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Jewish World Review May 23, 2008 / 18 Iyar 5768 Assad's week of triumph By Caroline B. Glick
Monday morning, it was already clear that the sun was shining on Damascus
when Vice Premier Haim Ramon acknowledged that in direct contravention of
the government's own binding decision, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is
conducting negotiations with Iran's Palestinian proxy Hamas.
The day after Ramon's announcement, Defense Minister Ehud Barak went down to
Egypt to conclude a ceasefire agreement with Hamas through the group's Arab
sponsor - Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. The terms of the accord require
Israel to stop fighting Hamas. Hamas has pledged to decrease the number of
rockets, missiles and mortars it shoots at Sderot, Ashkelon and surrounding
communities. During its bombing hiatus, Hamas will build its army and bring
in still more weapons and fighters from Iran through Egypt.
Once the ceasefire agreement is finalized, Hamas and Fatah will immediately
reunify their forces. Since Israel has now accepted Hamas as a legitimate
force, it will have no call for arguing against Fatah doing the same.
Through the new Hamas-Fatah government, Hamas will maintain its military
control over Gaza and expand its control over Judea and Samaria and the
US-trained and armed PA militias. With Hamas formally ensconced in power,
Western states will line up to recognize it and remove it from their terror
lists. Israel will be forced to continue provide food, water, fuel, medical
care, electricity, jobs and consumer markets for the Palestinians.
Hamas's great leap forward on Monday and Tuesday would have been enough to
put a smile on Assad's face but then along came Wednesday and turned that
smile into a glow of unqualified delight. For on Wednesday, Syria regained
effective control over Lebanon and was restored to its position of honor in
the Arab world. Washington too, was compelled to forego its legitimate
hostility.
Syria's road to Beirut was paved Wednesday by the Saniora government's
official surrender of power to Hizbullah. In the "agreement" mediated by
Qatar - one of Iran's Persian Gulf affiliates - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad
Saniora ceded control over the Lebanese government to Hizbullah, which now
has a cabinet majority. This couldn't be better news for Syria.
Hizbullah has acted as Damascus's chief defender in Lebanon since Lebanon's
now defeated March 14 democracy movement forced Syrian troops out of the
country in March 2005 after Damascus masterminded the assassination of
former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Hizbullah's takeover of the Lebanese
government will enable Syria to again treat Lebanon as its colony.
Hizbullah's control of the Lebanese government has also guaranteed that
Beirut will stop supporting the UN's investigation of Hariri's murder and
this is deeply significant for Damascus.
With the termination of the UN inquiry comes the termination of Damascus's
international isolation. Since the regime in Damascus is no longer in danger
of being convicted of murder, it will be impossible for Western governments
to argue that it should be overthrown or even sanctioned for its criminal
behavior. The Olmert-Livni-Barak(nee Peretz) government is at least
partially to blame for Hizbullah's takeover of Lebanon.
By refusing to fight the 2006 war with Hizbullah to victory, the
Olmert-Livni-Peretz government paved the way for the Iranian proxy group's
takeover of Lebanon. Last week the Olmert-Livni-Barak government had the
option of acting to prevent Hizbullah's takeover of Lebanon. In deciding to
do nothing, it enabled Hizbullah's putsch in Western Beirut and Tripoli and
through them, its assertion of control over the whole of Lebanon.
So between Monday and Wednesday, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government enabled
Iran's proxies and Syria's terror clients to entrench their control along
its northern and southern borders. And that isn't all it did.
Just as the Saniora government was signing its unconditional surrender to
Hizbullah in Doha, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office released its
announcement that Israel is negotiating the surrender of the Golan Heights
to Syria through Turkish mediators.
Ankara and Damascus released identical announcements of the talks at the
same time as Jerusalem. Although the official scripts were serious in tone,
once they were out, Syrian spokesmen could not restrain their glee. Members
of Assad's ruling clique rightly bragged that Israel's acceptance of Assad
as a legitimate negotiating partner makes it impossible for the Sunni Arab
states and the US to boycott Damascus.
So just two months after the Lebanese, Saudis, Jordanians and Egyptians
boycotted the Arab League summit in Damascus as a sign of their rejection of
Syria's Iranian controllers and of Damascus's support for the Hizbullah
takeover of Lebanon, thanks to the Olmert-Livni-Barak government, Syria is
again a full-fledged and respectable member of the international community.
The US and Iran's Arab foes have no choice but to accept Syria now.
Israelis like retired generals Amnon Lipkin Shahak and Uri Saguy have close
personal relations with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
and Barak and have been pushing for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan
Heights for some 15 years. Their argument for moving ahead in recent years
has been that by offering the Golan Heights to Syria, Israel will pull Syria
out of Iran's sphere of influence. Opponents of negotiations like Mossad
chief Meir Dagan have argued that such negotiations will have just the
opposite effect.
As Syria's ecstatic reaction to Israel's announcement demonstrated, the
Saguy-Shahak-Barak-Ashkenazi crowd is completely wrong and Dagan is
completely right. By negotiating with Syria while it is firmly entrenched in
the Iranian axis, Israel has not moderated the regime. It has legitimized
Syria's presence in the Iranian axis.
That is, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government's embrace of Syria as a credible
negotiating partner and Olmert's statement Wednesday evening that he
supports giving Syria the Golan Heights even as the Assad regime hosts Hamas
and a dozen other genocidal jihadist groups; as Syria acts as Hizbullah's
partner and logistical base and the main entry point for jihadists into
Iraq; and with Damascus having effectively rendered itself Iran's Arab
colony means that Israel has legitimized Syria's behavior. Now that Syria
has received Israel's stamp of approval, the other Arabs and the US have no
excuse for continuing to oppose it.
In Israel, news of Olmert's embrace of Syria was greeted with derision by
the public. According to a Channel 2 poll conducted after Olmert's office
announced its negotiations with Syria, 70 percent of Israelis oppose
surrendering the Golan to Syria in exchange for peace. 58 percent of
Israelis believe that Olmert is only conducting negotiations to divert the
public's attention away from the corruption probe being carried out against
him.
It is deeply frustrating that Olmert, who led Israel to defeat in war in
2006 at the hands of Hizbullah; who has allowed southern Israel to become a
free fire zone for Hamas; who is under 5 separate criminal investigations
for financial corruption and influence peddling; and who is conducting talks
with the powerless Fatah terror group towards the surrender of Judea,
Samaria and Jerusalem to Hamas, now is pushing an Israeli surrender of the
Golan Heights to Syria. And all the more depressing is the fact that he is
getting away with it.
Many supporters of Israel cannot understand how it is that Olmert and his
colleagues - principally Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - have managed to stay
in power. Throughout their two year tenure in office, Olmert and his
colleagues have displayed nothing but incompetence bordering on idiocy in
their conduct of Israel's foreign affairs. They have caused enormous damage
to Israel's strategic ties with the US by refusing to contend with Iran's
Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian clients and proxies or with Iran itself.
Why, these supporters of Israel ask, is the Olmert-Livni-Barak government
still in power?
The Olmert-Livni-Barak government has three main assets that make it all but
impossible to topple and set a date for new general elections. The first
asset is Olmert's complete and utter lack of shame and coupled with his
unbridled opportunism. Olmert is a man who will stop at nothing to remain in
power. He will lose the war with Hizbullah and refrain from defending
southern Israel. He will imperil the north by facilitating Hizbullah's
takeover of Lebanon and its rearmament. He will imperil Jerusalem and the
center of the country by negotiating the surrender of Judea and Samaria and
eastern Jerusalem. He will do all of this and more if that is what it takes
to stay in power. And by his estimation that is what needs to be done
because to stay in power he needs to maintain the support of the
post-Zionists who control the media, the Labor party and the state
prosecution. All these make up the government's second asset.
Former prime minister Ariel Sharon exposed and exacerbated the underlying
corruption of Israel's political classes by doctrinaire leftists who control
the media and the state prosecution when in late 2003 he responded to the
corruption probe being carried out against him and his sons by announcing
that he would expel all Israelis from Gaza and hand the area over to the
Palestinians. For his efforts on behalf of the radical Left, Sharon received
a Get Out of Jail Free card and was hailed as a visionary leader.
Already on Sunday - after Ramon announced the government's negotiations with
Hamas - Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said that the current probe of
suspicions that Olmert received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes
from American businessman Morris Talansky will take months to conclude. The
implication was clear: Olmert is free to go ahead with all negotiations
toward land giveaways.
The fact that Olmert's announcement of his talks with Syria was synchronized
with the release of new details of his alleged criminal activities made a
lot of reporters snort. The opportunism was too blatant to ignore. And yet,
the heavyweights at Ha'aretz and their water carriers at state television
didn't bat a lash as they launched into impassioned defenses of Olmert.
Ignoring the general glee in Damascus, Channel 1's diplomatic reporter and
Olmert cheerleader Ayala Hasson said the announcement couldn't be spin since
Syria released its announcement of the talks the same time Olmert's office
did. And of course, Hasson explained sagely, Syria wouldn't want to do
Olmert any favors.
Labor ministers like Peace Now founders Education Minister Yuli Tamir said
that obviously Labor will be compelled to stay in the government now because
the "peace process" must not be sacrificed for anything - even if it means
that a crook remains in charge.
The Olmert-Livni-Barak government's final asset is the fact that the Right
was decimated in the 2006 elections. Without Shas and some breakaways from
Kadima, there is simply no way to bring down the government. The votes
aren't there. And Shas isn't going anywhere. Olmert made sure of that by
approving 286 building permits for new homes for Shas voters in Beitar Illit
on Wednesday afternoon.
So Olmert and his cadres remain in power and all of Israel suffers. But at
least Syria's happy. And so is Iran. And so is Hizbullah. And so is Hamas.
JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. Comment by clicking here.
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