Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Labor official: Talks with Syria are Barak priority

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Monday, May 24, 1999

Labor official: Talks with Syria are Barak priority
Prime minister-elect wants coalition, says withdrawal from Lebanon will be linked to peace progress
By Laurie Copans
Associated Press

JERUSALEM - The resumption of peace talks with Syria is a top priority for Ehud Barak, a lawmaker close to the prime minister-elect said Sunday, and withdrawal from the Golan Heights will be linked to the degree of peace offered.
   Barak believes that reopening talks with Syria is the key to fulfilling his campaign pledge to pull Israeli troops out of Lebanon within a year, Labor party lawmaker Ephraim Sneh told The Associated Press.
   Syria is the main powerbroker power broker in Lebanon, with a large military presence and control over supply channels to the Hezbollah guerrillas, who are fighting to force Israeli forces from a self-declared "security zone" in southern Lebanon.
   Launching his effort to assemble a new ruling coalition, Barak met Sunday with Israeli President Ezer Weizman and the nation's two chief rabbis. The Labor Party negotiating team also conferred to map strategy for coalition building.
   At a rally for thousands of campaign volunteers outside of Tel Aviv later Sunday, Barak said any party who accepts his course would be welcome to join. He did not outline policy guidelines, however.
   "We will call on whoever wants to join our path to participate in a broad-based government and together to really bring about security, peace," Barak said.
   Barak, who has until early July to announce his government, has said he is seeking a wide coalition, suggesting he will seek to include both religious and secular, and factions from the right and left of Israel's political spectrum.
   Close political associates said Barak will base his Syria policy on a deal in which Israel will link the degree of its withdrawal to the degree of normalization and trade that Damascus agrees to.
   "Barak will not draw any lines at the beginning of the negotiations. The final borders will be drawn at the end of the negotiations," Sneh said.
   "The depth of the withdrawal will depend on the depth of the peace."
   That phrase was a slogan of Barak's role model, slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and an indication that Barak wants to pick up talks where they left off in 1996.
   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to pick up where the 1996 talks left off and staunchly opposed talk of any return of territory before reopening negotiations.
   A factor in Netanyahu's defeat was increasing public opposition to Israel's presence in Lebanon, where nearly 250 troops have died since Israel carved out a security zone in 1985 to protect its northern settlements from guerrilla attacks.
   Sneh confirmed Barak's list of guidelines, published in newspapers on Sunday, including the quick resumption of talks with the Palestinians, frozen by Netanyahu in December, and limitations on funding for the ultra-Orthodox sector.
   The Likud parliamentary caucus, decimated in the elections from 32 seats to 19, met Sunday to consider joining Barak's coalition as a junior partner.
  Netanyahu has tendered his resignation as Likud leader and Israel radio reported Sunday that he intends to leave the Knesset.
  Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, acting as temporary head of the Likud caucus, did not count out joining a Barak government, but cautioned fellow lawmakers not to beg for a place.
  "In no manner should we run to them nor should we send messages, hints, announcements or anything," he said.
  Some lawmakers in both Likud and Labor advocate an alliance, if only to keep the ultra-Orthodox Shas party - which shot up from 10 to 17 seats in the elections - out of government.
  Secular lawmakers fear allowing Shas continued control over deep-pocketed ministries would increase its power and further an agenda that aims for a state ruled by religious law.
  Barak, who campaigned as a defender of secular rights, has been flooded with pleas from people who say they voted for him to keep Shas out. A parasailer floated above Barak's leafy Tel Aviv suburb over the weekend with "Just not Shas" printed across the parasail.
  The slogan was chanted by hundreds at Sunday's rally. Barak did not react but said he was committed to forming a government that represented all Israelis.
  Others in Labor say Shas - which, unlike the Likud, fully backs resumption of all peace tracks - is Barak's natural partner.
  Shas lawmaker Yitzhak Cohen said peace was a priority for the movement's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef.
  "His vision is to stride toward peace with our neighbors," Cohen wrote in the Maariv daily, urging Barak to negotiate with Shas.
  The first meeting for Barak's negotiators was to take place Monday with Meretz, a secular party that favors keeping Shas out.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |