Israel, still bruised and breathless from the traumas of 1995, stands on the threshold of momentous year.
For Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the new year could prove especially critical as he stakes his own political future on cutting a deal with Syria.
After a six-month hiatus, Israeli and Syrian negotiators were scheduled to return to the table this week in Maryland.
Peres is resolved to reach in 1996 for the ultimate peace deal: a “comprehensive peace” with Syria and Lebanon that would also include all but the most extremist of the remaining Arab and Muslim states – Iraq, Iran, Libya and the Sudan.
But Peres also suggested in a weekend interview with the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that a deal with Syria – far from jeopardizing his prospects in Israel’s national elections next fall – would be electorally advantageous.
Until now, Peres has maintained that a land-for-peace accord with Syria may cost him politically – but that he is prepared to cast short-term electoral considerations to the wind to seize the historic opportunity.
Is Peres gambling away his political future on a deal that would require handing over the Golan Heights in exchange for peace?
Perhaps, but Peres lost a series of elections – in 1977, 1981, 1984 and 1988 – as Israel’s ever-cautious politician, anxious to please everyone and anger no one.
Now, at 72, he is apparently preparing to stake everything on one bold but controversial move.
The mood of the country after Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination is still strongly in Peres’ favor.
But the pro-Golan activists are rekindling their campaign, led by Avigdor Kahalani, a renegade from the Labor Party and a founder and recently elected leader of the Third Way political movement.
As the prospects for a long-for-peace deal loom larger, the activists’ rhetoric is certain to heat up.
The Peres government already survived one no-confidence motion this week over negotiations with Syria and was expected to face a few more.
However, in the pursuit of peace with Syria, Peres has a strong card in his favor – the record of negotiations with the Palestinians.
The midnight Mass broadcast from Bethlehem made the world a witness to the irrevocability of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
With Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as the guest of honor at the Mass – a role traditionally reserved for a representative of the ruling power in Bethlehem – the historic meaning of the moment was evident to viewers everywhere.
The peaceable handover of Bethlehem was a huge step forward in the Israeli- Palestinian peace process.
In the past weeks, Israeli withdrew from four other West Bank population centers in rapid succession – Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Kalkilya.
Israel also was slated to withdraw from Ramallah this week, thereby fulfilling the timetable spelled out in the accord for extending Palestinian autonomy in the West bank that was signed September in Washington.
In March, it will be the turn of Heborn, where Israeli troops will redeploy to positions guarding Jewish settlements in the tension-filled town.
Along with much of the rest of the world, the Syrains were watching the midnight Mass in Bethlehem.
They see that the peace process with the Palestinians is advancing so quickly and so relatively smoothly that they are in real danger of being left out altogether unless they climb aboard.
Once the so-called “permanent-status” negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders get going in earnest – they are scheduled to start in May, but will presumably tread water until after the Israeli elections – Syria may find itself sidelined.
That many explain why Damascus has provided hints that it, too, is ready to ink a deal.
In the weeks since the Nov. 4 assassination of Rabin, Syria’s government-run media have run articles favorable toward Peres, sparking assessments that there has been a change of attitude toward reaching a deal with the Jewish state.
Over the weekend, during a visit to Cairo, Syrian President Hafez Assad delivered a series of unprecedented upbeat remarks about the peace process.
Travelling hard on his heels, Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak also paid a weekend visit to the Egyptian capital for meetings with president Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian officials.
In comments to reporters, Barak delivered an upbeat assessment of the prospects for an Israeli-Syrian peace.
“We are more optimistic than a few weeks ago,” he said. “We see a warmer response coming from Syria.”
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