Once a week we get a headline informing us that an agreement is getting closer between Israel and Syria, which means goodbye Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert initiated this latest "peace process." Nobody asked if that land was Olmert's to give,
This is a good trick and it always works.
though Israeli leaders generally wheel and deal Jewish territory as if it were their personal real estate, giving new meaning to the phrase, "This Land Is My Land."

As far as we know, Syria wanted no part of this offer and it's my guess that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad doesn't want the Golan Heights. That would sound too much like peace and no more grievance against Israel - but grievance is what sustains so much of the Arab world. Their strength derives from keeping the grudge.

Without the grudge, these many people would have no place on the world stage. The Palestinian Arabs, for example, received another billion dollars from the "international community" over the past six months; and they got this windfall not for land, not for peace, but for the grudge they nurse against Israel.

The nations at odds with Israel operate upon the premise that no matter how much Israel gives, it's never enough.

This is a good trick and it always works, and Israeli leaders never seem to learn that it is a trick.

Concessions don't work and never will when the enemy serves and praises a "god" that demands bloodshed. "Allah hu akbar," said the man in the bulldozer.

Back when he was Prime Minister, Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat practically the entire house (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria), plus the kitchen sink, and Arafat said no, he didn't want the land, he didn't want the peace, he'd rather have the grudge. Happy is a man with a grudge.

Then, to prove that he would always be pleasantly aggrieved, Arafat launched his second war of terror against Israel.

After Israel gave up Sinai in 1982, along with all that oil and strategic depth and Biblical resonance, there was still a flourishing Israeli community that Israel wanted to keep, Yamit. Figuring that she had already been so generous in relinquishing 99 percent of Sinai, Israel expected maybe some gratitude. Where's the love? Menachem Begin expected the entire Arab world, in fact, the entire world, to come around to him.

Egypt and the "international community" were appalled at this chutzpah. No, came the answer - and thus Yamit's Jewish residents were expelled and the place demolished. But wait. That still wasn't enough. A tiny Jewish spot still remained in Sinai. Taba was about the size of my backyard, but the Israelis had turned it into a glistening resort, hotels, the works, open to everyone.

Could Israel keep this? This much? No, of course not. So 100 percent of Sinai belongs to Egypt, which never owned it in the first place, and that's another story altogether. But now all of Sinai is in Egypt's hands and there is peace between Israel and Egypt - only all of Egypt's war games take place with Israel as the target.

The grudge continues.

But that's history. This is news. Israel had indeed occupied a strip of land inside Lebanon to deter terrorist attacks that kept coming from, well, Lebanon. For the sake of peace and to gain favor in the eyes of the world, Israel vacated that territory in 2000 and handed it back to Lebanon; all of this done to the satisfaction of even the United Nations. Yes, the United Nations.

But that's still not enough!

That still wasn't enough. A tiny Jewish spot still remained in Sinai.

Hizbullah and parts of the "international community," and this includes Condoleezza Rice, have discovered Shabaa Farms, about the size of a strip mall, claiming that it still belongs to Lebanon. Or maybe Syria. Over that, Hizbullah maintains the right to be at war with Israel. Yes, Israel is at fault. Israel is to blame. The terrorists are not happy.

Olmert, who declares that he can be "very generous" (with Jewish land), is ready to "negotiate" Shabaa Farms and, naturally, the Golan Heights.

If all or any of this goes through, as long as Israel keeps giving, for sure there will be peace between Israel and Syria and the entire Arab world, right?

Right?

Jack Engelhard's latest novel, the newsroom thriller The Bathsheba Deadline, is now ready in paperback and available from Amazon.com and other outlets. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal, which was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.