Reasoned arguments in favor of negotiating with Syria remain strong despite continuing Bush administration efforts to exclude Damascus from regional talks.

Here is a good article by Alon Liel in the Jerusalem Post , "Follow Israel's interests, not America's." It begins:

American peacemaking efforts in the Middle East are now focused on a proposed international conference of moderate forces. But what are the prospects of such a conference leading to a breakthrough, given that none of the hostile forces Israel will have to come to terms with – in particular, Syrian President Bashar Assad – are expected to be invited?

The following event at the Century Foundation should also be interesting. 

LUNCHEON ROUNDTABLE

SYRIA AND THE PROSPECTS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Dear

                A year after the United Nations upgraded its peacekeeping force in Lebanon after Israel's war with a Hezbollah armed through Syria, nine months after the Iraq Study Group called for direct U.S. dialogue with Syria and other Middle East countries, and three months after Security Council establishment of a special tribunal to handle the Syria-linked case of Rafik Hariri's assassination, the role of Syria in the region and its relations with others are significant and anomalous. The Century Foundation would like to invite you to participate in a timely luncheon discussion on The Syria-U.S.-Israel Triangle and the Prospects for Middle East Peace, to be held Thursday, September 6^th, 2007.

Leading off the discussion will be two exceptional policy experts, David Lesch (biographer of Bashar al-Assad from Trinity University) and Moshe Ma’oz (leading Israeli expert on Syria. at Harvard and Hebrew University), and one policy practitioner, Álvaro DeSoto, until recently the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and envoy to the Quartet.  Rita Hauser, chair of the International Peace Academy, will moderate the discussion. 

Lesch and Ma'oz have written new policy papers for The Century Foundation’s Prospects for Peace initiative, on U.S.-Syrian and Israeli-Syrian issues respectively, which will be released at the event and made available to participants beforehand.

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