The Syria peace myth
“…Woe would be us had we finalized an agreement with this family and with this Syrian minority. We would have lost the Golan forever and the Syrian regime would have settled it with a million citizens that would spread “resistance” against Israel.” The deal we would have signed with the Assad tyranny would have been worthless. The Syrian people would have said that this is a peace agreement between Israel and an ethnic minority that lacks legitimacy.
Fortunately, we did not sign a peace deal with Assad, yet stability and deterrence were maintained. We had peace without official “peace” – and that’s a lot. To that end, we did not have to pay heavy prices, in terms of land or legitimacy, and for that reason future options, with a new regime in Damascus, are still relevant.
When he wanted to abuse Israel, Bashar Assad would sarcastically note that the Jewish state is not ready for peace and doesn’t want peace. Now that the brutality of this ethnic rule in Syria is exposed to all in the form of murders of citizens every Friday, we can openly say – indeed, we don’t want an agreement with such murderous regime.”