International Disputes Are Seldom Black and White

Israel's Objections To Peace With Syria

Syria's Objections To Peace With Israel

Israel's border with Syria is its quietest border - Since 1974, there have been very few occasions in which we witnessed an exchange of fire on the Golan front. Syria has been completely deterred, and will never move a single soldier into now-Israeli soil. Why then should Israel give up land to a weak neighbour?

What was taken by force can only be regained by force - Israel only understands force. Its army withdrew from Lebanon (Twice) because it could not defeat Hizbollah.  We should opt for resistance even if it will take many more years before we can liberate our land. Israel will eventually understand it can not continue to hold to the occupied Arab lands by force.

The Golan Heights are strategically valuable to Israel - With the Golan Heights under its control, Syria will be able to resume shelling northern Israel and Israel will lose the ability to monitor and detect potentially hostile Syrian army troop movements. Giving up the Golan Heights is risky. Israel can not afford to take that risk.

Israel cannot survive without a conflict - Israel is a country that must be continuously involved in war and conflict in order to sustain its standing in the Middle East. Peace and open trades/borders with its Arab neighbors will dilute Israel's Jewish identity and cause it, in the long run, to dissolve in Middle East's vast sea of religious and ethnic minorities.

Syria supports terrorism against Israel - Syria's relationship with Hezbollah and with Hamas goes well beyond a merely political one, and in fact includes financial and military support, which is later used against Israel. How can we make peace with a nation that says it wants peace, but at the same time supports terrorist organizations?

The only satisfactory solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is a one-state solution, which is antithetical to Zionism. - Most Arabs and Muslims have no objection to co-existing with Jews. We had been doing it for hundreds of years in good faith and in peace, before Zionism took over Judaism.

Syria lost the Golan because it attacked Israel - Israel captured the Golan Heights in 1967 because Syria attacked periodically or continuously Israeli settlements below the Heights, inside Israel. Syria and Egypt were planning to destroy Israel, and Israel was left with no choice but to preempt, and to capture this strategic territory.

There is little evidence that Israel values peace - Some statements and actions by the Israeli government stir the prolonged doubt of the Syrian and Arab world in Israel's real motivations and sought goals for engaging in peace negotiations. An impetus for this doubt is the absence of any evidence that Israel realizes the tactical and strategic value of peace with Syria.

Syria has close relations with Iran, a mortal enemy of Israel - Syria is Iran's ally. Iran poses an existential threat to the state of Israel. The president of Iran periodically makes statements predicting the end of Israel. Israel should not talk to Syria until it cuts its relations with Iran.

There is no guarantee that successive Israeli governments will recognize earlier agreements - During the last round of the indirect Syrian-Israel negotiations in Turkey, the Israeli team could not even guarantee that the next Israeli government would honor the agreed pre-negotiations terms and preparatory steps!