It will be hard for Syria to make peace with Netanyahu

Members of an Israeli Arab delegation returned on August 16 from its trip to Damascus, saying they carried a message of peace from the Syrian president.

Israeli MK and delegation member Saleh Tarif said Syria saw little chance of reaching a peace accord with the present Israeli government of prime Minister Netanyahu.

The message was that Syria wants a real peace, but it will be hard for Syria to make peace with Netanyahu.

The 44 Israeli Arabs who visited Damascus for a one-week period said that the Syrian president was sending an olive branch to the Israeli public after more than a year-long deadlock in peace talks between the two countries.

Tarif, a Druze who is reserve major in Israel's armed forces, told Israeli Radio before the trip that he would be the first Israeli army officer to shake hands with a Syrian president.

MK Abdul Wahab Darawsheh—embroiled in a controversy last week over remarks made to a Palestinian camp—said, "I believe the message was clear of President Assad the Syrian president, his foreign minister of the Syrian people—that they're ready to recognize Israel, to reach a peace treaty based on a full withdrawal for a full peace."

He also added that, "The problem is in Israel, we do not have a prime minister and a government that are ready to welcome any message of peace from Syria." And he said all that is because Netanyahu was ignoring the signals of flexibility from Damascus.