Olmert hearts Assad?

A year after Ehud Olmert described Syria as "the single most aggressive member of the axis of evil", dismissing peace negotiations until "Syria stops supporting terrorism, when it stops giving missiles to terror organizations", the Israeli prime minister today said he wanted to "make peace unconditionally and without demands with Syria", adding that he has "lot of respect" for Bashar Assad and his policy. 

"We want to make peace… we are willing to make peace with Syria unconditionally and without demands. I have a lot of respect for the Syrian leader and the Syrian policy," Olmert said in a meeting with Russian reporters at his Jerusalem residence.  The Syrians "have internal problems," the PM said, "but we have no reason to rule out dialogue with Syria."

Olmert, who still won't comment on a mysterious air raid on Syria last week, was joined by Israeli president Shimon Peres, who declared that "recent tensions between Syria and Israel are now over".

Israel's Nobel Prize-winning president, Shimon Peres, on Tuesday said recent tensions between his country and Syria were now "over" and expressed optimism about an upcoming Mideast peace conference in Washington.

These strange statements are raising eyebrows everywhere. Is Olmert confused, or is he feeling more confident after the mysterious airstrike boosted his popularity index and exposed Bashar's vulnerability? How can he have "a lot of respect" for Syrian policy? Some might take these statements at face value to conclude that the Israeli government feels that it accomplished its objectives through that raid, and is now sending assurances to the Assad regime that it's "over", and that its problems with Lebanon (Syria's so called internal problems) should not stand in the way of negotiations in which the Israelis have the upper hand (or so they think).

Comments

[Bad Vilbel]

I'm going to go ahead and venture a guess here. It seems unlikely that Olmert is that naive or confused. So I am assuming that the latest comments come from a position of strength.

Let us not forget that for the past 6 years (since 2000's withdrawal), Syria has basically been able to tease Israel with complete impunity, whenever it wanted, through South Lebanon and Hamas. Israel consistently re-assured Damascus (none as clearly as during last year's summer war) that it had no intention of escalating things into Syria, and had no desire for regime change in Syria. That made for an extremely weak hand for Israel: Who's going to be afraid of you when you keep putting up with constant harassment, but keep reassuring your harassor that he has nothing to fear in the way of retribution?

All that came to an end with the air raid. no matter what the target was, and what military objective was accomplished, I think the bigger picture is that a strong message was sent to Bashar and his cronies: We can get to you anytime we want. There are no red lines anymore.
Not only was Bashar exposed as being weak and completely powerless militarily (unable to stand up to any Israeli operation, let alone a war), but also diplomatically.

So I think the latest statements by Olmert have to be taken in that context: "We're not afraid to hit you anymore. And you KNOW we can hit you. Now, do you really wanna talk peace or not?"

[Hazbani]

Hazbani thinking.
BV is basically right but more. Seemingly up to now [or near now] Israelies who run their contry belived that young Assa`ad was better than any thing else that can or may take his place. Just look east. Obviously Asaa`ad knew this and counted on it. Seemingly some people in the ME and the west belived that if the price for keeping Asaa`ad in his place [again look east] must be paid with Lebanese money, too bad and tough luck but this is it. Well, some thing did happen, they are not telling us but the people who are running Turkey, SA, Jordan and Egypt and others seem to do know some thing about this some thing. Assa`ad did some thing bad. So he was told, if you keep doing it [perhaps even over killing in Labanon, or parts of it, or the elections, or the Iranian bases in the south of Leb. or some thing in Iraq or WMD or all together] no more insurance. We will take our chance with what ever will come after you. Notice that Syrian opposition abroad is also making strange noises. It is also very possible that I do not know what I am talking about.

[JoseyWales]

Yeah Baby, Olmert Hearts Assad,

I'm still waiting for Nasrallah to come out and tell us that Assad and his non-firing army are Israeli agents and part of the US plan for the region.

Or does Nasrallah believe the canard that nothing was hit, and the mighty Syrian army forced the F15-Is to flee, dropping their tanks between their legs?

[Amir in Tel Aviv]

Olmert's tactics are brilliant. It's only about time that his popularity index boosts. ( 10% higher ).
That is the right way to deal with dictatorships: confuse them, act illusively.
Now, everything Assad says will sound bad. If he says, OK I want peace, they will say "he hits you with a stick and you crawl to appease them? "You Assad in Lebanon, and a mouse in the Golan".
If he says "We'll liberate Golan by force now", they'll tell him "Olmert offers you unconditional peace and you threat him with war, you war monger".
Just brilliant.
.

[Bad Vilbel]

Too funny! a year ago, you Israelis didn't have enough bad names and accusations of incompetence for Olmert. Now he's a genius? :)

[Jeha]

I can't help by fear two jokers are merely preparing another Brest-Litovsk?

[ghassan karam]

I truly believe that each of the above posts contain kernels of truth in them. How about that for playing it safe.
I am sure that all of you are familiar with what governs real estate values, "location, location location". BV has it right. To understand Olmert it is "context, context, context". Np pronouncement by anyone should be evaluated by itself as if it exists in a vaccum. Developments usually demand certain responses and at this time Olmert "is a genius" since as Air says he has made a win-win proposition. We should all rejoice if it so happens that Assad will sit to a negotiating table , sign a peace agreement with Israel and get back a sliver of the Golan. Should that happen then it would be nothing short of a home run that is heard around the globe. The Iranian project would be left in shambles and both HA and Hamas will have to retrench.

As for the Berri afair, there isn't much that we can say that we have not said many times. The man is a whore and if Ghassan Tueini, Sfeir, Hariri and others continue to offer him cover then they are whores also. Pity a country whose major leadership is run by whores, (Jumblatt seems to be one of the few shining exceptions).

[guess who?]

Did you mean that Junblatt is the shiniest of them all ?

[Charlie]

guess who,

"Did you mean that Junblatt is the shiniest of them all ?"

Today he is!

[Roman Kalik]

Meh. To tell you the truth, I think what Olmert is doing is more focused on being an internal popularity stunt rather than foreign policy. Olmert is desperate for any glimmer of internal support.

[Zvi from Tekoa]

Olmert = brilliant???? Excuse me Amir, but the only brilliant thing Olmert ever did was to accept being the poodle of Sharon in which he had the good luck to become the Master after Sharon went to sleep.

Olmert doesn't give a &^$% about his own country, and he never did. BV is right, just becuae he may have made a good move (for now) doesn't make him any different that that dead brain he's been for decades.

This is an important issue for the people on this blog... they are the ones hurting from every moment Assad stays in power.

Let me say that I heard on my way home today about the blast in Beirut. When will this stop? I can understand the pessimism in Lebanon, though it should sadden any human with a heart....