Israeli Current Events

Following a four-hour debate on September 5, ministers in Israel voted 21-2 in favor of the "Wye Two" accord which serves as Prime Minister Ehud Barak's first political deal since he took office in July. The deal effectively offers Palestinians self-rule in eleven percent of the West Bank, frees three hundred fifty Palestinian prisoners in two batches, and sets a September 2000 target date for reaching a final peace agreement. It also clears the way for intensified efforts to revive Israeli-Syrian talks which have been frozen since 1996.

The accord, signed by Barak and Palestinian President Yassar Arafat, and witnessed by U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and King Abdullah of Jordan, was immediately followed by spontaneous acts of terrorism. Car bombs exploded that day in two northern Israeli cities killing three people and injuring five.

Barak responded to the explosions by declaring that Israel would not tolerate "any kind of violence or terrorism against innocent civilians."

Israel's chief negotiator on the Wye Two deal, Gilad Sher, said the security of Israelis must reign supreme if there is going to be any push for peace. "Let me say that no peace process shall prevail over the personal security of the people of Israel," Sher said.

The Palestinian authority, accused by Israel's previous right wing government of doing too little to curb militants, affirmed that it remains committed to preventing violence. "I would like to express the Palestinian Authority's firm policy of zero tolerance for terror," echoed Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Syria immediately criticized the revised peace agreement between Israel and Palestine, saying it would never allow itself to be forced into such a deal. An editorial in a Syrian newspaper read, "We want a just and genuine peace and we absolutely reject being dragged into the game of agreements and accords...what was carried out and is still going on is extremely far from the basis of a real peace." The editorial added that Syria demands "full Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands" as a condition for peace.

Syrian President Hafez Assad had expressed willingness to resume the negotiants, but he demanded that they start at the point at which they were broken in 1996. Hafez claims that during the original peace talks, previous Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to return the entire Golan Heights which had been captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Israel maintains that Rabin never promised to return the entire Golan Heights, he merely inquired about the security arrangements and level of normalization Syria would agree to if Israel did ultimately consent to withdrawal from the strategic plateau.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa indicated that he expects Barak to forfeit the entire Golan. He stated, "We believe Barak belongs to the school of Rabin, and he is going to follow in his footsteps."

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright agreed that negotiations with Syria should be based on the principle of "land-for-peace," but she didn't comment on the Golan Issue. A senior U.S. official close to the talks said Albright and other American mediators may shuttle in the weeks ahead to find a common ground for negotiations, even though Barak has repeatedly requested that America take a step back and allow the countries to negotiate themselves.