Netanyahu would meet Assad 'any time, any place'

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The Prime Minister's Bureau said Wednesday that Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to meet with the Syrians immediately and without preconditions. In the unusual statement, made to the widely distributed London-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, the bureau also said the prime minister was willing to go to Damascus to bring about a renewal in talks.

The statement comes in response to a recent Haaretz report that Syria was prepared to make "gradual peace." Arab sources told the London paper that the report in Haaretz correspond with the position held by Syria since the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991.

According to the bureau's statement, "Netanyahu is prepared to immediately set out for Damascus to meet with President Assad, or to invite him to Jerusalem, or to meet with him in a third country."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu quickly announced that Turkey was prepared to start mediating if both parties agreed.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1153819.html

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1. Peace not wanted

Israel does not want peace with Syria. Let's take off all the masks we've been hiding behind and tell the truth for a change. Let's admit that there's no formula that suits us, except the ludicrous "peace for peace." Let's admit it to ourselves, at least, that we do not want to leave the Golan Heights, no matter what. Forget about all the palaver, all the mediations, all the efforts.

Let's face it, we don't want peace, we want to run wild, to paraphrase an Israeli pop song from the '70s. Don't bother us with new Syrian proposals, like the one published in Haaretz this week that calls for a phased withdrawal and peace in stages; don't pester us with talk about peace as a way to break up the dangerous link between Syria and Iran; don't tell us peace with Syria is the key to forging peace with Lebanon and weakening Hezbollah. Turkey isn't an "honest" broker, the Syrians are part of the axis of evil, all is quiet on the Golan - you know how much we love the place, its mineral waters, its wines - so who needs all the commotion of demonstrations and evacuating settlements, just for peace?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1153835.html

[Ken Burch]

2. Just give them the freaking Golan back, already.

Syria doesn't even WANT to be in a war with Israel anymore, but they can't make full peace WITHOUT the Golan. There's nothing they could be given that could possibly make up for the loss of territory, especially since it's a universal thing that territory taken in wartime is not retained when the war ends.