Word: syrian
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...crumbling economy sorely needs an injection of U.S. financial assistance that Assad believes comes part-and-parcel with a peace agreement. While Assad remembers Sadat's roadmap, his selective memory forgets the diplomatic strategy that must accompany it. No Sadat-like visits to the Israeli parliament by the Syrian leader are in store...
Quizzically, Assad has not only refrained from making peaceful overtures, but has indulged in vitriolic rhetoric that presses the Israeli public's most sensitive nerve. In recent weeks, the official Syrian press--the mouthpiece of the regime--compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany and denied the Holocaust. To further alienate Israelis, Syria has stepped up support for the terrorist group Hezbollah. Barak has promised his people a referendum should he reach an agreement with his Syrian interlocutors, but these statements, coupled with Syrian-backed violence in Lebanon, harden the Israeli electorate against a peace treaty with Syria and make...
...opportunity to reclaim the Golan Heights? Some try to explain away Assad's behavior on the grounds that he is an aging autocrat who does not comprehend Barak's political needs as a democratic leader. Assad should be granted more credit. For the past thirty years, the shrewd Syrian leader has defined himself as the Middle East's cold calculator par excellence, and there is no exception here. Assad is well aware of the fact that his actions hinder Barak's ability to muster Israeli public support in a future referendum. The Sphinx of Damascus is up to something...
...Assad's avoidance of confidence-building measures has proven a winning bargaining tactic. The more Syrian provocations erode Barak's political capital with Israelis, the more pliable Barak's negotiating position seems to become. To hasten an agreement, in recent weeks Barak has made subtle but significant concessions. He hinted at acquiescing to Syria's incessant demand that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights down to the June 4, 1967 borders by asserting that previous Israeli prime ministers have conceded the same. Now Barak ponders dropping the demand for a continued Israeli presence on the Mount Hermon early warning station...
Even so, Assad's intentions may yet be more Machiavellian. Perhaps Assad is engaging in behavior repugnant to Israelis precisely because it may sabotage a future referendum. For Assad, a scenario in which an Israeli plebiscite rejects a peace agreement signed by the Syrian and Israeli governments is ideal. In such a case, Syria reaps the benefits of peace and avoids the destabilizing effects of normalization with the Jewish state. On the one hand, Assad will claim he has crossed the Rubicon for peace and rightfully deserves full financial and international political support. That Israel chose not to accept...