Glimmer Of Hope On Syrian Track
Although I was highly skeptical last week when Debka reported that Assad was willing to normalize relations with Israel for something less than all of the Golan Heights, it seems that there may be something to that. This is from Israel Line:
Syrian President Bashar Assad's statements about renewing negotiations with Israel have created a fissure between Syria and Hezbollah, and between Syria and Iran, Military Intelligence Chief Aharon Ze'evi told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Members of Knesset Haim Ramon and Ran Cohen (Labor), who attended the closed meeting, said that according to Ze'evi, Israel should take advantage of the split. Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz said after the meeting that the Syrian moves were tactical and meant to "save the Syrian dictatorship from U.S. pressure."
Ze'evi also noted in the meeting that Bashar Assad - unlike his father - would not demand Israel's withdrawal to the 67' borders before entering into negotiations. "The international criticism of Syria's actions and the pressures the United States put on Damascus have borne fruit; Assad realized that in order to survive, he must change his ways," Ze'evi said.
UPDATE: Amir Oren has an article in Ha'aretz today where he predicts that, as soon as Syria cracks down on infiltration between Syria and Iraq, Bush will flip on Sharon and force him to make peace with Assad. This article is begging to be fisked completely, but it's really too marginal to warrant that kind of attention. Oren is an unimaginative, orthodox Israeli leftist (a favorite over at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign), and he writes in the typical smug, sanctimonious I'll-just-assume-we-all-already-agree way that we've come to expect from the Left. The article itself is succession of ramblings and attacks on straw arguments, and it amount to little more than the idea that that Sharon is really evil and that his luck with Bush is really about to run out (which in no way distinguishes it from any other article Oren has written in the last year and a half). It is at times completely incoherent - if Bush is concerned about Syria's support of Hezbollah, why would stabilizing Iraq solve that? Similarly, his assertion that the Baker crowd is back in control of the White House because Baker's former spokeswoman is now Powell's deputy is both unconvincing and begs the question of whether or not Powell has the President's ear. I'm sorry, but at the point when your predictions are so wrong that you're regularly being upstaged by Debka, a website that as near as anyone can tell basically makes up half it's news, you need to stop trying to pass off your deepest hopes and prayers for Sharon's failures as "predictions."
Syrian President Bashar Assad's statements about renewing negotiations with Israel have created a fissure between Syria and Hezbollah, and between Syria and Iran, Military Intelligence Chief Aharon Ze'evi told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Members of Knesset Haim Ramon and Ran Cohen (Labor), who attended the closed meeting, said that according to Ze'evi, Israel should take advantage of the split. Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz said after the meeting that the Syrian moves were tactical and meant to "save the Syrian dictatorship from U.S. pressure."
Ze'evi also noted in the meeting that Bashar Assad - unlike his father - would not demand Israel's withdrawal to the 67' borders before entering into negotiations. "The international criticism of Syria's actions and the pressures the United States put on Damascus have borne fruit; Assad realized that in order to survive, he must change his ways," Ze'evi said.
UPDATE: Amir Oren has an article in Ha'aretz today where he predicts that, as soon as Syria cracks down on infiltration between Syria and Iraq, Bush will flip on Sharon and force him to make peace with Assad. This article is begging to be fisked completely, but it's really too marginal to warrant that kind of attention. Oren is an unimaginative, orthodox Israeli leftist (a favorite over at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign), and he writes in the typical smug, sanctimonious I'll-just-assume-we-all-already-agree way that we've come to expect from the Left. The article itself is succession of ramblings and attacks on straw arguments, and it amount to little more than the idea that that Sharon is really evil and that his luck with Bush is really about to run out (which in no way distinguishes it from any other article Oren has written in the last year and a half). It is at times completely incoherent - if Bush is concerned about Syria's support of Hezbollah, why would stabilizing Iraq solve that? Similarly, his assertion that the Baker crowd is back in control of the White House because Baker's former spokeswoman is now Powell's deputy is both unconvincing and begs the question of whether or not Powell has the President's ear. I'm sorry, but at the point when your predictions are so wrong that you're regularly being upstaged by Debka, a website that as near as anyone can tell basically makes up half it's news, you need to stop trying to pass off your deepest hopes and prayers for Sharon's failures as "predictions."
