The peace process between Israel and Syria Foreign Policy in Focus
May 20, 2002
By Stephen ZunesWithout Soviet support, Syrian military power has fallen dramatically while Israel's has been further strengthened, in large measure with U.S. assistance. Indeed, in this era of medium-range missiles, controlling high ground such as the Golan would not yield Syria a significant military advantage. Despite this--and despite Israel's unprecedented military advantage--successive Israeli governments have convinced much of the Israeli public and Israel's supporters in the United States that retaining this territory is critical to Israel's survival.
The U.S. continues to include Syria on its list of "terrorist states," even though the State Department has admitted they have no evidence of the Syrian government being linked to any terrorist attacks since 1986. Being on the list denies Syria access to foreign aid and certain high-technology imports. Washington has offered to remove Syria from the list only if it makes peace with Israel largely on U.S.-Israeli terms.
Given that Israel is widely viewed in the U.S. as a pro-Western democracy and that Syria is a dictatorship that once had close ties with the Soviets, there has been an understandable bias in the U.S. toward Israel in the peace process. This perspective is compounded by the fact that for most of Israel's history, the Syrians refused to negotiate, financed terrorist groups that attacked Israeli civilians, and sought Israel's destruction.
As a result, few Americans recognize the fact that, in the current negotiations, Syria's position is actually more moderate than Israel's, since Syria is more consistent with UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, or "land for peace," which the U.S. pledged would be the basis of the talks when they opened in Madrid in 1991.
Stephen Zunes (stephen@coho.org)serves as Middle East editor for Foreign Policy In Focus (online at www.fpif.org). He is an associate professor of politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He has met with both Israeli and Syrian foreign ministers and has visited both sides of the Golan.