Netanyahu steps over foreign ministry to reach out to Syria

Reports in Israel claimed Israeli Prime Minister's advisor, Dr. Uzi Arad, held a recent secret meeting with the Secretary General of the Elysee Palace, during which he conveyed a detailed secret message from Netanyahu to Syrian President Hafez Al Assad. The meeting was held without the knowledge of the Israeli ambassador to Paris, Avi Pazner. The foreign ministry learned of the meeting by accident, and this aroused anger. Political sources said that Netanyahu had tried, among other things, to test the French channel in an attempt to resume negotiations with Syria.

In another development, though somehow related, Israel chief Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri, sent a second message in two months to Syrian President Assad, in which he called on the Syrian leader to bring about the historic reconciliation between the two peoples and blessed him with health and long life.

Rabbi Kadouri refrained from referring to the occupied Golan Heights though in the past he had said that Israel should negotiate with Syria the possibility of withdrawal from the Heights. Kadouri called on Assad to make a gesture and visit Jerusalem. The rabbi's grandson, Yossi Kadouri, said his grandfather was encouraged by Assad's response to his previous message, sent through a group of Arabs living in Israel who recently visited Damascus.