to become the government and I'm not sure any country either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else who's willing to take on that responsibility.

My heart goes out to the brave citizens of Syria who each day risk and even sacrifice their lives to achieve freedom from a murderous regime. We in Israel welcome the historic struggle to forge democratic peace-loving governments in our region.

Even though I grew up as a Sephardic Jew in Brooklyn where we ate Syrian food and went to temple it was still America.

Syria should not belong to one family to one coterie or to one party. It belongs to all the people of Syria equally in all their religious and ethnic diversity.

Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.