This Week

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were again suspended in January,
when Syria demanded that Israel state
in writing that it is willing to with-
draw from the Golan.
With the help of U.S. diplomats,
there have been subsequent informal
contacts. Washington is said to be press-
ing for agreement on the most substan-
tive issues before a formal resumption
of the negotiations to ensure that the
process does not run aground again.
If this can be achieved, the two
sides could sign a peace treaty this
spring. Israeli officials maintain that ,
this is a real possibility.
Barak's dramatic raising of the stakes
across the poker table this week, while
welcomed in Washington, drew much
stinging criticism inside Israel, and not
only from the opposition. Israel's
largest newspapers faulted the prime
minister for trying to draw his prede-
cessors into his negotiating gambit.
Barak maintained during Sunday's
cabinet session that former Likud
Premier Yitzhak Shamir had implicitly
agreed to a total Golan withdrawal
back in 1991, when he consented to
attend the Madrid Peace Conference
on the basis of an invitation that
referred to the U.N. Security Council's
land-for-peace Resolution 242.
Rabin, said Barak, told Christopher
that Israel was ready in principle to
pull back to the June 4, 1967 line if
all the other elements of the peace
package fell into place.
Shimon Peres, Barak went on,
endorsed Rabin's position.
And Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak's
immediate predecessor, conveyed to the
Syrians his willingness to withdraw to
the prewar line in a secret dialogue con-
ducted by U.S. businessman Ronald
Lauder, who now serves as chairman of
the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations.
Shamir and Netanyahu flatly
denied Barak's version of history.
"I was always against any withdraw-
al on any front," said Shamir.
Netanyahu, reacting from New
York, said his secret negotiations failed
precisely because he was not prepared
to commit to total withdrawal.
Leah Rabin, speaking for her slain
husband, was equivocal, and Shimon
Peres said he "focused on economic
issues rather than on the border line."
The political wisdom of Barak's histo-
riography would be merely academic
were it not for his need to win the Israeli
public's support in the referendum that
he has promised to hold when and if a
peace treaty is concluded with Syria. At
present, according to the polls, that sup-
port is by no means assured. El