SPECIAL REPORT MIDEAST PEACE CONFERENCE
Continued from preceding page
The status of Jerusalem, and whether it will remain unified, is
the most controversial and potentially explosive issue of all to
be resolved.
Israel To Syria:
A Long Road
To Peace
Jerusalem trusts
President Assad the
least of all its Arab
adversaries.
HELEN DAVIS
I
Foreign Correspondent
f peace between Israel and
Egypt is described as "cold,"
relations between Damascus
and Jerusalem are positively
frigid.
Israeli negotiators' are not em-
barking on the peace process with
any of the euphoria that marked the
early stages of their engagement
with the late President Anwar
Sadat of Egypt in 1977.
Last week, Syrian Foreign Minis-
ter Farouk a-Shara declared he
28
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1991
would not shake hands with his Is-
raeli counterpart and this week, just
hours after Israel's cabinet formally
accepted the invitation to the Mid-
dle East peace conference, a senior
Israeli official launched a verbal
broadside at Syria.
Yossi Ben-Aharon, senior person-
al aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir and mooted leader of Isra-
el's negotiating team in bilateral
talks with Syria, accused Syrian
President Hafez Assad of being
"underhanded and vicious."
Mr. Ben-Aharon had good reason
for his outburst, which followed an
incident in South Lebanon where
three Israeli soldiers were killed
When their armored personnel car-
rier was blown up by a roadside
bomb.
The explosion occurred while the
Israeli cabinet was engaged. in a
heated seven-hour debate on wheth-
it appears increasingly likely that
the Palestinians will settle for the
autonomy plan they rejected so ve-
hemently 12 years ago, an indica-
tion of their acute political and eco-
nomic weakness in the aftermath of
the Gulf War and the disintegration
of their Soviet patron.
The Camp David Accords provid-
ed for a three-year period of auton-
omy, to be followed by a two-year
period of negotiations over the final
status of the territories.
It is likely that in exchange for
this breathing space — and to se-
cure its full quota of U.S. aid — the
Israelis will, after all, agree to freeze
its settlement activity.
Having reached this stage, the
exhausted parties will take what
they can get and agree to disagree
on that most intractable of all
issues, Jerusalem, which will be-
come .a subject for negotiations in
the context of the final status of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
According to Tzahi Hanegbi,
Chief Whip of the ruling Likud bloc,
the "main issue is where will the
borders of Israel be when we achieve
an agreement... and this is why the
idea of autonomy was proposed.
"We need years of coexistence be-
fore we can trust those people be-
cause they have tried over again to
put an end to the existence of our
country. We don't want to have an-
ything to do with the final ar-
rangements of our country at the
moment. After three years, we will
start negotiating that question."
He also rejected any suggestion of
an immediate halt to Jewish settle-
ments: "If we freeze settlements
now it will mean we are ready to
give away those territories."
The Israelis are keenly aware that
they have more to lose than gain
once they start dealing their negoti-
ating cards, and there are strong
hints that any further hardening of
attitudes by the Bush administra-
tion will reduce Israel's flexibility.
"If the United States does not
serve as an honelt broker, it will not
only lose our confidence but it will
not be able to convince us to make
concessions," said Mr. Hanegbi,
who insisted that Israel is "ready to
make concessions" but not prepared
"to commit suicide." ❑
er to accept the U.S.- Soviet invita-
tion to the peace talks in Madrid,
but it is not certain that President
Assad was the appropriate target
for Israel's wrath.
The attack did not involve any
obvious Syrian complicity and the
pro-Iranian Hizbollah fundamental-
ist movement claimed responsibility
for the explosion in a statement
which pledged that "the honorable
strugglers will continue their holy
war against Zionism."
The Iranian regime is bitterly
opposed to the peace process and
this week hosted a meeting of the
most radical and uncompromising
elements in the Palestinian firma-
ment, including Abu Nidal and
Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Pales-
tine-General Command.
Mr. Ben-Aharon, however, ig-
nored the Iranian dimension and
went straight for the Syrian jugular.
He charged that Syria was respon-
sible for "all terrorism in Lebanon"
and said that when the two sides
meet in Madrid, Israel will call Syria
to account for the action of "all ter-
rorist groups in Lebanon."
For good measure, it will also
raise the question of "Syria's
takeover of Lebanon, the plight of
Syrian Jews and Syrian involve-
ment in drug-trafficking," which he
claims is worth $2 billion a year.
According to Mr. Ben-Aharon,
these matters are "more important
than the Golan Heights," which Is-
rael conquered from Syria in the
1967 Six Day War and which will
form the substance of negotiations
between Israel and Syria in Madrid.
Senior Israeli officials are re-
ported to be concerned that Presi-
dent Assad and PLO chairman
Yassir Arafat have effected a recon-
ciliation after an eight-year es-
trangement and the Israelis are un-
easy about Syrian attempts to or-
ganize an Arab summit to coordi-
nate negotiating strategies in ad-
vance of the talks. ❑
Syrian President Hafez Assad,
whom Israeli officials blame
for Syria's role in terrorist
attacks.