Getting Serious About Peace

After nearly three years of fruitless verbal sparring, Israel and Syria may at last be ready to get serious about trying to reach a tenable peace.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher plans another trip to the Middle East soon, and he’s prepared to shuttle between Jerusalem and Damascus if it appears the two countries are prepared to discuss a framework for peace. The word from Washington is that Christopher is encouraged.

In Jerusalem Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has proposed a partial Israeli withdrawal on the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. For nearly two decades before that, the Golan was an occasional gun platform for Syrian attacks on Israel. The area’s strategic importance is a key reason why more than 13,000 Israelis have been encouraged to settle there.

Rabin’s plan for an early Israeli pullback on the Golan in exchange for Syria’s moving to normalize relations evoked immediate opposition in Israel from those who see continued occupation of the plateau as essential to Israel’s security. The noise level is sure to swell if a basis for negotiations in fact is found. That’s because Israeli Cabinet officials have rushed to describe the Rabin plan as no more than an opening negotiating gambit, the clear implication being that at the first sign of give in Syria’s position Israel would quickly produce a more flexible offer.

Any negotiations promise to be hard and complex, yet at least on the territorial question the outcome of successful talks can be largely foreseen.

Syria insists on control of the Golan because it refuses to accept the permanent presence of Israeli forces within artillery range of Damascus, and because no Syrian leader could survive if he gave up sovereignty over even a tiny part of Syrian territory. Control of the Golan is vital to Israel because it is determined that never again will its communities be shelled from Syrian territory. Syria won’t settle for anything less than virtually total Israeli withdrawal from the Golan over a relatively few years, which is what Egypt got in the Sinai Peninsula. Israel justifiably can accept nothing less than the territory’s full demilitarization, with international monitors helping to assure that Syrian guns never again threaten Israel.

Can a framework and timetable be hammered out that would meet the basic interests of the two sides? Recent words from Damascus have been conciliatory. Does this mean that agreement is indeed in sight? That’s the central assessment Christopher will be making during his coming journey, perhaps one of the most important of his tenure.