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2 How Syria dodged a neo-con
bullet By Jim Lobe
Lebanon by subverting the government of
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and providing support
to the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Assad
himself argued as much in his Repubblica
interview. "The most important thing ... is that
Washington doesn't want that. This means
[Olmert's] is a weak government; it allows
Washington to take the decision instead of the
Israeli government."
But while hardliners
such as Cheney's office and Abrams still
have
the upper hand on Syria policy, the administration
is also finding itself under growing pressure to
rethink its strategy there, as in Iraq.
This month, the bipartisan Iraq Study
Group called for Washington to engage Damascus and
Tehran directly in regional negotiations designed
to stabilize Iraq. Like some prominent Israelis,
the ISG's co-chairman, former secretary of state
James Baker, has argued that creative diplomacy
could woo Damascus away from its strategic
alliance with Iran.
"If you can flip the
Syrians, you will cure Israel's Hezbollah
problem," he said recently, adding that Syrian
officials - he met with the foreign minister in
September - had indicated they could persuade
Hamas' militant external wing to accept Olmert's
conditions for direct engagement with the
Palestinians.
The idea of engaging Syria
has attracted growing support not only from the US
foreign-policy establishment and Democrats,
several of whom have made or are making their way
to Damascus over the Christmas recess, but from
some important Republican lawmakers as well.
Senator Arlen Specter is due to travel there next
week, while even Senator Sam Brownback, the
favored 2008 presidential candidate of the
Christian Right, has endorsed what he called the
ISG's call for a "very aggressive, regional
diplomatic effort".
The idea of engaging
Syria - particularly as part of a broader "land
for peace" deal with Israel - is anathema to the
neo-conservatives, whose ranks within the
administration have steadily diminished over the
past two years and now, in the wake of Defense
Secretary Robert Gates' replacement of Donald
Rumsfeld, face further losses in the Pentagon.
Until his nomination, Gates served as a member of
the ISG and, during his confirmation hearings,
indicated sympathy with its diplomatic ideas.
Indeed, Meyrav Wurmser, who is herself an
Israeli closely identified with the Likud Party,
expressed a sense of imminent defeat. Noting last
week's departure of former ambassador to the UN
John Bolton, a key neo-conservative ally, she
said, "There are others who are about to leave.
"This administration is in its twilight
days," she said. "Everyone is now looking for
work, looking to make money ... We all feel beaten
after the past five years ..."
While she
blamed Rumsfeld, the military and the State
Department for the failure to achieve
neo-conservative goals in Iraq and the wider
region, she also attacked Israel's conduct of the
summer's war, insisting that it provoked "a lot of
anger" in Washington, presumably in her husband's
office, among other places.
"The final
outcome is that Israel did not do it [attack
Syria]. It fought the wrong war and lost ...
instead of a strategic war that would serve
Israel's objectives, as well as the US objectives
in Iraq."
IPS sought comment from Wurmser,
but its calls went unreturned.
