Word: golan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Maybe, but maybe not. Of all the Middle Eastern conflicts, the rift between Israel and Syria would appear to be the easiest to mend. Israel would just have to return the Golan Heights, a rocky Syrian plateau that Israel captured in 1967. If Israel had a strong leader with a popular mandate (admittedly a big if) this wouldn't be impossible given that Israeli settlement in the Golan is relatively sparse and the Heights are no longer so strategically important thanks to advances in Israeli defense technology. But the tougher question is what Israel should get in return...
...negotiating from a position of strength. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is deeply unpopular, buffeted by scandals and just barely clinging to power. This leaves him in no position to make important concessions to Syria's Bashar Assad. Nor does it help that the majority of Israelis oppose returning the Golan Heights, and few regard Assad as trustworthy...
...details of the talks, brokered by Turkey, have yet been made public, but it's a fair guess that the negotiators have spent a great deal of time discussing the Golan Heights - the rocky escarpment Israel seized from Syria in 1967, the return of which is Syria's precondition for peace with Israel...
...least at the Annapolis meeting itself. But though a brief thaw in U.S.-Syrian relations ensued, the resumption of hard-line posturing seems to suggest that Syria wanted more than the Bush Administration was willing to deliver. Syria's main beef with Israel is the occupation of the Golan Heights (captured by Israel in 1967), but the Assad regime has long been concerned that the U.S. is trying to isolate or even topple...
...Syria. Some analysts here believe that the Lebanese impasse could be broken if Syria is given a prominent role at the forthcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Syria, which backs the Lebanese opposition, says it will only participate in the conference if the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, is included on the agenda. If Syria's demand is met, Damascus could use its influence over the opposition to accept a compromise on the Lebanese presidency...