Israel reaches out to Syria

According to a piece in today’s Haaretz titled “Gambling with Damascus,”

Negotiations with the Palestinians are stuck, international pressure on Israel is growing and Labor is threatening to leave the government—who can save us in our time of need? As always, our friend in Damascus. …The Channel 10 report about Jewish leader Malcolm Hoenlein’s trip to Damascus ignited speculation. Is this a rerun of the mediation runs between Jerusalem and Damascus conducted by Ron Lauder, Netanyahu’s confidant, during the prime minister’s previous term? …If Bashar Assad found time for [Hoenlein], it means that he wants to pass a message to the Jewish community in the U.S., to the U.S. administration and to Israel, albeit in his own way. It is hard to imagine that Hoenlein would have gone to Damascus without an okay from the Prime Minister’s Bureau in Jerusalem.

Since peace talks with the Palestinians have stalled, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu might be looking for a new way to keep the U.S. happy and his own coalition together.

This comes at a time when the U.S. is reaching out to Syria. Hoenlien’s trip coincides with President Obama’s recent appointment of the first ambassador to Syria since 2005. According to Ynetnews.com,

With the Palestinian-Israeli peace process returning to a deep freeze, the Obama administration is eyeing an opportunity to make headway with Syria. The theory is nothing new: If the regime in Damascus can make peace with Israel, end its sponsorship of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, distance itself from Iran, and reorient itself toward the West, then the U.S. would further isolate Tehran’s rulers while giving a critical boost to peace efforts around the region.

The Israeli army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, is also known to share President Obama’s assessment. Haaretz.com writes (emphasis mine),

Ashkenazi is troubled by the ring of threats facing Israel and the growing strength of Iran and its allies—Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. … But the solution, in Ashkenazi’s opinion, is not an attack on the nuclear facilities in Natanz and Bushehr, but rather a diplomatic initiative for a peace agreement with Syria.The price of this deal is known: withdrawal from the Golan Heights in return for security arrangements and normalized relations.

In other words, more land for “peace.”