Bibi rejects peace with Syria

A banner week for the Netanyahu administration, really. First we learned that Bibi is somewhat paranoid about the Israeli media, and that he thinks Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod -- two of Obama's top advisers -- are "self-hating Jews."

Then he told Germany's foreign minister that the West Bank can't become "Judenrein," the Nazi term for an area cleared of Jews. This prompted a stunned nod from the foreign minister. (I guess the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has dragged on long enough that Godwin's law now applies?)

And now we learn his administration wants to keep "much" of the Golan Heights in any peace agreement with Syria.

In an interview that shored up the contradictions in Israel's foreign policies, National Security Adviser Uzi Arad told Israel's Haaretz newspaper the Jewish state plans to withdraw from some areas in the Golan Heights, Syrian land captured in the 1967, but intends to remain in the strategically key areas.

The Syrian government has insisted for decades that a peace deal has to include the full return of the Golan Heights. A group affiliated with the government recently threatened war over the territory. And there's the little matter of international law: The Golan is occupied territory, not part of Israel proper; Israel still needs to return it under the terms of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242.

And Netanyahu's still hoping for a peace deal that only returns part of the Golan.

One other observation from the Al-Arabiya article.

Netanyahu has said he is ready to hold peace talks with Syria without preconditions, but that any agreement must address Israel's security needs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't Netanyahu already laid out two preconditions? Keeping part of the Golan Heights is one. Security is the other; a perfectly sensible one, of course -- Israel would be crazy to accept a peace deal that doesn't include some guarantees on Syria's relationship with Hamas and Hizballah -- but a precondition nonetheless.

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