Testing Israel's neighbors
INTRIGUING overtures to Israel recently from Libya and Syria are worth pursuing. In both cases Israeli policy makers have reacted warily, suspecting that Libya's ruler, Moammar Khadafy, and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, may be less interested in coming to terms with Israel than in temporarily deflecting pressure from the Bush administration.
Nonetheless, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should heed the advice of his ministers of finance and foreign affairs as well as Israel's president and the chiefs of the Israeli Defense Forces. All have been counseling Sharon and his defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, to test seriously the possibilities for dialogue or negotiations, particularly with the regime in Damascus.
"I think there is the opportunity today to explore possible contacts with Syria," the hawkish finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israel Radio. Netanyahu, a contender for leadership of Sharon's Likud Party, made the case for renewing negotiations with Syria -- as proposed by Assad last month in a New York Times interview -- in terms of a changed regional power balance. The Syrians "need peace with us like they need air to breathe," Netanyahu said. "They need peace much more than we do. So the advantage has now moved completely to our side."
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported Thursday that several high-ranking military officials believe it would be a mistake for Sharon to reject Assad's overture. The paper quoted a senior defense source as saying that the Syrian's public call for negotiations is "an opportunity that Israel does not know how to exploit." Addressing the government's concern that Assad might be trying merely to placate the Americans, the military official said: "Even if it is a tactical move by the Syrian president, Israel must corner him with positive signals."
The logic of Israel's military chiefs is compelling, and Sharon ought to act on it. The kaleidoscope of Mideast power relations has just gone through one of its periodic shifting of shapes. Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war, Iran is accepting intrusive inspection of its nuclear sites, Khadafy is dismantling his weapons of mass destruction programs in order to have sanctions on Libya lifted, and Assad's impoverished minority regime may look upon a negotiated peace with Israel as its best chance to prolong its existence.
The signals from Libya have been more tentative, but they, too, are worth exploring. Sharon made no sense when he rebutted the advice of his military chiefs by saying of Palestinian and Syrian issues: "This nation cannot deal with two such matters at the same time." On the contrary, Israel should not pass up a rare opportunity to exercise statecraft that uses progress on one negotiating track to facilitate success on the other.
