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Last update - 09:22 02/05/2008 The Syrian-Palestinian lie By Akiva Eldar Tags: Syria, Israel, PA AQABA, Jordan - Last Friday, a few hours after a terrorist killed two Israeli security guards in the West Bank and helicopters chased the launchers of Qassam rockets in the Gaza Strip, a small group of young Israelis and Palestinians sat together in a hotel in Aqaba. A top Jordanian official proudly told the guests, activists of the Seeds of Peace organization, about joint economic projects benefiting all three peoples. During the break, the lecturer led me to a corner and asked, "Can you explain to me why your government is ignoring Jordan and the Arab peace initiative?" Moreover, he asked, "Don't you understand what catastrophe will befall us, both the Jordanians and the Israelis, if you do not reach an arrangement with the Palestinians this year?" On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had a chance to hear the same thing from higher up. King Abdullah invited Olmert to Amman, to repeat the message of distress he had conveyed to President George W. Bush a few days earlier. You did not need to be a fly on the wall to know what was said at the royal palace. Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir, who accompanied the king on his visit to the U.S., warned Jewish activists in New York that missing the opportunity to strike a peace deal this year "will affect us all." The Jordanian officials did not mean peace between Israel and Syria. Advertisement In his book "The Much Too Promised Land," Aaron David Miller, who was deputy head of the U.S. Israeli-Palestinian peace team, writes that in the days of Yitzhak Rabin's government, the "Syria first" approach ended in deep disappointment. Under Ehud Barak, Miller claims, the same approach led both to the blocking of the Israel-Syria channel and a crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. Olmert's attempt to reopen the Syrian channel at the expense of the talks with the Palestinians will not only accomplish nothing on either front; with the long arms of Iran and Al-Qaida (a new periodical the organization published in Gaza received the blessing of Ayman al-Zawahiri) reaching every corner of the region, such a move might unsettle even the fragile peace with Jordan and Egypt and bury the Arab peace initiative. According to briefings held by close Olmert associates, there is a race between Olmert's emissaries to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the discreet talks that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is holding with chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia. Recent reports have portrayed the prime minister as a vigorous statesman without requiring him to pay a political price for it. After Washington publicly exposed the nefarious ties between Syria and North Korea, what are the odds that President Bush will remove Damascus from the "axis of evil"? It is hard to imagine that Olmert believes Assad will cut off his ties to Iran and Hezbollah as long as the U.S. is keeping him outside a locked door. In fact, Olmert is part of a big charade being held for the upcoming visit by President Bush, patron of the Annapolis declaration: "an effort to reach an agreement by the end of 2008." The talk of an alleged breakthrough in the attempts to renew negotiations between Jerusalem and Damascus are nothing more than camouflage for a major setback in Israel's talks with the Palestinians. A deep source in the negotiations revealed this week that the disagreements between the two sides far exceed the points of agreement. It is hard to imagine that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be tempted to embrace the Israeli proposal, which requires the Palestinians to give up 8 percent of the West Bank (for compensation of no more than 2 percent) and to agree to Israeli sovereignty over the Holy Basin in Jerusalem, including the Old City, as well as to mere crumbs on the refugee issue (family unification for 10,000 people). All while Israel continues to enlarge outposts and add roadblocks. When the negotiations with the Palestinians come to a noisy end, and Hamas, having obtained calm in Gaza, drives the remnants of the "two-state camp" out of the Muqata in Ramallah, the balloon of the Turkish-mediated romance with Syria will also pop loudly. The supposed negotiations in two simultaneous channels will become a case of double Israeli recalcitrance. Assad will wave around his fruitless wooing of Olmert and the violation of the Annapolis declaration. He will call for the implementation of the Arab League's Damascus declaration from March, he will claim that the peace initiative with Israel must be reexamined, and he will demand that Egypt and Jordan adhere to the standard of making normalization with the Jewish State conditional on its withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 borders. That is the danger of which King Abdullah spoke to Bush. That is why he invited Olmert to Amman. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Under probe Olmert stays focused on work despite new allegations. Taxi Hamas Hamas police cars serve as taxis in fuel-starved Gaza.   1.   Change is on the way 09:56  |  Natallie Durson 02/05/08   2.   Natalie 10:51  |  Reid 02/05/08   3.   Same old same old Israel 11:19  |  Marilyn 02/05/08   4.   Reid .. Thanks for the attention 11:47  |  Natallie Durson 02/05/08   5.   akiva eldar and uri saguy " we love syria to pieces" 12:31  |  harzion 02/05/08   6.   if iran is encouraging terrorists then two can play the game 12:35  |  zimri 02/05/08   7.   akiva eldar has no credibility 13:28  |  harzion 02/05/08   8.   #1 15:07  |  Buzaglow 02/05/08   9.   Natallie durson .. are you asleep 15:53  |  Truth 02/05/08   10.   Facts for Nathalie 15:57  |  daniel 02/05/08   11.   wasn`t it mr. eldar who wrote in january 2007... 16:31  |  saul a. readner 02/05/08   12.   Natalie - you go girl! 16:35  |  Bob 02/05/08   13.   Syria/Egypt 19:04  |  Paul 02/05/08   14.   Every body wants to be a big shot RIGHT ??? 19:12  |  M. S. 02/05/08   15.   peas talks 19:36  |  Ben 02/05/08   16.   Eldar - He Does Not Approve of Lies ? 21:56  |  Tod Zuckerman 02/05/08   17.   to Reid #2 - how to convince people 23:00  |  zeev 02/05/08   18.   to Tod Zuckerman #9 - mistaken 23:43  |  zeev 02/05/08   19.   Reply To Zeev - #10 01:08  |  Tod Zuckerman 03/05/08   20.   Natallie - Sorry for not enough Jewish fatalaties 02:34  |  Shafrir Yisraeli 03/05/08   21.   to saul a. readner #11 08:13  |  zeev 03/05/08   22.   zeev 10:44  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 03/05/08   23.   to Tod Zuckerman #19 - still mistaken 14:30  |  zeev 03/05/08   24.   to CJ Kohn #22 14:46  |  zeev 03/05/08   25.   Facts for daniel #10 18:22  |  zeev 03/05/08   26.   Crunch time for Israel and Jordan 14:42  |  d singer 05/05/08

Read & React Akiva Eldar: It's time for Tzipi Livni as PM, rather than Netanyahu Responses: 34 Maoz: Ultra-Orthodox make Judaism repulsive to Jews Responses: 41 Harel & Issacharoff: Hamas may also lose from PM's legal woes Responses: 23 Documents reveal U.K. tried to ship Holocaust survivors back to Germany Responses: 55 More Headlines 14:38 Peres: I'm not in favor of a military strike on Iran 14:10 Sources: PM probe clear-cut; decision on indictment in days 13:00 Police storm Warsaw hotel room, free three captive Jewish teens 13:18 Two people hurt as 7 rockets slam into western Negev 10:33 Iran: We won't abandon nuclear aims for Western incentives 11:20 16 Israeli civilians killed this year in terror acts, 1,634 since May, '48 08:53 Documents: U.K. tried to ship Holocaust survivors back to Germany 14:40 Arab states mull emergency fund to fight food inflation 13:52 Court sentences two men to 9 years in prison for robbing elderly woman 10:17 1948 diaries: Saving the Jews from themselves 08:37 Rumblings of dissatisfaction 09:01 Olmert used PMO to further wife's art career Previous Editions Select Day 04 may 02 may 01 may 30 apr 29 apr 28 apr 27 apr 25 apr 24 apr 23 apr 22 apr 21 apr

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