Israel, Syria talk up war, peace
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While most of recent headlines regarding Israel's relationship with Syria are echoes of war drums, there is also seemingly a push right now to resume peace talks between the old foes.
During the last few days, senior officials from the two countries have been talking of military confrontation. Yet, calls for peace talks also can be heard in Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday saying that his country is "open for the renewal of negotiations with Syria."
This type of doublespeak from the two countries is nothing new, but the media, both local and international, has latched onto the spat in a big way this past week, while analysts believe that Syria and Israel are headed neither for war nor peace.
Verbal assaults
The latest round of Israeli-Syrian barbs was sparked off by Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who told top military commanders to prepare for war with Syria in the event that peace efforts fail.
That was immediately followed by comments from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, suggesting that Damascus does not lightly take threats from "thugs" and would strike Israeli cities if attacked.
His Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman then entered the fray by warning on Thursday that should there be a war between Israel and Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would not only lose the war but also his reign. Shortly afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his ministers to make no more comments on the matter. The sparring prompted local and international media to throw the spotlight on the restive relations between the two countries, which are still technically at war, with some media outlets saying that the two neighbors are planting the seeds of war.
Renewal of hostilities?
In Israel, the feeling is that war with Syria is unlikely to break out any time soon, yet there are some who see a link between the recent escalation and tensions between Israel and the Lebanese- based Shiite militia Hezbollah.
"The Israeli-Lebanese border has of late been remarkably calm, but deceptively so, because the threshold for confrontation is very low," said Peter Harling, director of the Syria Project for the International Crisis Group, an international organization dedicated to prevent and resolve conflicts.
"Both sides bear in mind that the next round must be decisive, prepare themselves accordingly, and use provocative statements to maximize their deterrent capability, all this in a context where the rules of the game are unclear. It makes for a potentially volatile situation," Harling added.
Yet Guy Bechor, an expert on Syrian affairs, said that he believes that the Israelis, and more so the Syrians, have nothing to gain from warfare. The director of the Middle East Studies Division at Israel's renowned Interdisciplinary Center claimed that there is no way Syria could defend itself in any confrontation.
Noting that Israel has a clear deterrence in terms of its military capability, Bechor said that Israel "is carrying out exercises in the north like it has never done before. It is the first army in the world to protect its tanks from missile fire, and the Syrians have no response to all of this right now."
