Word: barak
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...Middle East peacemakers before him, Clinton has to find just the right mix of push and pull. While the outlines of the exchange--return of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for secure, peaceful relations--are pretty well understood, the detailed terms are anything but. When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara spent their first two days of talks last week fencing, Clinton tried invoking history. The secluded West Virginia site at Shepherdstown, he reminded them, was only a few miles from Antietam. There Americans fought one of the bloodiest battles in their Civil War that...
...Ehud Barak thought dealing with the Syrians was hard, wait till he faces the Israelis. The Israeli prime minister returned home from peace talks with Syria and the U.S. Tuesday to news that up to 100,000 Israelis had taken to the streets of Tel Aviv Monday night to reject any withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Worse still for Barak was the fact that two of his own cabinet ministers and several senior military officers were among them. The Israeli leader not only has to keep his own coalition together through negotiating a deal with Syria that involves exchanging control...
Peace with Syria in many ways amounts to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. If Syria--the champion of anti-Zionism--makes peace with Israel, the rest of the Arab world will follow suit. Enlarging the circle of peace in the Middle East, Barak reasons, will enhance Israel's security by further isolating states opposed to the peace process like Iran and Iraq. Not long ago encircled by hostile neighbors, Israel will become the center of a ring of peace...
However, if this lofty and perhaps overly optimistic promise of an Israel-friendly Middle East stood as the only reason for Israel to concede the Golan, Barak would not be in Shepherdstown today. Rather, Barak has assessed that security arrangements on the Golan, which could include an early warning station, airborne surveillance and demilitarized zones, are a sufficient substitute for the Golan itself. Perhaps counter-intuitively, Israel calculates that it will become stronger without the Golan. The advanced weapons the U.S. will furnish Israel to "guarantee the peace"--Tomahawk missiles, Apache helicopters and missile defense systems--will endow it with...
...Barak has promised a referendum on any agreement he signs with Syria. Selling peace with Syria to the Israeli public will be an arduous task. In a recent poll taken by the prominent Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, 54 percent of Israelis said they would oppose a full withdrawal from the Golan--Syria's most basic demand. Although Israel holds no ideological claims to the land, Israelis of all political stripes have grown emotionally attached to the Golan Heights. The territory has been part of Israel since 1967 and more than 17,00 Israelis live there today. The best wine...