Syria and Israel’s dirty little secret - Hussain Abdul-Hussain (NOW Lebanon)

During the last week of December, two news tidbits came to the fore in Washington. The first had it that the US administration was planning to replace Peace Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell with his predecessor, current Special Advisor on Iran Dennis Ross. The second reported that America had succeeded in establishing a secret channel for peace talks between Syria and Israel.

Putting the two together, I reported that Ross had visited Damascus as a secret conduit for peace with Tel Aviv. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) denied the Ross visit and the secret channel, and insisted that Syria’s peace talks with Israel were conducted strictly through Mitchell. One day later, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein told Israel’s Channel 10, and later US daily Politico, that he had made a trip to Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad.

Hoenlein insisted, though, that the purpose of his visit was “humanitarian,” and that he sought to urge Assad to approve the return of the remaining Syrian Jews to Israel.

It is hard to believe that, with the Mideast peace process stalling on all tracks, Hoenlein – a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who made his trip with the latter’s knowledge – went to Damascus only to discuss Syrian Jews.

It is more conceivable, however, that Hoenlein’s trip was a repeat of a visit of another one of Netanyahu’s friends, Ron Lauder, to then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1998, when Netanyahu was facing trouble with Washington for dragging his feet on peace talks with the Palestinians. It has been argued that the Israeli prime minister often uses the Syrian track to ease America’s pressure on him when it comes to the Palestinians.

In 1998, like in 2007, 2008 and 2010, secret channels were created between Damascus and Tel Aviv, but none resulted in a peace accord. And while it seems that both Damascus and Tel Aviv are now familiar with such political maneuvers, it looks like Washington is the only one that never learns. Whenever an Israeli-Syrian channel is created, US officials become ecstatic, express optimism that peace could be realized very soon, and turn a new page in their relations with both Damascus and Tel Aviv.

For both Syria and Israel, the “secret peace talks” between them have proven to be the best button they can press to reset their relations with Washington. The trick has always worked.

In Beirut, the Lebanese have always known that Damascus uses the “peace talks with Israel” card whenever it feels it has its back against the wall with the Americans. But what many Lebanese don’t notice is that the Israelis also use this trick.

Between Syria and Israel, there has always been a sort of regional political symbiosis, often at the expense of the Lebanese and the Palestinians.

In 2010, Netanyahu was still being blamed in Washington – albeit discreetly – for obstructing peace with the Palestinians. The Israeli leader therefore needed a way out: Enter Hoenlein and the Syrian meeting. Assad too fears that the impending indictment from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) could point the finger at parties from his regime for the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The Israeli-Syrian maneuver is clear: A US delegate convinces Washington that both are peace-seeking nations and should be rewarded. Pressure on Netanyahu stops, while the STL is undermined.

In Washington, however, some still believe that Israeli-Syrian peace is possible. This faction now has the ear of President Barak Obama, who has been convinced that with Hoenlein visiting Assad, both Syria and Israel are serious about peace.

Obama, frustrated by the stalling Palestinian peace track, appointed Robert Ford Ambassador to Syria during the US Congressional recess, falsely believing that Israeli-Syrian peace is within reach, at least in the coming 12 months, before Ford has to appear on Capitol Hill to convince senators that his deployment was a good idea.

On a recent TV talk show that hosted me and a Syrian analyst from Damascus, I quoted a statement by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who said that it was Israel who broke Syria’s international isolation through indirect peace talks in 2008.

Naturally, the Syrian analyst was offended to hear that his country had gotten help form the “Israeli enemy.” To counter my argument, he said that on the contrary, it was former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was facing domestic political trouble and who used talks with Syria to boost his position. The analyst found himself unwillingly arguing that Damascus had extended a political lifeline to Olmert, a secret Syrians rarely like to discuss in public, but always want Washington to hear in private.

Hussain ABDUL-HUSSAIN
NOW Lebanon