TPM Reader BC …
Thanks for linking to the Haaretz article on the Syria-Israel peace talks. It sounds like Syria initiated this, and even kept it going through last summer’s Lebanon war, then gave up because Israel was reluctant to move out of the realm of the theoretical.
Syria’s motivations are clear: Bashar Assad doesn’t like being an Iranian satellite, and doesn’t like being president of a small, poor backwards country wedged between a hostile Israel, a hostile Turkey, a Lebanon on the brink of a nasty civil war, and an Iraq well past the brink of a genocidal civil war.
The reasons for Israel’s reluctance are also clear: already politically weak, Olmert did not want to take a huge diplomatic risk without being certain it would be part of a wider push for regional stability backed by the US.
The outlines of a peace agreeement between Israel and Syria are clear. And the benefits for the US and the rest of the region would be substantial. Israel would have the confidence to negotiate peace with the Palestinians. The confrontationist positions (and arms-smuggling routes) of Hamas and Hezbollah would be undermined, and peace-minded Palestinians like Abbas would be strengthened. Syria would be brought into the American orbit, and would start doing its part to quell the Sunni insurgency.
All it would take for this to happen would be some intelligent, patient, engaged, creative diplomacy by the US.
Sigh. Never mind.
Greg Djerejian had a similar thought.
