Poll: 58 percent back accepting Syrian offer

The findings were presented Sunday evening at a Tel Aviv panel of politicians and academics, the majority of who called on the Israeli government to seriously examine Syria's offer to commence peace talks.

According to the same poll, 64 percent of Israelis are unwilling to give up the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.

In the survey, a majority of Israelis (59 percent) said they believed war would break out if there was no peace initiative with Syria.

Addressing the panel, Knesset Member Colette Avital said: "If there is an axis of evil, why not try to take it apart?" Avital added she believed there was a genuine Syrian will to hold peace talks.

"There is an urgent need to talk to Syria," she said, adding that a peace with Damascus is crucial for "stabilizing the north, and coming to a cold or hot arrangement with Lebanon."

'Offer is tempting' 

Professor Eyal Zisser, a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University ,described Syria's peace talks offer as "very tempting."

"He (Assad) is saying, I'm not Nasrallah. I'm not Iran. I'm not seeking Israel's destruction," Zisser added.

But Dr. Mordechai Kedar, of Bar Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, shattered the panel's optimistic consensus, saying: "There is a new bloc rising, based on hatred of the United States, and on (Russian) military aid. Iran's nuclear core is Russian, Iran's submarines are Russian, Syria's weapons are Russian. Syria is an honorary member of this group."

Kedar asked: "Are those advocating peace with Syria basing their calls on a change in the Syrian orientation towards the West, like Egypt has done? Are there any known contacts between Assad and anyone in the West, suggesting any kind of similarity with what Sadat did? "

'You don't make peace with friends' 

Responding to Kedar, Professor Yoram Peri, of the Herzog Institute for Media Politics and Society at Tel Aviv University, said: "Of course Syria is an enemy. With whom do you make peace? Not with your friend, but with your enemy."

Quoting the book 'Generals in the Cabinet Room,' Kedar said: "I found an amazing thing: The IDF warmly recommends that we go for a peace process with Israel, and to accept a large part of the Syrian territorial demands. Since 2000 until today, the chiefs of staff and heads of intelligence support a peace agreement with Syria. They are supporting an agreement which has almost been signed. An agreement Israel retreated from."

Quoting a conversation with former chief of staff Moshe (Boogi) Yaalon, Peri said: "He clearly said, unequivocally, that an agreement with Syria would take one month to conclude, and that an agreement with Lebanon would take another two weeks after that and he's considered hawkish, the man who didn't want to withdraw from Gaza."

"And then I ask myself, why doesn't the Israeli public know these things? Why doesn't this appear in the newspapers? We live in lies, spins, things aren't known. Who among you was excited when the Syrian ambassador to the US gave an interview in Yedioth Ahronoth, in which said he wanted peace three months ago? This happens everyday."