Word: damascus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Concerns about Syria began to escalate in August, when officials in Damascus started threatening to use force to reclaim the Golan, the Syrian plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Syrian President Hafez Assad was plainly frustrated by the policies of the new Israeli government of Netanyahu, who, unlike his two immediate predecessors, rules out a return of the strategic high land in exchange for a comprehensive peace treaty...
...preceeded Netanyahu to Washington that the U.S. had demanded the handshake with Arafat as a condition of the Oval Office chat. Armed with Clinton's promise to help reopen peace talks with Syria, in part through a continuation of Secretary of State Christopher's shuttle diplomacy, Netanyahu appealed to Damascus Monday to remain flexible. While Netanyahu's predecessor Peres had indicated a willingness to go along with Syria's demand that Israel commit itself to withdrawing from the Golan Heights as part of any peace agreement, the new Prime Minister has firmly rejected the idea, but still seeks a path...
...DAMASCUS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to restart stalled peace negotiations with Syria was met with a decidedly low-key response from the Syrian government. On a trip to Jordan Monday, Netanyahu had proposed peace talks on all outstanding matters, but did not retract any of his many earlier statements that Israel required the Golan Heights for its security and would not return the land to Syria. Although Syria's government has not officially rejected the offer, an editorial in Tuesday's edition of Tishrin called the offer "honey-coated" but not serious. "Although Tishrin speaks...
...other peace track is supposed to be with Syria, but here too Netanyahu has thrown up daunting obstacles. Forget land for peace, he says: Damascus can have peace for peace. Labor and the U.S. have operated on the principle that Syrian President Hafez Assad wants above all to regain the Golan Heights taken by Israel in 1967. But Labor's offer to hand back the territory if sufficient security arrangements could be worked out was not enough to tempt Assad into giving Israel the full, open peace it demanded in return. Netanyahu thinks Assad might be persuaded to stop harboring...
...Washington is worried that Netanyahu could pay a high price if he kisses off meaningful Syrian talks. That peace deal is the prerequisite for snuffing out the Hizballah campaign in Lebanon, where Damascus exerts significant influence over the Shi'ite guerrillas fighting against Israel's occupation. Those Arab enemies already demonstrated the day after his victory that they are not cowed by a Netanyahu government, when they exploded two remote-controlled roadside bombs that killed four Israeli soldiers--a telling reminder that securing Israelis against violence will be just as difficult for the hard-nosed Netanyahu as for his softer...