Israeli Draft Bill Raises Bar on Peace With Syria

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suffered an embarrassing setback Wednesday when members of his coalition deserted him in a parliamentary vote seen as a key test of his government’s ability to make peace with Syria.

The defeat, on a preliminary but highly symbolic vote involving the procedure for a promised national referendum on any accord with Syria, underscored the increasing fragility of the coalition Barak put together last year with the goal of reaching peace agreements with Syria and the Palestinians.

And it came even as Barak appeared to be making progress in his attempts to coax the Syrians to return to peace negotiations that broke down in January.

Three conservative parties in Barak’s broad-based coalition ignored his calls for unity and backed the opposition Wednesday on the draft referendum bill, defying the prime minister at a crucial juncture in the peace process and possibly threatening his efforts to persuade the Syrians to restart the talks.

Sponsored by the conservative opposition Likud Party, the bill is intended to make it extremely difficult for the government to win public approval for any agreement that involves returning the Golan Heights to Syria. Israel captured the strategic plateau in the 1967 Middle East War, and polls show that Israelis are evenly split now on whether to hand it back in exchange for peace.

Under the bill, any accord that involves an Israeli withdrawal from the territory would require the approval of an absolute majority of all eligible voters, not just those who actually vote. The bill must pass three more parliamentary votes to become law, and many doubt that it ever will, predicting that it will be tied up in committees for months.

Still, its initial approval, by a 60-53 vote with one abstention, is likely to raise questions in an already jittery Syria about Barak’s ability to deliver on any peace deal he makes.

The prime minister, who fought hard to defeat the bill, immediately sought to minimize the damage, declaring that a “parliamentary trick” wouldn’t deter him from his goal of peace with all of Israel’s immediate Arab neighbors.

“I was elected by 1.8 million Israelis to lead the country into a better future of security and peace, and I am determined to do that,” he said after the vote. “No parliamentary trick will [keep] me from leading this country into the future that our youngsters deserve.”

But others said the vote is a severe blow to Barak’s credibility, already damaged by a fund-raising scandal, and to the stability of his government as it approaches a time of crucial decisions in its negotiations with the Syrians and Palestinians. Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat pledged last year to try to reach a permanent peace agreement by September, but those talks also recently bogged down.

“He doesn’t have a coalition that can pass major legislation on the peace process,” said political scientist Gideon Doron of Tel Aviv University. “And that’s a major problem.”

The Israeli-Syrian negotiations, which were restarted late last year after a four-year hiatus, broke off in their early stages. But the mood appeared to be shifting this week after Barak hinted that he would consider a full withdrawal from the Golan, and Syria seemed receptive, although Damascus demanded that it be put into writing.

It was not immediately clear Wednesday what effect the approval of the draft bill might have on chances for a resumption of the talks any time soon, although the measure’s sponsors clearly hoped that it would scuttle them.

The three government partners that voted with the opposition Wednesday were the religious Shas Party, with 17 votes in parliament; the National Religious Party, with five; and Israel With Immigration, with four. Shas, the second-largest party in the coalition, has been Barak’s most problematic partner, as it was that of his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party.

The bill was sponsored by Silvan Shalom, an ambitious, relatively young member of Likud who said in the heady flush of victory that he believes its preliminary passage signaled the beginning of the end for the 8-month-old Barak government. Others were more cautious, noting that progress in the Middle East often comes in the wake of deadlock and breakdowns.

Shalom’s bill requires the approval of 61 members of parliament, an absolute majority, for any withdrawal from the Golan Heights. It also requires approval of what sponsors called a “special majority” of eligible voters, which translates into about 62% of those who vote in an average election.

Critics said the bill is a cynical attempt to dilute the voting power of Israel’s Arab minority, who make up about 10% of the population and are considered likely to give overwhelming approval to any peace deal.