RUMOURS OF WAR,TALK OF PEACE

WASHINGTON, DC.-The week began with strong rumors of possible violence erupting between Syria and Israel sometime this summer. But an unexpected invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Syrian President Bashar Assad gave hope that instead of war it could be peace breaking out.In the first interview given to an Arab television network in seven years by an Israeli prime minister, Olmert addresses the Syrian president directly, telling him that he is ready to meet face-to-face and talk of peace without U.S. participation.Speaking on the Dubai-based satellite television channel al-Arabiya, Olmert told Assad, 'Come to Jerusalem to talk.'But the Syrian president is highly unlikely to follow in the footsteps of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat,who in 1977 defied the entire Arab world, including a large segment of his own population, and undertook an historic trip to Jerusalem where he delivered a speech to the Israeli Knesset. Four years later Sadat ended up paying with his life for his overture to peace.Speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli prime minister said: 'Bashar Assad, you know ... You know I am ready to hold direct negotiations with you and you also know that it`s you who insists on speaking to the Americans.The American president says:`I don`t want to stand between Bashar Assad and Ehud Olmert.If you want to talk, sit down and talk.'Bashar Assad, I`m ready to hold direct negotiations for peace with you.But you know, and you say this all the time, that you are only willing to hold talks through the United States.'The Israeli prime minister added: 'Bashar Assad doesn`t want to sit with me, he wants to sit with the Americans, but the Americans don`t want to sit with him. I am willing to meet him if he`s willing to meet me. If that happens, we will discuss peace, not war. I don`t want to fight the Syrians.'This unexpected invitation to talk peace rather than wage war from Prime Minister Olmert comes after several days of mounting tension on the Golan Heights amid rumors that contributed in raising the tension to levels not reached since the end of the October 1973 war.
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As in the days of Noah...