British, then ruling Palestine, and the French, then ruling Syria). In popular parlance: will Assad dangle his long feet in the water of the lake? For Assad Sr, that was a question of honor.
Is it worthwhile to risk for this the lives of thousands of Israelis and Syrians, who may die in another war?
Until Israel has a government ready to answer this question and to confront the settlers, there will be no agreement with Syria.
The second reason for rejecting peace with Syria is connected with the United States. Syria belongs to George Bush's "axis of evil." The American president doesn't give a damn for the long-range interests of Israel; what is important to him is to achieve some sort of victory in the Middle East. The destruction of the Syrian regime ("a victory for democracy") will compensate him for the Iraq fiasco.
No Israeli government-and certainly not that of Olmert-would dare to disobey the American president. Therefore, it is self-evident that all peace feelers from Assad will be rejected "on the threshold." Tzipi Livni, who last week opened a new front against Olmert and presented herself almost as a peace-lover, opposes the start of negotiations with Syria as well.87
This affair throws some light on the complex relations between Israel and the United States: who is wagging whom-does the dog wag its tail or the tail its dog?
Olmert says that we must ignore Assad's peace offers, because we must not help him to escape Bush's wrath. Let's dwell on this utterance for a moment.
An Israeli patriot would, of course, have said exactly the opposite: If Assad is ready to make peace with us-even if only because he is afraid of the Americans-we should jump at this opportunity and exploit this situation to achieve at long last peace on our northern front.
Last week Olmert made a remarkable declaration: "As long as I am Prime Minister, we shall not give up the Golan for all eternity!" What does that mean? Either Olmert believes that his term of office coincides with God's term of office, and he will rule in eternity-or in Olmert's world, eternity extends to four years, at most.
Anyhow, until then, my taxi driver and I shall have to wait for our lunch in Damascus.
September 29, 2007
A respected American paper posted a scoop this week: Vice-President Dick Cheney, the King of Hawks, has thought up a Machiavellian