No, said Israeli officials, all issues, including normalisation, should be discussed on one agenda. Even before reaching home, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's party leaked details to journalists, saying Barak was concerned about the change in America's position. Israeli officials complain they expect it will be Israel, not Syria, that bears the brunt of American pressure to come to a settlement over the next few weeks. President Clinton has set a two-month deadline for the end of the negotiations. There are many details that need long discussion and negotiation.
Neutral observers tend to agree that America is likely to put more pressure on Israel than Syria.
The Israeli public, however, sees no point in returning the Golan, without securing long-lasting peace by full normalisation, open borders and trade. President Assad was quite happy to leave things as they were. It was Mr Barak who made public pledges to pull the Israeli army out of south Lebanon in the next few months. This cannot be achieved without some agreement with Syria, which controls the Lebanese decision. The Israeli public, and the country's journalists, who still remember the warm atmosphere that surrounded the late President Anwar Sadat's peace-making visit to Israel, the friendly handshakes, followed years later by Jordanian and Palestinian close encounters, were dismayed by the lack of Syrian warmth.