Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Peace at what price?

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1999 | 9:25 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

The fly in the hoped-for ointment of peace in the Mideast isn't present at the talks going on in Washington. Israel's Ehud Barak is there and so is President Clinton but the fly, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, is represented by his foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa.

There is reason for people wanting peace to rejoice over this gathering of people, but little will be accomplished unless the missing man gets what he wants and that is the Golan Heights. These are the strategic hills he lost when attacking Israel in 1967. Since then they have been made valuable farms and towns by the Israelis willing to place themselves between Assad's army and their fellow citizens.

Assad's army has taken over Lebanon and killed that nation's Christian leaders and thousands of their followers. This was accomplished after the United Nations and the United States called for the withdrawal of Israel's troops, who had come to the aid of the Christians. Killing Lebanese Christians and earlier 20,000 of his own people in the Syrian city of Hama were easy tasks. The Israelis have been another matter, and the last time the Syrians tangled with them in Lebanon they lost 80 fighter aircraft.

Not being able to beat the Israelis in combat, Assad has supported the religious terrorists and guerrillas firing rockets from Southern Lebanon into farms and towns of Israel. Rockets and weapons from Iran have been flown into Syria and provided for the units attacking the Israeli northern border. The Israelis want peace with their neighbors and are willing to do almost anything to achieve it if peace comes with an added sense of security. Not only do they want military security, but also the continual flow of fresh water that originates in the contested area.

When all is said and done, the only settlement with Syria that will be approved by Assad will be the return of the Golan Heights. The conditions that surround this withdrawal will be the substance of talks this week. Even if this kind of an agreement is reached there will be good reason to doubt the coming of true peace.

David Bar-Illan, a former Netanyahu government aide who is now an editorial writer, recently gave his view in the Jerusalem Post newspaper. Bar-Illan evaluates Assad as follows:

"Assad, one of the most murderous and ambitious dictators of the post-War era, is no more true to his word than any other despot. Like all dictators, he keeps his word only when it suits him or when he is forced to. As Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes recounts in the current issue of Commentary magazine, Assad has kept none of the agreements he has made. Not with Arab governments, not with Turkey, not with Israel and not with the United States. As one Turkish prime minister put it on a Jerusalem visit: 'Don't be fooled by Assad. He signed 18 agreements with us and kept none.' If the Golan today is 'the safest place in Israel,' as Assad apologists like to declare, it is not because Assad is an honorable man, but because Israeli forces there are within striking distance of Damascus.

"Nor does Assad need the Golan to harass and bleed Israel. He can do it through the 10 Palestinian terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose headquarters are in his capital, and through his Hizbullah proxies in Lebanon.

"Hizbullah makes no major move without Syrian approval. Its supplies and weapons come through the Damascus airport, its training is done in areas under Syrian control, and it initiates hostilities and halts them on Syrian command. That Syria uses Hizbullah as an instrument of war against Israel is a fundamental breach of the cease-fire accord Assad signed with Israel 25 years ago. And since Hizbullah is a Syrian proxy, the only effective way to fight it -- whether from the security zone or the international border -- is to threaten Syrian targets in Lebanon."

If an agreement is reached in Washington and Assad gets his way, what will be done about Lebanon? I still have a letter written eight years ago by Las Vegan Maroun Hanash.

On Oct. 13, 1990, Syria completed its takeover of Lebanon by overthrowing the legal and constitutional government of Lebanon led by Prime Minister Gen. Michel Aoun, followed by widespread executions.

On Oct. 21, 1990, Danny Chamoun -- anti-Syrian Lebanese politician -- his wife, and his two small sons were assassinated.

Today Lebanon is occupied. Only the removal of the foreign forces and their collaborators can restore democracy and freedom.

Syria, a dictatorship, cannot be entrusted with the "rehabilitation" of the Lebanese democratic institutions.

The public declarations in support of Lebanon's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity are not enough.

Will the Clinton administration force the issue of Lebanon's Christians or will they be forgotten in the glee the participants will feel if Israel agrees to give up control of the Golan Heights and Assad's foreign minister promises his boss will be a good boy?