Syria, Israel Move Closer to Peace Deal

Reports have begun to surface indicating that top officials of the Israeli government are entertaining the idea of a deal with neighboring Syria that would involve Israel relinquishing control of the disputed Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement. The Golan Heights were seized from Syria by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War after Syria used the region to launch multiple artillery attacks into Israeli territory. In 1973, Syria briefly regained control of the Heights, but was subsequently ousted once again by the Israeli military.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, nearly 40,000 people inhabit the Golan Heights, including 16,500 Israelis, 2,100 Muslims, and 19,300 Druze. Damascus online, a web site devoted to matters regarding Syria, says Israel has built more than 30 settlement areas in the nearly 500-square mile region of the Golan Heights.

So far, there has been no denial from the Israeli government that a deal is in the works, but before any agreement could be hammered out other sticky issues would likely have to be resolved. Sources of conflict between Israel and Syria include the latter's support of terrorist acts targeting Israel and the deepening of ties between Syria and Iran. The Golan Heights have long been considered critical terrain for Israel, in no small part because Israel gets a large portion of its water supply from the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret. Additionally, control of the Golan Heights offers relatively easy access to the heart of Syria, making a defense of Israel considerably harder if the Israeli government cedes the region to Syria.

It is unclear at this point whether or not the coalition government in Israel can be rallied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in support of a deal that would cede the Golan Heights to Syria. Both the Israeli and Syrian governments would likely come under fire for any deal, given that Israeli citizens remain seriously concerned about the threats that Syria poses and that the Syrian population would be distrustful of any agreement reached with a government seen as a decades-long occupier of Syrian land.

The idea of returning the Golan to Syria is not new, but obstacles have consistently arisen to derail potential agreements. Negotiations in the region are complex, to say the least, and any type of peace deal requires great patience, trust, and compromise by all involved. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise has posited two possible compromise scenarios regarding control of the Golan Heights: first, Israel could partially withdraw from the Heights in accordance with a 1974 agreement; second, both Syria and Israel could agree to make the region a demilitarized zone with all forces withdrawn.

Sources: CFR, Damascus Online, Jewish Virtual Library