Israeli-Syrian Negotiations, 1994–2000

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ISRAELI-SYRIAN NEGOTIATIONS, 1994–2000

In 1991 the Syrian government of President Hafiz al-Asad agreed to join the Madrid Conference on Middle East Peace on receiving assurances that Israel was willing to discuss the status of the Golan Heights in the subsequent bilateral talks that were projected as part of a Madrid peace process.

At the beginning of 1994, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin undertook secret contacts with the Damascus authorities with a view to starting negotiations on an eventual peace accord. His plan, called "Majdal Shams First," was based on a partial withdrawal from the Golan Heights, to be spread over a period of three years. Negotiations began later that year between the Israeli and Syrian ambassadors in Washington, Itamar Rabinovich and Walid al-Moualem. U.S. president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher also took an engaged interest in these talks and supported them in their own dealings with Rabin and Asad. Meetings between the two countries' military chiefs were also held in December 1994 and June 1995. In all talks, the Syrians made clear that a complete withdrawal from the Golan was a prerequisite for peace. For the Israelis, extensive, but not complete, withdrawal was acceptable, and only as part of an overall peace agreement, with negotiations addressing these four points: the extent of Israeli withdrawal; the schedule for this withdrawal; the linkage of stages of withdrawal with normalization of relations; and permanent security arrangements. Rabin also made clear that any treaty that included withdrawal would have to be subject to a referendum in Israel, where the status of Israeli settlements, which would have to be removed from any returned territory, was a major political issue.

In late 1995 the Syrians relaxed their position somewhat, and additional meetings at the ambassadorial level were held in December 1995 and January 1996 at the Wye Plantation in Maryland. In February and March 1996 there was a series of suicide bombings in Israel carried out by Islamist fanatics, and Prime Minister Shimon Peres (who had taken office after Rabin was assassinated in November 1995 by a Jewish fanatic) then broke off the Syrian negotiations. The reason was ostensibly that Syria would not condemn the attacks, but critics blamed his move on electoral posturing, having more to do with the strong challenge Peres faced in the upcoming Israeli elections from Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud opposed any Israeli withdrawal from occupied land. Netanyahu won, and there were no further negotiations while he was in office. (Netanyahu did publicly offer to restart talks if Syria negotiated without preconditions, understanding that Syria could not agree to this.) In 1999, a new Israeli Labor prime minister, Ehud Barak, who had won office that May on a promise to withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon, began the Syrian talks anew. On 15 December he and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruk al-Shara met officially at a summit meeting hosted by President Clinton in Washington. Bilateral talks under American auspices were then held in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, from 3 to 11 January 2000; no agreement could be reached.

On the following 26 March, Clinton met with Asad at Geneva and gave him Barak's latest proposal; Asad rejected it because it involved Israel's retaining sovereignty over part of the disputed territory, in this case a strip of land north of Lake Tiberias. This was effectively the end of the negotiations.