Syria-Israel peace at hand

It makes sense to conclude that peace between Israel and Syria is close at hand. But the optimistic outlook must be tempered by the fact that the Syrian-Israeli track of the Middle East peace process has made no significant headway since it was launched at the Madrid peace conference in October 1991. Whereas it was always thought that the Palestinian problem would be the hardest and perhaps last to resolve of Middle East conflicts, it was in fact the first mountain scaled and conquered. The Syrian question has turned out to be the hardest nut to crack.

The reasons are varied. Maybe because the Golan is a prized piece of strategic land for whoever controls it. Or because there was never any uprising on it to worry Israeli authorities or stir the ire of world public opinion. Or because the Golan Heights are full of Jewish settlers who won't bulge nor does Tel Aviv have the nerve to tell them that they must leave. Whatever the reasons, the results have always been the same: Israeli occupation of Arab land.

This could be about to change, again for a host of reasons: A withdrawal from the Golan could contribute to the end of the Arab economic boycott of Israel, a more flexible Israeli labor government more malleable to peace overtures as well as a new Israeli generation, which sees peace as inevitable, a price their country must pay for the decades of grief it wrought on the region.

It is obvious that Syria's stand is the more logical. It demands of Israel, first and foremost, to withdraw from its land. Israel should do what is right and just. Then and only then can Israel ask Syria to establish diplomatic relations, open borders, trade and encourage tourism.

-- Arab News, Jidda