Optimistic and Ready to Travel

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, sensing a “new, more substantive phase” developing in Israel-Syria relations, has hinted at a possible return visit to the two countries later this month in hopes of moving the peace process along. The only problem is that Israeli and Syrian officials seem to be decidedly less upbeat than Christopher about the chances for ending their long conflict. What accounts for this apparent gap in perceptions? Maybe nothing more complicated than some fairly expectable political role-playing.

Christopher’s first responsibility, as representative of the chief sponsor of the Middle East peace process, is to keep negotiations active and productive. Among other things that means seizing on every sign of flexibility to claim progress and provide a basis for moving forward.

Israel and Syria may be no less interested in breaking their stalemate; certainly Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s announced readiness to make major concessions indicates that he at least wants to do so. But for powerful political reasons neither Rabin nor Syrian President Hafez Assad can seem too eager to open a negotiation whose success ultimately depends on concessions from both sides. So where Christopher sees hopeful signs Israel and Syria each accuse the other of not being forthcoming enough. Note, however, that each side has also been very careful not to close the door on the process.

Israel has apparently proposed a phased withdrawal of its army and settler population from the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 war. In exchange it wants full peace. Syria apparently doesn’t like the Israeli timetable for withdrawal and, at this point, seems unready to commit to the political conditions Jerusalem seeks. The resulting gap represents, of course, precisely the kind of challenge that diplomacy was invented to deal with.

If Christopher sees any chance for an opening he will, quite properly, soon return to the Middle East to invest U.S. prestige in a crucial mediation effort. One key message he ought to drive home in Damascus is that Rabin, with his earlier offer to disband settlements on the Golan Heights, has already signaled a crucial willingness to give up Israeli claims to that strategic plateau. If Syria really wants the Golan back and really wants peace, it need only show it is ready to explore fully the significance of that offer.