Golan Heights. Originally uploaded by upyernoz
the more i think about the israeli-syrian negotiations the more i'm convinced they won't result in a peace agreement. i don't have any idea how likely the syrian side is to work towards a deal, the problem i see is on the israeli side. really there's two problems:
(1) olmert is politically weak. he has only a bare majority in parliament and is the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation.
(2) 2/3 of the israeli public opposes returning golan to syria in exchange for a deal.
if either of the two factors weren't true, i would be more optimistic. a strong leader could win over the public. and if the public were behind the idea of a golan for peace deal, a weak leader wouldn't have a problem jumping on that band wagon. but with both #1 and #2, i don't know how there will be a deal, at least not in the short term. (in the long term things could change)
in any case, i'm still glad they're talking. sometimes these things take a long time to work out. plus, i could be wrong.
