Peres Puts Peace With Syria Ahead of Being Reelected

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday that he is putting peace with Syria ahead of his government’s reelection next year so that, by the turn of the century, complete peace in the Middle East can be implemented.

In an often emotional address to a joint session of Congress, an honor rarely accorded foreign leaders, Peres said he has held virtually every position of power in Israel. Now, the 72-year-old leader said, he seeks one last job: “to bear the burden of peacemaking.”

“I stand before you with one overriding commitment: to yield to no threat, to stop at no obstacle in negotiating the hurdles ahead in seeking security for our people, peace for our land, tranquillity for our region,” he said.

“In October next year, Israel will go to elections,” Peres said. “I here declare that the decision to strive for peace shall be pursued regardless of it. To win peace is more important than to win elections.”

And in a direct appeal to Syrian President Hafez Assad, Peres pledged to negotiate “relentlessly” until decades of divisions between the region’s two most formidable enemies are bridged.

Achieving an accord with Syria, nine times as big as Israel, is the most difficult piece of the puzzle in the peace process. Although Israel has formally made peace with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, Israeli leaders have always felt that no peace can endure without Syria as a full partner.

But Peres also called for a peace that extends far beyond the five front-line Arab lands that share borders with Israel--an idea that became the dominant theme of his two-day state visit to Washington.

Syria broke off talks in June because of Israel’s demand for an early-warning system in the Golan Heights as a condition for returning to Syria that strategic area captured by Israel in 1967.

“Nothing would capture the imagination of young people everywhere more than a gathering of 20 or so Middle East leaders, all of us standing together with you, our American friends, and others, and declaring the end of war,” Peres said to a standing ovation from the members of Congress.

The exceptions to that invitation, he later specified, are Iraq, Iran, Libya and Sudan because of their rejection of the peace process.

For all the optimism emanating from his visit, Peres has still not committed Israel to returning the Golan Heights and he issued a warning to Assad.

“We are not ready to make a concession in order to discover that nothing serious has happened,” he said. “The Golan Heights is the last mountain we have. We shall not negotiate for skimmed milk.”

In Damascus, the Syrian capital, a senior official cautiously welcomed Peres’ vow to press for a peace deal but said, “The Israeli premier should go into details and not limit his statements to generalities.”

Secretary of State Warren Christopher will fly to the Middle East at the end of the week.