TORQUE BACK:

Talking About Peace (HILLEL HALKIN, September 26, 2006, NY Sun)

With the war in Lebanon scarcely over, Israel now faces a new "peace offensive" from Syria. Its initial reaction has been as inept as was its handling of the war against Hezbollah.

"We want peace — peace with Israel," proclaims Bashar Al-Assad from Damascus. "The conditions for peace talks are not yet propitious," replies Ehud Olmert from Jerusalem. This is a less than brilliant response. Prime Minister Olmert might as well have said in plain words, "Peace may be a concern of the Syrians, but Israelis couldn't care less about it."

Now in a certain sense, this is true. When Syria speaks of peace negotiations with Israel, it is speaking, as it has always done, of an agreement that would involve a total Israeli withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights. In fact, it is speaking of a more than total withdrawal, since it also is demanding a small sliver of pre-1967 Israel along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which its troops were in occupation of before the Six-Day War. In such a peace, Israel indeed has no interest.

And yet though it is perfectly true that, practically speaking, negotiations with Syria are pointless as long as the Syrians stick to this position, it is a diplomatic blunder of the first order for Israel to stress its disinclination to negotiate. To let the Syrians portray themselves as the side eager for peace, and Israel as the side indifferent to it, is to give Syria a victory it does not deserve.

What should the Israeli position be? The next time Prime Minister Olmert is asked about the Syrian overture, he might try responding this way: [...]

"We eagerly await the day when Syria has a democratically elected government -- like its neighbors: Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon -- that we can have meaningful negotiations with."

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 26, 2006 7:46 AM