Peace posturing

HOWARD KOHR

Syria is engaged in an intensive "peace offensive" designed to persuade Washington that it seeks peace with Israel. As long as Syria continues harboring Palestinian terror groups in Damascus and supporting Hezbollah, neither Washington nor Jerusalem are likely to take its campaign seriously.

Syria's campaign began with a Dec. 1, 2003, New York Times interview with President Bashar Assad, where he said he was eager to resume peace talks with Israel. The campaign continued in Washington with visits by senior Syrian officials. In all their briefings, the message was identical: Syria wants to negotiate peace with Israel.

Not only Israel, but the Bush administration as well have criticized the Syrians for their campaign. "We find it hard to understand how Syria can talk peace at a time when Syria continues to support groups that are violently opposed to the peace process," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in early December.

The lack of Syria's commitment to peace was harshly illustrated on Jan.19, when Hezbollah - the Damascus-sponsored Lebanese terrorist organization - killed an Israeli soldier aboard a bulldozer trying to disarm explosive charges placed by Hezbollah on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border. Hezbollah's attack followed credible reports that Syrian cargo planes carried Hezbollah-bound weapons on their way back from bringing supplies to victims of the deadly earthquake in Iran.

Commenting on these events, Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed hope that Syria would "understand that any support" of Hezbollah "is destabilizing in the region and is not in the interest of peace."

Even U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was worried by Hezbollah planting mines along the border and called on the Syrian-controlled Lebanese government to assert its authority. Given Syria's long-standing refusal to allow the Lebanese army to move to the south, Annan's plea was really directed at Damascus.

At this stage, as long as Damascus continues with such harmful policies, Washington and Jerusalem are liable to regard the Syrian "peace offensive" as no more than a thinly disguised effort to relieve the U.S. pressure on Syria to close its Iraqi border to terrorists, expel the Palestinian terrorists from Damascus and stop supporting Hezbollah.

Heard on the Hill: Congress approves $2.64 billion in military, economic aid to Israel.

The Senate recently approved $2.64 billion in overall assistance to the Jewish State. The aid package includes $2.16 billion in military assistance and an additional $480 million in financial aid. The financial aid to Israel was included as part of an omnibus bill that combined seven of the 13 appropriations bills that Congress had not already approved for the 2004 fiscal year, which began Oct 1. The House passed the spending package shortly before adjourning late last year by a vote of 242 to 176.

Howard Kohr is executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

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