Peace with Syria

Lunch in Damascus (click here for full story)
By URI AVNERY
October 5, 2006
...BASHAR AL-ASSAD has done it again. He has succeeded in confusing the Israeli government.
As long as he voices the ritual threat to liberate the Golan Heights by force, it does not upset anybody. After all, that only confirms what many want to hear: that there is no way to have peace with Syria, that sooner or later we shall have a war with them.
Why is that good? Simple: peace with Syria would mean giving back the Golan Heights (Syrian territory by any definition). No peace, no need to give them back.
But when Bashar starts to talk peace, we are in trouble. That is a sinister plot. It may, God forbid, create a situation that would compel us to return the territory....