Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly told Italy’s foreign minister recently that he, Olmert, believed he could persuade President George W. Bush to get actively involved in Israel’s peace negotiations with Syria.
Say, what? Israel is struggling to persuade America to help it negotiate peace with an Arab state?
Unfortunately, yes. That has been the situation for quite some time.
And except for several dovish American Jewish organizations, America’s pro-Israel establishment has done almost nothing to bring the Bush administration to the table.
Israel’s government wants its talks with Syria to continue. So does the majority of the Israeli public. So should the administration and so should Israel’s friends in the United States.
Pro-Israel American organizations could play a key role in helping Israel obtain President Bush’s active support for the ongoing Israeli-Syrian peace talks.
Behind the scenes, senior Israeli officials have been urging the Bush administration for years to abandon its policy of isolating Syria, to stop trying to induce regime-change in Damascus, to try to bring Syria back into the family of nations and to offer President Bashar al-Assad an alternative to his alliance with Iran.
Source of tension
What to do about Syria has for years been a major source of tension between Israel and the Bush administration.
Israeli diplomats were alarmed in 2003 when Bush aides seriously suggested joint U.S.-Israeli efforts to topple Assad’s regime. Doing that, the Israelis warned, would open the door for Islamist militants to fill the void in Damascus.
Israeli officials were horrified in the summer of 2006 when some in the administration seriously suggested that Israel broaden its military campaign against Lebanon’s Hezbollah and attack Syria in a gambit to topple Assad. Israeli diplomats warn that isolating Syria is pushing it deeper into Iran’s embrace.
Olmert’s government had to plead with the Bush administration to invite Syrian representatives to the Annapolis peace conference in November.
For a long time, Olmert rejected Assad’s calls for renewed negotiations. Why?
Olmert told his government ministers that the reason was the White House’s objection. After all, Israel’s chief national security asset is its alliance with the United States, Olmert said.
Now, after more Israeli pleas, the Bush administration has lifted its objection to Israel’s engagement with Syria. Peace negotiations between Israeli and Syrian diplomats are taking place through Turkish mediation.
Senior Israeli officials have been saying recently that the main motivation for the talks is a joint Israeli-Syrian interest: Both Jerusalem and Damascus are seeking a Syrian realignment with the West, rather than with Iran.
Israel has an obvious interest in driving a wedge between Syria and Iran. Assad, too, would rather align himself with the U.S.-led West than with Iran’s Islamist fanatics, according to Israeli intelligence reports.
Obviously, the United States also has a strong interest in Syria’s realignment. It has a strong interest in peace between Israel and its neighbors, in weakening Iran and in stabilizing the region.
Bush’s stubborn refusal to join Israel and Syria at the peace table is wrong. It must change for the sake of America’s national security interests and for the sake of Israel’s.
The time has come for American friends of Israel to tell President Bush — and both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain — that unwavering U.S. support for the negotiations and involvement in them is needed.
We aren’t shy about pushing for American support when Israel goes to war. Why be meek when Israel goes to the negotiations table?
Israel now needs Washington’s active involvement in its peace negotiations with Syria. Such an involvement will necessitate a significant adjustment of the White House’s Syria policy.
Adjustments are never easy to make, but in this case such an adjustment could have enormous dividends.
It could be the first step toward peace for Israel on its northern front. It could be a giant step toward a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, which has always been a key U.S. foreign policy interest.
America’s pro-Israel community could do a great service to Israel and to the U.S. by joining Americans for Peace Now in calling on the Bush administration to stop sitting on its hands and join Israel at the negotiating table.
Ori Nir is the Americans for Peace Now spokesperson. This article originally appeared in the Washington Jewish Week.
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