Full withdrawal is Syria's condition for signing a peace accord.
A victory by the rightist Likud party, which strongly opposes the talks, could abort the peace process. Moreover, signs of Rabin's weakness could deter Assad from further talks, even well before the elections. It is against this backdrop that the Clinton Administration's plan to deploy U.S. forces on the Golan Heights as part of an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement must be considered. The Israeli government evidently believes that such a peace agreement is important to its prospects for re-election. It also seems persuaded that the appearance of a security guarantee to Israel implied by an American deployment on the Heights would be valuable in making a withdrawal from the Golan acceptable to its public.