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Subject: Hafez Assad Should Listen=
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 04:36:11 EST
Message-ID: <11.1992Nov17.043611@AmeriCast.com>

Hafez Assad Should Listen=

 ISRAEL'S PRIME minister, Yitzhak Rabin, complains in a Post in-
terview that his Syrian counterpart, Hafez Assad, is undercutting
their peace talks. No surprises there. What is interesting is the
remedy he proposes. He invites President Assad to make a gesture
to Israeli citizens to allay their suspicions. The Syrian strong-
man, he says, "hasn't done one percent of what (the late Egyp-
tian) President Sadat did, talking to the people of Israel, talk-
ing to his own people and convincing both peoples of both coun-
tries that here is a leader that wants peace."

On the bare bones of a peace treaty - an exchange of land, the
Golan Heights, for a relationship of full peace - Syrian and Is-
raeli negotiators might agree in an afternoon. But the confidence
level sufficient to enable them to move toward these terms is
still woefully missing. Here the dictator Assad faces require-
ments different from those facing democrat Rabin. Mr. Assad need
consult, in his fashion, only a few power brokers. Mr. Rabin must
consult an aware, alarmed and demanding public. Hence his plea to
Mr. Assad.

Is President Assad listening? Does he understand that the right
sort of words and gestures on his part will dissolve Israeli fear
and hesitation and unlock agreement, as did President Sadat's
famous trip to Jerusalem? What sort? "Talking," for openers, ac-
cepting a requirement to address public anxieties. Releashing
Damascus-based Palestinian rejectionists. Restricting Hezbollah
guerrillas who operate through territory Syria controls in
Lebanon. Syria and Israel are practiced masters of the diplomacy
of symbols. They know how to send a message.

At the moment the presumption is that the Mideast parties are
saving any real concessions to earn credit with the incoming
Clinton administration. The interval will be well used, however,
if Mr. Assad ponders the new scene. Perhaps he considers peace
risky to his political health. But he cannot ignore that his
country badly needs the expanded regional and international lift
to which a deal with Israel is the key. In Prime Minister Rabin,
elected with a mandate for a general settlement, he has a likely
partner. But he must help Mr. Rabin achieve a specific Golan-
for-peace mandate. Only Syrian moderation, not American pressure,
as some still urge, will do this job. President Assad is not be-
ing asked to abandon sovereign principle. He is being offered a
way to accomplish a long- and passionately held national goal.
Can he say no?  02:08 11-17C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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