This Wee

Peace In The North?

One Campa:
Or Another

V
m
A
itf

a ffi

ft

a

W•

a a

A
0'. *

°I

IT

fka

4

%Tana

After a four-year hiatus, Israel

and Syria sat down to talk

peace. Much has changed to
improve the prospects for a deal.

.Vkalst

,

Barak may have to sell Israel on Syrian
and Palestinian pacts together.

DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem
sraelis are already buzzing about
whether Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak can win a referen-
dum on a withdrawal from the
Golan Heights in return for peace
with Syria.
Moreover, they wonder whether he
can win it simultaneously with anoth-
er referendum — on a withdrawal
from much of the West Bank in
return for peace with the Palestinians.
The questions surfaced even before
this week's start of Israeli-Syrian nego-
tiations in Washington, bringing
together Barak and Syrian Foreign
Minister Farouk al-Sharaa for the
highest-level discussions the two sides
have ever held.
Indeed, as politicians and pundits
focused on the referendums, it was as
if they were already thinking of the
Israeli-Syrian talks as having been
completed, with the results of the dis-
cussions now to be brought before the
Israeli public for a vote.
The more honest among them are
admitting to having been totally sur-
prised by President Clinton's announce-
ment last week that the Israel-Syrian
negotiations, in limbo for more than
three years, would be resuming.
The premier, it is now known, had
more than a dozen phone conversa-
tions with Clinton in recent weeks
about the prospects for reactivating
the stalled Syrian track. Every conver-
sation between the U.S. president and
the Israeli leader was followed up by
one between Clinton and Syrian
President Hafez Assad.
Yet Jerusalem insiders were assuring
their audiences as recently as two

sraelinSprian Relations: A Timeline

Following
is a timeline
of key
events in
Israeli-Syrian
relations:

bypist,

Yilegraphic Age HI: y

j-

12/17
1999

6

:01973—

jIsus xa:e 1 1,a captures
9y6 7
the Golan
Heights °
Syria nw -
ar .

•

st,

