12/21/06

The past several days have demonstrated, again, the absurdity of America's blocking Israel from talking to Syria.

Syria's President Bashar Assad has been repeatedly calling in recent months for direct, unconditional peace negotiations with Israel. In a December 16 interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, Assad said: "When there is peace, people can live in peace and harmony side by side. but peace should be established first. There are no obstacles in Syria over this as we are enjoying the support of the whole Syrian people to establish peace because we are going to restore our land. But is Israel ready to accept peace?"

Assad addressed Olmert directly. "Make an attempt. Call our bluff. The Syrian people are united on this: reach peace to get back our lands," he challenged.

Syria's foreign minister, Walid Moallem, told The Washington Post's David Ignatius (December 15) that Syria has no preconditions to negotiations with Israel, not even regarding the Golan Heights. In an interview in Damascus, Moallem told Ignatius, "A constructive dialogue has to start without preconditions."

An Americans for Peace Now (APN) delegation heard similar things from the Syrian ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha. At a November 30th meeting, Moustapha said that Syria and all other Arab countries would be willing to establish full, normal peaceful relations with Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and from "Lebanese territories," (meaning the Shebaa Farms) and allowing the Palestinians to have their own independent sovereign and viable state. An Israeli-Syrian peace agreement, the ambassador said, would serve as a "paradigm shift" in the region and is bound to positively impact on Israel's relations with its other Arab neighbors.

Members of the Israeli cabinet are divided on whether Israel should act upon Assad's peace overtures. Several ministers representing the Labor Party and Shas spoke in favor of examining Assad's calls for negotiations.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Kadima colleagues, however, rejected negotiations with Assad, as they did throughout the past three months.

So far, Israeli officials refrained from explicitly saying that their opposition to engaging with Syria stemmed from America's policy of isolating Assad's regime.

This week, however, they finally said it. Facing growing bewilderment among Israelis over Olmert's rejection of an Arab leader's repeated calls for peace talks, cabinet members admitted that Israel is rejecting Syria's peace overtures because it does not want to break ranks with the Bush administration.

Minister of the Interior Ronni Baron told Israeli television Channel 10 on December 17: "When the question on the agenda is the political legacy of Israel's greatest friend, President Bush, do we really need now to enter into negotiations with Syria?"

Other government ministers were even more explicit at the weekly cabinet meeting earlier that day.

Israeli cabinet meetings are held behind closed doors and are off the record. But verbatim quotes from the meeting are traditionally leaked to the media. According to several reports in Israel's news media that day, Vice-Premier Shimon Peres reportedly said: "the worse thing we could do is contradict the United States, which opposes negotiating with Syria, and negotiate just because Assad wants to get himself out of trouble."

And Prime Minister Olmert reportedly said: "Bush has a clear position on this issue. One should ask whether, when the president of the United States, Israel's most important ally, is struggling on every front - including the internal front - against those who are trying to thwart his policy, it is appropriate for Israel to say the opposite."

These comments raised a wave of protest. Knesset Member Ran Cohen of Meretz observed: "We have reached an absurd situation in which Syria is bending over backwards to signal Israel of its seriousness, while the Israeli leadership is bending over backwards to prevent any progress."

Knesset Member Yoram Marciano of Labor said: "Israel must respond to the Syrian foreign minister's call to hold negotiations without preconditions. We must not miss the window of opportunity to create a genuine dialogue between us and our neighbor."

The notion that Israel may be missing an opportunity for peace because of America's Mideast policy triggered many critical articles in the Israeli press. A particularly powerful one is Amos Oz's Yedioth Ahronoth December 17 op-ed. Oz, one of Israel's leading novelists, is a founder of Peace Now.

Go HERE to see a full translation of the article "Haven't We Learned Anything?" by Amos Oz