|
A dozen years ago, George Bush, the 41st president of the United States, and father of the current president, managed to enlist Hafez Assad, the former Syrian president and the father of the current one, into the coalition against Iraq. That was a purposeful alliance, which led to, among other things, the Madrid Peace Conference on the Middle East.
The relations between the sons who rose to power in Washington and Damascus is tense. George W. Bush went to war against Saddam Hussein, while Bashar Assad helped Saddam's regime with military supplies and granting shelter to escaping members of the regime. In response, Syria has been sharply reprimanded and warned by the Americans.
Syria is on Bush's list of "axis of evil" countries - alongside Libya and ranked just below Iraq, Iran and North Korea. In addition to his complaints concerning Syrian cooperation with Saddam Hussein and his associates, Bush mentioned on Sunday, in response to a question, the chemical weapons in Syrian hands.
This is not new. Syria has missile batteries and rockets armed with chemical and possibly biological warheads, as well as the capability of manufacturing such payloads. The Syrians say these weapons are meant as a deterrence to balance the nuclear power they attribute to Israel. As opposed to Iraq in its war against Iran, and even the Egyptians in their war 40 years ago in Yemen, Syria has never used chemical weapons.
The Syrian provocation is also to be seen in its ties to organizations hostile to Israel - Palestinian (Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front - General command) and Lebanese (Hezbollah). The global U.S. campaign against terror is also aimed at these groups and the countries that provide them shelter. If the United States succeeds in forcing Iran and Syria to cease their support for these organizations that are trying to harm Israel inside its borders, in the territories and overseas, it would be another substantial contribution - following the removal of Iraq from the circle of hostile countries - to Israel's security.
The situation that has emerged on Israel's northern front - from the moment the Iraqi threat was neutralized, thus eliminating the eastern front - justifies opening a diplomatic, not a military, campaign. Syria, bound by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon, is now more isolated than ever before. It cannot count on the Russians, who were unable to help Saddam, nor on Egypt, its partner in the Yom Kippur War but which chose peace with Israel. This opens the way for an Israeli initiative to renew peace talks that were cut off three years ago at the meeting of Hafez Assad and President Clinton in Geneva.
At that time, Israel and Syria were on the verge of an agreement. The gap between Assad and then-premier Ehud Barak was bridgeable. After Assad's death and his son's rise to power, Barak unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon and the Palestinians opened their violent conflict with Israel.
Renewing the Israeli-Syrian talks, based on the framework set by Barak, Clinton and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara at Shepherdstown, could thaw the tension between Washington and Damascus and bring Israel closer to another peace agreement that would have an impact on the contacts with the Palestinians.
The price Israel would have to pay, a withdrawal from the Golan, should not deter the Sharon government from renewing the negotiations. |
