After the surprise announcement last week that Israel and Syria had
agreed to indirect discussions through the offices of the Turkish
government, Iran’s leadership was reported to have been “in shock.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was said to have been “stunned”
and “furious” at the news.

Judging by much of the Israeli media’s reaction to the announcement, it seems a great many Israelis were also in shock. A poll conducted by Channel 2 television found that fully 70 per cent of Israelis are opposed to relinquishing the Golan Heights, even under the umbrella of a comprehensive peace accord.

In addition to the overwhelming opposition to quitting the Golan, most Israelis also suspect the bona fides of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s surprise announcement. Some 57 per cent think the talks are linked to the ongoing police investigation into the allegations that the prime minister accepted bribes from an American businessman while serving in previous government posts.

Syria’s main objective in a peace treaty with Israel would be to retrieve the entire Golan Heights, the high basalt plateau north and east of the Sea of Galilee that it lost in the Six Day War. Israel’s key objective would be to finally normalize relations with Syria and to pull Syria out of the Iranian orbit and away from Hamas, Hezbollah and all other radical Palestinians.

Talks are slated to take place in Istanbul in the near future.

But no sooner had the first stories appeared than the respective leaders tried to pull back to earth the skyrocketing expectations from the surprise announcement. Syrian Defence Minister Hassan Turkmani began an official visit to Iran Saturday at the invitation of Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar. More likely, he was summoned to Tehran to explain Syria’s “betrayal” of its Shia sponsor specifically and of the Islamic cause in general.

For his part, Prime Minister Olmert tried to assuage a skeptical and doubting populace on Sunday by implying that he would not necessarily accept previous governments’ purported willingness to give back all or most of the Heights to the Syrians. “There are and will be very precise and meticulous preparations, to bring our expectations of the negotiations into line with today’s reality, not that of 10 or nine years ago, and with the security and political sensitivities that stem from current realities and not from what we knew in the past. We will conduct serious and responsible negotiations, with all due caution.”

It is not likely that Olmert’s words were much of a balm to the itchy feeling most Israelis have at the thought of trusting the Syrians. Public pronouncements aside, Olmert knows that for any negotiations to yield positive results, he must tread very warily and always with the backing of a significant majority of his own people. For the moment, at least, that support is not there. Merely that old, familiar, uneasy itch that will not be salved.