Israelis Finally Starting to Wake Up To Olmert Failings

It would appear that sane heads in Jerusalem are finally waking up to the horror show that is the Olmert government. He appears all too willing to make concessions to mortal enemies of Israel with absolutely nothing but good faith in return.

The latest evidence that should be grounds to send Olmert and his cronies packing? That he's more than willing to return the Golan Heights to Syria without getting anything but a few parting words in return.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert undoubtedly heard about the Syrian report saying he had agreed to cede Israeli control of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria, while on vacation.

The report by the Damascus-based website Shams Press was joined by a report in the Syrian newspaper al-Watan, which claimed that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday and informed him of Olmert's willingness to fully withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement.

According to the report, which quotes "knowledgeable sources" in Damascus, Erdogan is expected to visit the Syrian capital over the weekend and take part in a first-of-its-kind economic summit between Syria and Turkey.

The Syrian report's credibility may be questionable, but that did little to pacify the infuriated political arena.

That's not grounds for peace. It's a suicide pact.

Syria has no intention of making peace with Israel. Heck, Syria has no intention of having peace in Lebanon. Syria's leaders use their proxies in Hizbullah to maintain a state of conflict that a standing military can't do against the Israelis.

The strategic heights of the Golan, should they be ceded back to Syria, will provide Hizbullah and other terrorists more than ample opportunity to dig in for the inevitable next phase. Ceding the Golan to the Syrians would put the Israelis main water supply in the hands of a long standing foe. Israeli communities along the Kinneret would be in jeopardy, to say nothing of Israel's early warning defense systems in the Golan that alert Israel's military to potential movements against Israel's borders.

Israelis are wary of any more land ceded in the name of peace. All they have to do is point out that Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza - handing it to the Palestinians on a silver platter, and all they've gotten for their troubles is thousands of rockets and mortars fired at Israel since 2005, dozens of Israelis killed, hundreds wounded, and no end in sight, to say nothing of the fact that Hamas is now operating Gaza as its own personal piggy bank.

UPDATE:
Syria confirms the guts of the Golan give-back.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Turkey that Israel is willing to cede the Golan Heights in return for peace with Damascus, a Syrian cabinet minister confirmed Wednesday.

"Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of international conditions; on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria," Expatriates Minister Buthaina Shaaban told al-Jazeera television.

Olmert might be more than ready to give back the Golan to Syria, but who says that Syria is ready for peace with Israel? They're still funding Hizbullah, and sheltering Hamas terrorists, to say nothing of their decades of support for terrorism against Israel and the ongoing use of a proxy army to in Hizbullah to be used at a time and place of their choosing should Israel's guard be let down.

Sending the Golan back to Syria would present that very scenario. These are dangerous times for Israel when you have a leader who seems committed to engaging in peace talks with terrorists and regimes that have no interest in anything other than Israel's destruction and who can only offer their word in return that they will not attack Israel.