21 May 2007
U.S. about-face gives
Israel green light for Syria
dialogue
By Ze'ev Schiff
The Bush administration has changed its position regarding a possible
receptive Israeli response to the calls of Syria's President Bashar Assad for peace talks.
The American change of heart
is accompanied by several preconditions. Washington
emphasized that Israel is, of course, entitled to discuss the future of the Golan Heights, security arrangements and peace with
Syria. But Israel should insist on not agreeing to any negotiations, not even indirectly, regarding the United States' positions, and also not about the future of Lebanon.
The new American message says
that in possible talks with Syria, there
are three "cards,"
or main issues. The first is the Golan Heights
card, and this is a matter
for Syria and Israel to decide.
The two other cards are Lebanon and the Washington's policies. Israel has been told that it
is not in its interest to make promises to the Syrians regarding
the way the
U.S. will behave. This is a matter to be dealt with
only by the U.S. and the Bush administration. Furthermore, Israel was told that
the Lebanese question cannot be on the
table of negotiations between
Syria and Israel.
The American officials clearly have turned a blind eye to the
issue of Syria's role in terrorism,
the hosting of terrorist organizations in Damascus and its
involvement in smuggling weapons to Hezbollah and from there to the
Palestinian territories. Another issue they seem to have ignored is Iran and its
military ties with Syria.
During one of the recent visits to Israel of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, several months
ago, the issue of the call made by the Syrian president for a resumption of negotiations with Israel was
raised. In her response Rice was
forcefully negative: It is best that
you avoid even exploring this possibility.
This
was interpreted by the government in Israel as a firm American position that Syria should not be allowed to take
advantage of talks with Israel to extricate itself from its diplomatic
isolation before it has fulfilled its obligation to prevent volunteers for the insurgency from crossing into
Iraq, and before it met the demands
of the international investigator
of the assassination of
former Lebanese prime minister
Rafik Hariri.
When the matter of talks with Syria
was raised in closed meetings, Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert used to argue that President George Bush was opposed to talks with Damascus.
While Mossad chief Meir Dagan opposed
talks with Syria, the military
intelligence heads were in favor. This was the case of the former Military Intelligence chief,
Major General (res.) Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, and his successor,
Major General Amos Yadlin. Former
chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon raised the issue of talks with Syria in meetings with former prime minister Ariel
Sharon, who rejected the proposal.
The American change of heart
came about following the Arab League summit
in Riyadh and Syria's
participation in that meeting. During
the meeting of Iraq's neighbors,
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem adopted a moderate position. Rice then held
a private meeting with Mualem.
In
the plan being prepared at the
State Department for an international summit on the Arab-Israeli
conflict, Rice intends to also invite Syria, in addition to Palestinian
representatives and Israel. Under such circumstances it appears the American
position regarding possible talks
between Israel and Syria will
no longer be relevant.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/861872.html