How Israel-Syria Talks Could Affect Iran Ties | Newsweek International

CAMPAIGN 2008
McCain's Brain Trust
6/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
Media following the campaign have reported on jockeying for influence between the groups. The New York Times reported in April 2008 about concerns expressed by pragmatists advising McCain that more conservative Republicans and neoconservatives are gaining increasing influence. But other campaign advisers downplay any schism. Scheunemann, Kagan, and Kristol are project directors of the Project for the New American Century, an organization formed when Democrats controlled the White House in 1997 around what many analysts say are neoconservative ideals. The project says on its website it aims to promote U.S. leadership in the world and "rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world." The organization's statement of principles says the United States needs to "increase defense spending significantly," "strengthen ties to democratic allies," "promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad," and "accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles."
MIDDLE EAST
The Other Mideast Talks
5/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
If President George W. Bush truly wants to leave a legacy of peacemaking in the Middle East, he's looking in the wrong place. Instead of focusing exclusively on Israeli-Palestinian talks, Bush should do more to encourage renewed Israeli-Syrian negotiations.
SOCIETY
Grapes on the Golan
Kevin Peraino
A thin coil of barbed wire separates Uri Hetz's babies from the enemy. The 39-year-old Israeli winemaker runs a hand over a row of young vines he recently planted in his Golan Heights vineyard, and then throws a glance toward a hazy valley just over the nearby fenceline. "This is Syria in front of us," he says, before returning quickly to his prized stalks. Hetz says he planted the cuttings—originally from the Rhone Valley in France—as an experiment to see how the white Roussanne grapes would take to the Golan's volcanic loam. Everything was going perfectly—until last month, when Israel and Syria issued a joint statement declaring that they had begun peace talks that could ultimately return the occupied territory to Syria. The winemaker says he picked up the newspaper and thought: "Oh, no—my Roussanne!" He smiles to himself and sighs. "It's just a silly French variety, but it's my life."
ISRAEL AT 60
'We are Looking Forward'
Lally Weymouth
On Thursday, after it was revealed that Israeli police were investigating charges that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from an American benefactor when he was mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert pledged not to resign unless he was indicted. But earlier in the week, in an interview with Newsweek's Lally Weymouth, Olmert sounded resigned to the possibility that he might stand down. He also spoke of his hopes for achieving peace with both the Syrians and the Palestinians this year. Excerpts:
ESPIONAGE
North Korea On the Spot
Mark Hosenball
Newly declassified spy photos suggesting North Korean involvement in the construction of a Syrian nuclear reactor, which was heavily damaged in an Israeli bombing raid last year, have raised fresh questions about the facility's murky history—and about whether the disclosure of the images could derail a pending nuclear disarmament deal between Washington and Pyongyang.
Q&A
A Different View
Lally Weymouth
Sitting at the world Economic Forum in Davos last week, Israel's Minister of Defense Ehud Barak was sharply critical of the recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. In an interview with NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth, Barak suggested that, contrary to the impression left by that estimate, Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Excerpts: