and the interest of a secular Syria tending to become more democratic, however there is another group of players within the syrian goverment whom imagine the country's future a lot more fundamentalist. Starting with them carving out more power (openly or not ) in the system.

Syria knows very well that all road through Jerusalem go nowhere. Iran will not stand in Syria's way if there is ANY chance that Golan would be returned in exchange for peace. Why should Iran prevent its closest ally from getting its territories back from its enemies! Who would listen to Iran's objections? The problem with wishful thinking like what Mr. Davis does is he and other daydreamers think that others have no idea about the dismal record of the Zionists when it comes to making peace. May be that's the real reason that he peppers his brainfarts with words like "potential", "so-and-so hinted", "slight disparity" and so on. I also defy Mr. Davis to prove that Iran and others have been the "rejectionists". Does he have any proof that the Zionist regime has at any time put forward or contributed to peace in the Middle East? Let's see what you got, John. Natanyahu and Sharon have personally damaged the peace processes and "roadmaps" more than Iran and all those "rejectionist" combined. It's rediculous to depict Iran's and Syria's "expressed interest" in Iraq as a basis for the rift between allies. So let's all join hands and say, viva tripartite US-Israel-Syria "DEAL"! lol.

Is this some bizarre justification for ceding the Golan to Syria? That somehow Syria will join with the US & Israel to escape from the clutches of Iran? But only if, of course, we offer incentives ...... I'm too lazy right now to write in detail my opinion of this analysis. Suffice it to say, this is totally nuts.

really great article - good to see some innovative original thinking in redefining israel's core interests.

his ilk. Innovative thinking? Rather, Chamberlainian thinking. But, what a great way to create utter disaster.

Debka Net has it that Iran is planning to use the Syrian Army to overthrow Assad... and take 100% control of Syria. Iran reckons As'd is too whimsical in his opinion. Could be the reason why Syria is easing in their rhetorical war with Israel. I also have rumours that Olmert is sending assistance to help Assad. :P

i listened to my son saying about a paragraph in the holy book ,he said [ even god use to say about payment ,properties ,benifits to make it easy to understand the life .. it is about the paragraph [[[ if you pay whatever on the earth you can not make a strong link between their hearts ,but god can do it ]]] so as iam a believer i know that god will is the main in any link ,, but as a human i know what benifits ,can do in such a link

1939 - Peel commission accepted by Israel, rejected by Arab states. 1948 - Partition plan, again Israel accepted and Arab states rejected. 1967 - UNSCR242, Israel ACCEPTED! Arab nations met in Khartoum and issued the three famous no's: No peace, no recognition, no negotiation. Israel fully implemented UNSCR425 upon leaving Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lebanon and Syria have still not fulfilled all requirements of UNSCR 1559. Camp David 2000-1 was a clear Palestinian rejection of an Israeli government-approved plan to cede lands for peace, rejected by Arafat. Even other Arab leaders conceded that his rejection was a 'mistake of historic proportions'. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of such examples. The example of Arab regimes' rejectionism becomes even more apparent if one examines their wars with each other - but I don't have enough space. So you call Israel the rejectionists? Based on what? Anything other than your knee-jerk hatred of Israel? It seems not.

Constantly a step before the rest. If you read Ron Ben Yishay in these pages, you'd see that he's analyzing the failure of the boycott policy of Hamas in terms coined by Reut 18 months ago, in January 2006. I recommend reading mr. Davis' analysis with an open mind - he's on to some interesting points that we all might come back to a few months from now...