[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

The media has been telling us for years just how bright a guy Dan Meridor
is. And it is plausible that PM Netanyahu brought him into the government
in large part to placate the media.

After all, the media adored Dan Meridor for how during the height of the
protests against Oslo he opted to join his Lefty pals at parties where he
denigrated the demonstrators rather than join his fellow Likudniks and
others from the national camp who were out in the streets.

But here we are, with Syrian President Assad in a situation that no one in
the neighborhood - certainly not Dan Meridor - has a clue who or what will
be running Syria in the future and yet we end up with the following argument
that Dan Meridor most likely lifted from something he wrote long ago:

"Syria is the main political ally of Iran in the Arab world. I am one of
those few Israelis who think that we should negotiate with Syria, not that I
like what the Syrian regime is doing. Will there be an agreement in the end?
I know what they want from me, but what I want from them is a full peace,
like Jordan and Egypt. They must stop the support of terror organizations,
including Hizbullah, and cut away from the Iranian axis. It is an open
question whether we can get all of this. It has to do with the strength of
America and Iran. There is not just an Israeli-Syrian closed circle; there
is a bigger circle of power relationships that needs to be taken into
account."

Are these the words of a really bright guy?

Before Assad's survival was much of a question suggesting that we could bank
on Syria honoring promises to stop supporting terror etc. after we already
left the Golan already was indicative of someone dangerously naïve. But now
with some Egyptian presidential candidates calling for the Egypt-Israel
treaty to be trashed and others calling for it to at least be renegotiated
this is hardly the time for Dan Meridor to cut and paste a call for
negotiations with Assad.]

Jerusalem Issue Briefs Vol. 10, No. 36 April 10, 2011
Can America Block Iran's Drive for Regional Hegemony?
Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=6732&TTL=Can_America_Block_Iran%E2%80%99s_Drive_for_Regional_Hegemony?

...
Negotiating with Syria?

Syria is the main political ally of Iran in the Arab world. I am one of
those few Israelis who think that we should negotiate with Syria, not that I
like what the Syrian regime is doing. Will there be an agreement in the end?
I know what they want from me, but what I want from them is a full peace,
like Jordan and Egypt. They must stop the support of terror organizations,
including Hizbullah, and cut away from the Iranian axis. It is an open
question whether we can get all of this. It has to do with the strength of
America and Iran. There is not just an Israeli-Syrian closed circle; there
is a bigger circle of power relationships that needs to be taken into
account.

* * *

Dan Meridor was first elected to the Knesset in 1994, serving continuously
until 2003. During this period he served as Chairman of the Knesset Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee, twice as Minister of Justice, Minister of
Finance and Minister without Portfolio in charge of the intelligence
community. Upon returning to the Knesset in 2009, he was appointed Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy. This
Jerusalem Issue Brief is based on his presentation to the Institute for
Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on February
3, 2011.