In Sunday's Times of London, Uzi Mahnaimi reports that eventually resigning Israeli Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert is indeed racing to conclude a 'peace deal' with the Assad regime in Syria. Under the deal's terms, Israel would cede the Golan Heights, and Assad would agree to 'loosen' ties with Iran and not to abide by his mutual defense pact with Tehran in the event that Israel and/or the US decide to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. In fact, Mahnaimi is claiming that Assad is putting Ahmadinejad on notice of the new relations during their Saturday meeting in Tehran.According to Mahnaimi, Syria has also agreed to close Hamas' Damascus offices and Israel and the US have agreed to take Syria off the terror list and to put it on the US foreign aid list.
There are two problems with this scenario. One is that Israel would be crazy to trust Assad. The second one is that Israel would be crazy to trust Olmert. As Mahnaimi himself points out:
For all Olmert’s efforts it will be almost impossible for him to achieve peace before leaving office. A decision on withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since its victory in the six-day war in 1967, would need the approval of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and possibly a referendum. Recent polls indicate that most Israelis reject a handover, even in return for peace with Syria.I'd go with the polls and the security source on this one. Assad has claimed that Yitzchak Rabin, Ehud Barak and Binyamin Netanyahu offered him the entire Golan. Those claims - even if they were true - are at least deniable because they cannot be proven. If Mahnaimi is right, all Olmert will accomplish is to give Assad a much more solid claim that Israel offered him the entire Golan. By giving Assad that backup, Olmert will prevent any real negotiations from taking place or peace from being concluded for generations to come.
“Anything can happen in the Middle East between now and when Olmert finally steps down,” said a security source.
“It could be an agreement with Syria, but it is rather more likely to be an Israeli attack on Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas or all three.”
Read the whole thing.
Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.
2 comments:
How about Israel RACE to loosen ties with Olmert IMMEDIATELY -instead. That fool is deadly dangerous and needs to be banished from Israel at best - or in the very least, to live the remainder of his days in Sderot with his entire entourage. Let them experience the consequences of thier GAZA decision in all it's realism. I hear, it'll be a blast.
Frankly I don't believe Olmert or anyone he appoints is capable of an efficient attack like that.
I believe that he believes that a political solution can be reached with those who have had only one objective since 1919 (actually since the 'madman' died ..what 650 AD?)
Olmert makes Levi Eshkol look like Winston Churchill
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