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Jean-Marie Le Pen's National
Front, sued Mr. Lewis for "anti-
Christian racism." That suit was
thrown out of court.
Apparently, a total of four law-
suits were filed.
The case brought by the Ar-
menian groups and the interna-
tional league was heard.
In their decision, three Paris
judges said it was not the court's
role to say whether the mas-
sacres of Armenians were geno-
cide.
"The courts haven't got a mis-
sion to arbitrate and to decide
about polemics or controversies
triggered by events of history,"the
court said, adding, "A historian
enjoys, by principle, a total free-
dom to expose, according to his
personal views, the facts, the acts
and the attitudes of the men or
groups of men having taken part
in the events he chooses to re-
search."

Decision Time
On Syrian Track?

JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

udging the health of the
Syrian-Israeli peace talks
requires the skills of a psy-
chic, not a pundit.
The negotiations have always
had a phantasmagoric quality;
the details of each new break-
through, and the inevitable cri-
sis that follows, have seemed
curiously separated from the fun-
damental questions that will ul-
timately determine whether the
two adversaries can live in peace.
Syrian President Hafez Assad
says he has made a "strategic de-
cision" to pursue peace. But he
has offered little of the tangible
evidence that is increasingly vi-
tal to a politically besieged Rabin
government.
In the past 10 days, there have
been stirrings about another in-
cremental step to allow negotia-
tors to return to Washington for
more discussions about security
arrangements that might ac-
company a broad Syrian-Israeli
deal — an American strategy to
outflank Assad's ambivalence on
the big questions of borders and
timetables.
Such movement would be a
welcome by an Israeli govern-
ment increasingly pessimistic
about the chances that a peace
accord can be orchestrated before
the 1996 political make a Golan
Heights deal more difficult.
Any incremental progress en-
gineered by the Clinton admin-
istration's Mideast peace team
may sustain negotiations that
have produced alternating waves
of optimism and gloom here and
in Israel. But a resumption of the
security talks will prove mean-

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But the judges also ruled that
"the historian cannot escape the
common law linking a certain
freedom to a necessary responsi-
bility."
With that in mind, they ruled
that Mr. Lewis erred when he
said that the Armenian genocide
was only a matter of Armenian
imagination.
"His declarations, likely to un-
justly reactivate the pain of the
Armenian community, are faulty
and justify a compensation," the
court said.
The court ordered Mr. Lewis
to pay one symbolic franc, which
is about one-fifth of a dollar, as
damages. Mr. Lewis also has to
compensate the groups that
brought the suit against him, the
court ruled, adding that the judg-
ment has to be printed in Le
Monde.
Mr. Lewis will not appeal the
case, his French lawyer said.

ingless unless Mr. Assad stops
playing his on-again-off-again
game and publicly, unequivocal-
ly demonstrates his commitment
to a real peace process, not just
to a manipulative game intend-
ed to keep Washington interest-
ed.
While Israeli leaders have fo-
cused primarily on the Palestin-
ian track in recent months, the
Clinton administration has em-
phasized the Syrian-Israeli ne-
gotiations.
The 1993 Israeli-PLO accords
were negotiated in secret, with-
out even the knowledge of offi-
cials in Washington. Since then,
Secretary of State Warren
Christopher has acted as a-some-
time troubleshooter and full-time
cheerleader. But the talks have
been shaped by the the Rabin
government and, for better or
worse, PLO leader Yassir Arafat.
But in the Syrian talks, the
United States has played a crit-
ical role because Mr. Assad seems
more motivated by his desire for
better relations with Washing-
ton than by any change in his be-
lief that "normalization," a key
Israeli demand, threatens the
survival of his authoritarian
regime.
This has given the negotiations
a maddeningly nebulous quality.
From the outset, Mr. Assad
postured for Washington, con-
ceding only as much as he need-
ed to keep officials here interested
— always stopping well short of
a clear and forthright commit-
ment to peace with Israel.
The administration, which
views Mr. Assad's longing for bet-