Off-Line Israeli Diplomacy
There often reports of back-channel conversations between Israel and Syria. Now a former Israeli official with no current government status claims to have the outline of a “peace deal” negotiated with a Syrian-American under Swiss and Turkish auspices. Here, according to a press report, are the parameters:
There often reports of back-channel conversations between Israel and Syria. Now a former Israeli official with no current government status claims to have the outline of a “peace deal” negotiated with a Syrian-American under Swiss and Turkish auspices. Here, according to a press report, are the parameters:
Israel withdraws to the 1967 border. Syria creates a “demilitarized nature park” in the Golan and guarantees access to Israel. (Is this a concession? Did they first contemplate a militarized nature park?) Syria further promises not to tamper with the water sources in the Golan; to drop its alliance with Iran; to end support for radical Hezbollah and Hamas; and to ask Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to leave Damascus.
In exchange for giving up the Golan and accepting various reversible expressions of Syrian good will, Israel will “work to improve ties between Syria and the U.S.”
Whoa, Nellie!!
Never mind that there is no mention of Syria accepting the legitimacy of Israeli sovereignty – the language UN Res. 242 and the basis of all negotiation. Or that Syria gets to “dangle its feet in the Sea of Galilee,” rewarding Syrian encroachment from the 1948 line. What about Syria’s official policy on the Palestinian “right of return”? [There are 430,000 Palestinian refugees INSIDE SYRIA in camps of indescribable misery. UNRWA just asked for $26 million in “emergency” funds for the 18,000 residents of Neirab living in a 60-year-old army barracks that was never upgraded.] Will Junior Assad keep them and make them Syrian citizens? Face them and tell them he signed away their “rights”? Never mind. Really, never mind.
If the Israeli government, after being briefed on the details, decides to talk to itself about those issues, fine. If not, fine too. Israel is a sovereign country. But in NO WAY should any Israeli negotiator – official or unofficial – be talking about Israel making an approach to the U.S. on behalf of the Syrian government.
U.S. problems with Syria have nothing to do with nature parks, Palestinians or even the Golan Heights. Syria is a conduit in the east (as well as the west) for irregular forces and military equipment for the purpose of destabilizing its neighbors. American troops are fighting in one of those neighbors and Syria is aiding and abetting our enemies.
Syria appears worried that Saudi-Iranian plans for Lebanon will sacrifice Syrian interests. So Syria may be reaching out to Israel in hopes of salvaging something by turning to us. Our thought – let Syria worry. Let Syria stop doing what it is doing that incurs our ire. Then they can talk directly to us. This is not a job for a third party with its own agenda.
The Israeli interlocutor was quoted in a U.S. newspaper saying that the deal would be a politically tough sell in Israel, but “a bigger obstacle during the secret talks was opposition from Washington.” Which is as it should be.