If Assad really wanted peace, he simply has to declare peace. He can establish diplomatic relations with Israel, build an embassy, and begin mutual trade relations with Israel. Just like dozens of other countries have done. Israel did not have to pay a land ransom to have peace agreements with Turkey, Britain, Ukraine, China, etc. etc. Assad only wants the Golan back as a future base from which to attack and try to destroy Israel as the Syrians have done before. He does not want peace. He wants the phased destruction of Israel.

I just came back from the Golan Heights yesterday. There is no way Israel will ever give back this land. The arabs and druze I met there were very happy with the current living situation. If Syria wants to start a war over this land, they will get flattened again.

Bashar, increase the chances that negotiations will be successful and Olmert is therefore reelected and odds are you will have a deal.

this article is a political one- in order to make the impresion that we "better" get to negotiation with syria... a scam

If, according to Ahmadinejad, the arrival of the Mahdi is imminent, why does Syria, on behalf of Iran more than likely, need the Golan Heights? Does that Mahdi like hanggliding?

Syria should not believe the Hizbollah propaganda that Israel was run out of Lebanon. Should that shifty-eyed Assad miscalculate Israel’s resolve, Syria could well find itself in need of a new leader! Golly, what a concept!

Get real. This isn't just some Syrian journalist, this is a propaganda ploy to agitate the leftist morons in the Israeli media. This "journalist" was sent by the Syrian regime. If he were really revealing something, his life would be over. In any case, even if Syria provokes an incident, they are hoping that some real low-level action will not have any consequences, that the "international community" will save their ass as usual. Or that Olmert will use "restraint" & chicken out. The right thing to do with this crappy third-world dictator is to call his bluff & if there is a provocation, blast the hell out of him, a completely disproportionate response to even the most minor incident. We should have hit Syria during the Lebanon fiasco - then again, we should have smashed Hezbollah as well, except for our incredibly incompetant leadership. which by demonstrating weakness has now invited this Syrian BS. You can't take anything for granted - the Arabs have started wars before by believing incorrectly that they had a chance at victory - they fool themselves with rhetoric all the time.

Based on the photo of Assad with this article, was he describing his private part to a female reporter?

And like Mike, also saw a very happy population living there. True, the Druzim and the Arabs would probably enjoy an open border more, but without this, they much prefer Israel to the Alawite minority regime. The Golan is a special place. Unrivaled natural beauty, along with unrivaled security positioning. I can do without peace, if it means holding onto the Golan. Too many soldiers died there, and it is too vital to Israel's security.

Only when he's excited. He doesn't get many second dates.

This presumed journalist is nothing more than a scarecrow nothing in syria allows it to have guerilla warfare or any type of war specially with an isolated condemned regime like this one.

Should they not be thinking of how to help their neighbours and be forgiving? Once again, they show their true face.

In his interview, Syrian journalist tells Ynet that Syria considers military option against Israel with increased seriousness - due to Israel's lack of interest in peace between the two states. Obviously, the journalist says, the confrontation probably will not be between Israeli and Syrian armies, no; it will be between Israel and guerrilla terrorist group(s). "The principle is that so long we haven't freed our land in a peaceful path, we are entitled to do so militarily", says the journalist. Swell. If I would be the Ynet interviewer I would ask the journalist: "In this case, why would Israel not go ahead and bomb Syrian cities tomorrow morning? After all, Syria's been attacking Israel for decades and when it can't attack straight out it supports Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist groups. In this case, Israel is also entitled to solve the situation militarily, as Syrians have failed to produce any peace-leading results". Interesting what the answer would be. Israel must re-build its army as soon as it possibly can. The war with Hezbollah this summer taught the army a lot - and Assad knows that these lessons will be implemented in fight inside Syria. Israeli soldiers will be a lot more cautious and probably use different tactics than those used during the engagement this summer. The air force will probably be used more extensively to support troops on the ground - not just bombing particular targets deep inside enemy territory - although this will be IAF's first task. Soldiers will be extensively prepared to fight guerrilla troops, now that the IDF knows a lot more about Hezbollah-style preparations. And finally, IDF will do everything possible to prepare its tank force much better (after the war, the army got extremely interested in active anti-tank shield, which uses explosive rounds to deflect anti-tank rocket from its trajectory). All of it is probably not new to Assad. He knows that the next engagement will not be easy and that this time his country might be hurt substantially. It is doubtful he is that desperate. Instead, Assad will probably find himself other ways to gain some cheap fame. First step would probably affect Hezbollah. Hezbollah will be pressured to act against Israel despite the UN presence. At first, it probably won't be anything substantial and from time to time Party of God will fire rockets from random locations at Israeli cities. The purpose will be to "feel" reaction of Israel but especially - of the UN. It's not like Hassan Nasrallah cares about UN casualties - no. But he will want to prevent arrival of NATO troops to Lebanon, which might have the mandate to attack Hezbollah terrorists and disarm the entire group. So Nasrallah will use slow-step tactics instead, slowly increasing amount of fire towards Israel. He can take his time. So Assad will pressure Nasrallah to do something and it might happen soon. However, it probably wouldn't cause Israel to take serious withdrawal steps or get Israel into negotiations with Syria. If Hezbollah fails, though, Assad might be tempted - or desperate enough - to give an order to armed guerrillas inside Syria to attack Israel from Syrian soil. This would be a sign of desperation, but Assad might be desperate enough - or crazy enough - to show himself as the ultimate Arab leader by practically fighting Israel directly. In any case, next armed conflict is soon to come. "Soon" might not be a month or even a year. But definitely this decade - which is soon to end. And it is up to Israeli people, Army and politicians to decide if Israel will win or lose the next war.

1-if there are intentions to get rid of Assad he will go to war like Saddam did and maybe he will prefer to use his weapons on Israel instead of giving them to US for free 2-He will go to war to prove that he is defending Arab (Sunni) cause by returning back teritorries while other Arabs (Sunnies) are making peace deals with nothing in return.

They both want to cede the Golan to Assad. Each for different reasons. Livni is obsessed with becoming an international and national political superstar by appeasing every Western diplomat that shakes her shaky hand. She is emotionally bound to her mentor, Sharon, and his recent land giveaway philosophy. He was a huge father figure for her and although in a coma, she is still seeking his approval. Ultimately the once rebellious Tzipi is still fruitlessly trying to win intellectual battles with he right wing father who never gave her the approval she wanted. Despite all he failures, if she finally gets it "right" she thinks she will win and somehow be loved by her daddy. This is elementary psychiatry, not rocket science. Olmert is a greedy, power hungry bastard. Somehow he calculates the surrender of the Golan into cash and power. Only he knows how he mapped it out. Israel will find out decades later when it's too late. They both are playing good cop - bad cop with the Israeli public. On one hand setting up "committees" with "recommendations" and on the other hand denying any change in policy. They are floating their plans to poll and market the public, hoping to soften the blow when Livni makes her pre-planned "historic" trip to Damascus. This is already in the works so don't be surprised when it happens. Meanwhile Assad has told his cabinet members last summer to start purchasing their land plots in the Golan. This is a done deal unless something gets in Olmert & Livni's way.

According to this guy " It is looking at how the Lebanese defeated and expelled the Israelis from their land while its land remains occupied." This is a sad attempt to equate the situations. Lebanon-Israel and Syria-Israel are two different beasts. The bottom line for this 'senior Syrian journalist' is that any attempt at guerilla war in the Golan will probably gain for Syria the same "victory" Hezbollah won this summer - death, destruction, and increased - not decreased - Israeli occupation. Actually, what Hezbollah got was 30 thousand Israeli troops occupying south Lebanon, when before their attack on Israel there were none. If this "senior Syrian journalist' were serious, then he'd invite some fellow Israeli journalists to Damascus and engage them in open conversation to show how much Syrian journalists want peace. I'm not holding my breath for that one.

we can only thank our pathetic leaders, olmert espcially that all the arab punks all of a sudden make such threatening noises. Israel hasn't lost the war in lebanon (imho), but it's lost the ability to instill fear in arab hearts. When Olmert said - We're tired of winning ( a most idiotic statement), what are the arabs supposed to think? It's like saying out right - If somebody wants to rape me, I won't be able to resist. ISRAEL BADLY NEEDS A NEW,STRONG LEADER, Joshua Bin-Nun, Maccabees, zealots, but instead we have a bunch of corrputed former lawyers, macherim of the worst kind, who think that running a state is like making out-of-court deals between clients, and getting fat bonuses for it. Assad is seriously playing with fire, this weak-chin punk will die in the fire he's trying to start, but how many Israelis will we lose livesdue to our leaders?

I realize with a population of a mere 6 7 million Israel does not need the Golen Heights but how do you turn it over to Syria how about 10 per cent % ever 10 years after all we gave back Berlin to Germany RIGHT ??? THANK YOU... M. Segal

I don't understand how we can talk about a compromise on the Golan issue. The current situation is that Israel illegaly occupies a portion of territory that belongs to Syria, as recognized by the international community and the UN (in fact, by all countries except Israel). A comprehensive and complete peace settlement between Israel and Syria must hand back all the Golan region to total Syrian control, period. As long as Syria is at conflict with Israel, I understand that the Golan Heights have a very important strategic value. But in the context of total peace (we can always hope), we must agree that the Golan region has to be returned to Syria. Any other "solution" is just temporary and not final, as conflictual issues will remain. To make a funny analogy, it would be like if I invaded my neighbor's house, then occupied it for a long period of time, and finally offered him a comprehensive peace settlement in which he would only get back half of his house. How is that fair?

Basically, the goal is to infiltrate an Israeli publication e.g. Ynetnews and say that Syria is looking for peace but Israeli leaders dont want it. This is, of course, as we all a lie.

Assad is smoking the same dope as the midget in teheran but nonetheless...they are all looking to make trouble starting for the US and for israel in May-June-July of 2007 in lebanon, on the golan, in Iraq asper all otheir declarations to start war & to test nuclear weapons. Israel needs to rebuild her army & get rid of Olmert & Peretz by then. They need a new "king" & FAST !!!!

"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want to be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies." -- Ehud Olmert in a June 2005 address to the Israel Policy Forum in New York. Olmert makes the stunning admission that he's tired of defeating Israel's enemies. Until now Israel won every war. The second Lebanon war was different. Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel's weak leaders chose surrender - agreeing to the UN resolution that prevented the goal vital to Israel's security - eliminating the rocket threat from Lebanon. UN Resolution 1701 successfully prevented Israel from defeating Iran's terrorist army Hezbollah thus aiding and empowering Hezbollah who now threaten to take over Lebanon. Israel surrendered Gaza - Jewish land in exchange for war to PA/PLO/Hamas terrorists. Tired of winning, Olmert is determined to surrender the strategic high ground of Judea and Samaria to Israel's implacable enemies, so that they can win. Peace never came through phony peace agreements or resolutions. Peace is achieved only through utter defeat of the enemy. A nation that repeatedly chooses surrender will be taken over by barbaric enemies who show no mercy. Dear Israelis - surround the Knesset. Demand a stop to the surrenders. Demand that your enemies are utterly defeated.

"A nation that repeatedly chooses surrender will be taken over by barbaric enemies who show no mercy. Dear Israelis - surround the Knesset. Demand a stop to the surrenders. Demand that your enemies are utterly defeated. " You call them barbaric?? Yet you want to utterly defeated, well listen up "smart one"... that is also barbaric... I just thought I would enlighten you on that one :) happy new years!!

YES Yakov you are right. Its about time Olmert & Livni wake up.

That's a lie about Israel's poor performance in last summer's war. Of course everyone hates war but Israel won that war hands down. And only a man who is a liar or has a low IQ would claim that they did not. Of course they are going to have trouble with the Golan Heights because Assad believes the propaganda about that war. Syria: 71,500 square miles. Israel(including the Golan Heights):7,992 square miles. Assad wants Israel to share with the Palestinians but he doesn't want to set any examples by sharing with Israel.

Syria is obviously drawing the wrong conclusions about Israel from the last war in Lebanon. If Syria decides to initiate a war and attack Israel, the gloves will be off, and Israel will strike deep into the territory of the enemy - what's the word - "disproportionately".

Israel's restraint and non-response to daily rocket attacks on Jewish communities is immoral and unethical. In war you are either conquered or the conqueror. It was not barbaric that the allies won the war against Hitler.

us about this supposed Syrian journalist, he is nothing but a Syrian agent, get real, we can detect them a mile away ........