Israeli President Says He Will Invite Syrian Leader for Talks

Only hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cracked open the door to a resumption of contacts with Syria, Israel’s president announced early today that he was inviting the Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, to visit Israel and hold talks.

“I invite the president of Syria to come to Jerusalem and meet with the heads of the state and hold serious negotiations,” President Moshe Katsav said on Israel Radio.

Sharon, in a speech the evening before, had said Israel would in principle be willing to talk with Syria, long considered an implacable foe. But the prime minister attached a heavy precondition: Syria must first cut its close ties with radical Islamic groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

“What should be done is that Syria should stop its help and support of terrorist organizations,” Sharon told foreign journalists. “If that will happen, Israel will be very glad to negotiate.”

It was not immediately clear whether Katsav had formally invited the Syrian leader. Katsav also said Israel needed to carefully weigh Syria’s motives before embarking on any talks.

Debate has broken out within Sharon’s government over how to respond to Assad’s expressions of interest in a dialogue with Israel, which have been voiced over the last several weeks through private channels as well as in press interviews. The younger Assad took power in June 2000 upon the death of his long-ruling father, Hafez Assad.

At a meeting Sunday of the Israeli Cabinet, some of Sharon’s ministers insisted that Israel had little to lose by talking to Syria. Technically, the two countries remain in a state of war, although their border has been quiet for many years.

“I believe we should take the Syrian plea seriously, even if cautiously,” Justice Minister Tommy Lapid of the centrist Shinui party told Israel Radio.

Bashar Assad, he said, was “operating under heavy American pressure, but we shouldn’t ignore him.... After all, we cannot say we have nothing to say about peace. This would be absurd.”

Others, though, voiced support for the prime minister’s skeptical stance. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative, said there was no reason, at least for the moment, to respond positively to the Syrian signals.

“Israel shouldn’t rush to help Assad’s tyrannical regime at a time of distress,” Netanyahu told reporters. “Syria needs a peace agreement with Israel much more than Israel needs a peace agreement with Syria. Syria will have to pay.”

The main bone of contention between Israel and Syria is the Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

Sharon’s aides have said the prime minister believes that Israelis could not countenance giving up the lush, rugged plateau, which some military strategists still regard as a crucial buffer zone between Israel and a hostile neighbor.

Under the Israeli system of government, the prime minister, and not the president, is the chief policymaker. But it was unlikely that Katsav would make an important gesture without prior consultation with Sharon.

Sharon appears particularly loath to entertain the idea of territorial concessions to Syria as he moves toward what could be an all-out confrontation with what was once his prime constituency: Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The settlers and their supporters staged a rally Sunday night that drew more than 100,000 people, according to police estimates. But the prime minister, speaking in Jerusalem as the march got underway in Tel Aviv, reiterated his intention to relinquish some settlements.

“Israel will not be able to hold all the Jewish communities” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he said. As for the intended show of strength by the settlers, Sharon declared: “Things are decided not by demonstrators, but the government.”

Leftist politicians, meanwhile, argued that getting Syria to abandon its support for groups like Hezbollah and Hamas -- which are sworn to Israel’s destruction -- should be a goal in talks, rather than a precondition for them.

“Sometimes we put the cart before the horse,” said Yossi Sarid, a prominent dove. “It’s clear the Syrians have to stop supporting Hezbollah, but it’s possible this will be the outcome of negotiations.”

Some former diplomats and negotiators said Israel should make use of discreet back channels to assess the degree of seriousness on Assad’s part.

Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and a veteran of previous talks with the Syrians, told Israel Radio he believed Assad’s intentions were deserving of close scrutiny by Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom disclosed that seven or eight months ago, Israel had indirect contacts with the Syrian leader. He said those talks broke down after word leaked out that they were taking place.

Under Sharon, Israel has not hesitated to engage in saber-rattling -- and more -- when it comes to Syria.

In October, Israel launched an airstrike on an alleged terrorist training camp inside Syria after a suicide bomber affiliated with the group Islamic Jihad blew herself up at a restaurant in Haifa, killing 19 people.