Matthews-Hargreaves

CHEVROLET

citizenship status of these refugees,
as well as their ability to return to a
future Palestine or instead choose
financial compensation.
The agreement also will deal with
Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel
will demand the dissolution of Syria's
contacts with these parties. Syria will
have to compromise and swallow this
bitter pill, but likely will agree only to
change the nature of its military ties
with these parties and not eliminate
its political alliances.
Neither side will achieve everything
it wants.

The Chances
Israel and Syria share a long history of
failures to reach peace, and both sides
desperately want this renewed peace
process to succeed.
Every day, the price of failure to
reach an agreement grows ever more
expensive. Israeli leaders know and

close to the Israeli border.
Syria will have to make hard
choices regarding the extent of the
concessions it must make. Will Syria
be willing to accept intrusive security
restrictions near its capital, or will it
prefer to leave the territorial status
quo in place?
• Iran: The Syria-Iran alliance is
not just a problem for Israel but for
many countries in the Middle East.
In Israeli diplomatic circles, the main
demand voiced to Syria is breaking
its alliance with Iran. But is it rea-
sonable to assume that Syria would
be willing to distance itself from
Tehran?
Were Syria to cut off from Iran, it
would lose its special relationship
with Iran's Shiite proxy in Lebanon,
Hezbollah, and with Syria's own hege-
mony in Lebanon — a top priority
for Syrian foreign policy.
It is extremely unlikely that Syria
would be willing to forego this affi-
ance and instead adopt a pro-Western
orientation.
Iran today is on the move across
the Middle East with new achieve-
ments in Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf
states. It has a much deeper internal

understand this quite well, often when
others do not. They know that failure
May usher in a new regional conflict,
possibly a catastrophic one, that surely
will endanger Israel and Syria.
Neither nation wishes to endanger
its people further and thus will find a
way to reach an agreement.
Windows of opportunity in the
Middle East tend to appear quite
infrequently and last but just a short
while. If we continue to miss them, we
may well bring upon ourselves and our
children another 60 years of misery.
Israel has proven its abilities and
its courage in the battlefield. Now is
the time to be courageous in making
peace. ❑

Alon Liel is founder of the Israel-Syrian

Peace Society and former director-general
of Israel's Foreign Ministry. Shai Ben-Zvi,

an Internet entrepreneur and ISPS board
member, also contributed to this viewpoint.

grip on Syria today than it did in
the period of Hafez Assad, the father
of Syria's current president, Bashar
Assad.
Moreover, even if Syria were willing
to signal the beginnings of a move
away from Iran, any such changes
could be fleeting. While Israel's con-
cession of the Golan Heights would
be irreversible, Syria could shift its
regional alignments anytime.
Israeli negotiations with Syria have
been part of the Middle East land-
scape since 1991.
But new talks must not be
exploited to legitimize a regime that
even the Arab world seeks to isolate
because of its backing of Iran and its
terrorist offshoots.
Moreover, given the continuing
military importance of the Golan
Heights, it would be a cardinal error
for Israel to put into jeopardy its own
security by agreeing to come down
from this vital strategic barrier. ❑

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Dore Gold is president of the Jerusalem
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