Israel and Syria are publicly engaged in a new round of peace talks aimed at ending the bitter conflict between the nations that has been going on for half a century.
Israel, Syria, and Turkey have all publicly confirmed that peace negotiations have been taking place. Turkey is acting as a mediator between the two countries.
Herb Keinon of the Jerusalem Post writes that the significance of today’s announcement is not that talks are taking place (he points out that both countries had been hinting at negotiations at least since March), but that they are taking place publicly.
Keinon writes:
“Israel, at least until Wednesday, did not want to give Syria a photo opportunity to help it out of its isolation.
The question that needs to be asked now is what changed? One explanation preferred in Jerusalem is that the preliminary talks that have been taking place have convinced Israel that Damascus is indeed interested in substance, and not just form.”
Many Mideast commentators remain skeptical, and with good reason.
Ehud Olmert, the impugned Prime Minister of Israel, is currently embroiled in a corruption probe; it is the fifth such probe since he took office just two years ago. Opposition critics have charged that today’s announcement is aimed at diverting attention away from the government’s political problems.
The Associated Press quotes Yuval Steinitz, a member of the Knesset representing the Likud Party as saying:
“Evidently the prime minister is so corrupt that he is not only taking cash money in envelopes but he is ready to trade … our most vital interests in an attempt to save himself from criminal investigation.”
Furthermore, this is not the first time that the two countries have attempted to reach a peace settlement. Talks broke down in 2000 over the contentious piece of land known as the Golan Heights. The area sticks out like a finger from North-Eastern Israel.
This elevated region is of great strategic significance, in that it overlooks Lebanon, Syria, and to a lesser extent, Jordan.
In the 2000 talks, Israel was apparently willing to relinquish partial control of the Golan Heights, which is home to roughly equal numbers of Israelis and Druge Arabs that consider themselves Syrian. However, the talks came to a head over control of a small strip of the Golan which borders the Sea of Galilee.
The Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake. Control of water resources is of increasing strategic significance all around the world, and the Middle East is certainly no exception. Not surprisingly, this will be a difficult bargaining point in this round of talks.
Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that both sides want peace, and the fact that talks are being conducted publicly is a very positive development. I remain optimistic.
