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Israel urges peace with Lebanon

Lebanese flags fly near the Martyr's Statue in downtown Beirut yesterday, the gathering site for the Lebanese uprising. The Lebanese opposition stepped up its demands for an end to Syria's political and military domination as the beleaguered pro-Damascus president struggled today to find a new prime minister. PHOTO: AFP

Israel's foreign minister is hoping for peace with Lebanon in the wake of the popular protest in Beirut demanding that Syria leave after decades of occupation, while others warn that a Syrian exit could destabilize the country.

On Tuesday, a top Lebanese opposition leader poured cold water on Israeli enthusiasm, saying flatly that there will be no Israel-Lebanon peace treaty. Everyone agreed that Israel, with its long history of meddling in Lebanese affairs, should stay on the sidelines.

Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year presence. It started with a full-scale invasion and an attempt to install a pro-Israel government -- foiled when Israel's ally, president-elect Bashir Gemayel, was killed in a blast in his headquarters in 1982, attributed by most to Syria.

Israel remained mired in Lebanon in a bloody guerrilla war that still traumatizes the Jewish state.

With the anti-Syria protests in Beirut, some Israelis are turning optimistic about their northern neighbor again.

"This is a most important development, its something we have been hoping for," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio.

Shalom and other Israeli officials expressed unequivocal support for the Lebanese opposition and what their protest could mean for Israel.

"I think there is a real wish by the Lebanese people to free themselves from Syrian occupation. I hope freedom from Syrian occupation will give them freedom and independence and the possibility of maybe holding a dialogue with the state of Israel," Shalom told Army Radio in a telephone interview during a visit to Budapest.

"We have no dispute with Lebanon, no dispute about territory, no economic dispute. The only reason that they are not at peace with us is because they were occupied by the Syrians," he said.

Lebanese opposition groups are being careful to identify with pan-Arab goals and are wary of being identified with the US, much less Israel.

Opposition leader Walid Jumblatt told al-Jazeera television station he prefers a truce with Israel rather than a peace treaty.

"Peace with Israel harms Lebanon. We don't want that," he said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad this week linked a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon to guarantees of an Israeli-Syrian peace deal.

"It [a withdrawal from Lebanon] will only happen if we obtain serious guarantees. In one word: peace," he told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has repeatedly demanded that Syria -- Israel's arch-enemy -- leave Lebanon, in contrast to some previous Israeli leaders, including the late Yitzhak Rabin, who had acquiesced to the Syrian presence as a guarantor of stability in the fractious country.

In failed Middle East talks in the 1990s, it was understood that an Israeli-Syrian peace deal would have to precede an agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Israel already has peace accords with its two other neighbors, Jordan and Egypt.

Syria insists that in exchange for peace, Israel leave the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Sharon has brushed aside Assad's recent peace overtures, apparently because he is unwilling to pay the territorial price at a time when he is set to leave Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
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