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January 9, 2004/Tevet 15 5764, Vol. 56, No. 16
Sharon cool on Assad peace offer
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Once upon a time, a Syrian president calling for peace talks would have been met by Israeli leaders rolling out the red carpet.
But Bashar Assad's recent overtures toward Israel, first made in an interview with the New York Times, have failed to excite Israeli decision-makers.
The chief of Israel's military intelligence branch, Maj. Gen. Aharon Farkash Ze'evi, says Assad is serious and should be put to the test, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon doubts the Syrian leader's sincerity and questions whether giving up the strategic Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria is as much in Israel's interest as it once was.
At the same time, right-wingers in Sharon's Likud Party who fear the prime minister may be sucked into negotiations against his better judgment are doing what they can to prevent talks with the Syrians.
As Israeli leaders weigh the pros and cons of reopening negotiations with Damascus, Ze'evi and other generals make a strong case for taking up Assad on his offer to negotiate.
They say Israel should exploit favorable geopolitical conditions that may not recur to get a good deal from a weak and isolated Damascus: America is in Iraq, Iran is being cautious and there is a lot of international pressure on Syria, especially from the United States. Together, the factors add up to a window of opportunity that shouldn't be missed, the generals say.
If Assad is not serious about peace, they say, negotiations will soon expose his insincerity - so Israel has nothing to lose.
The generals also argue that if the Palestinians aren't ready for peace moves and Sharon instead opts for "unilateral disengagement," negotiations with Syria could soften the expected inter-national criticism.
But Sharon and most of his Cabinet have doubts about the wisdom of renewing a peace process with Syria. The prime minister doesn't think Assad is serious about peace, and even if he were, the price - the return of the Golan - is too high.
In recent Cabinet meetings, Sharon has made his reservations plain. When Ze'evi reported that Assad was serious, Sharon asked him caustically whether the Syrian president is still backing the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and Palestinian terrorists in Damascus.
Sharon also told his ministers that he rejected Assad's contention that "80 percent" of the disputed issues already had been resolved in prior rounds of negotiations between Israel and Assad's late father, Hafez Assad. Those talks foundered on Syria's demand that it be allowed to retain land at the foothills of the Golan, which it conquered in Israel's 1948 War of Independence but which Israel took back in the 1967 Six-Day War.
If talks with Syria are renewed, Sharon said, they must begin from scratch.
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spelled out why: After the American war in Iraq, he said, Syria had become an insignificant and isolated backwater, on the verge of expulsion from the international community. Thus, Netanyahu said, there's no reason to make a deal that entails major Israeli concessions.
Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.
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