Once, Martin Indyk served the United States as Ambassador to Israel. Now Indyk serves as Syria's spokesman. Indyk appears to be backwards in his honest intellectual evaluation and thought process.



If Israel wants peace with Syria, then it has to give up the Golan Heights, said Martin Indyk to the Israeli media during his visit to Kazakhstan on Tuesday.



"You live in the Middle East, so that is your neighbor. If you want peace with Syria you have to give them back the Golan Heights.



"If you do not want peace with Syria, keep the Golan Heights, but do not expect to have peace with Syria and do not expect them to sit quietly and do nothing and not support Hizbullah," said Indyk, who directs the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute.



"Don't expect them to simply accept it, because you wouldn't if you were them," said Indyk.



It doesn't belong to Israel, it belongs to Syria, he added.



Bad timing has kept it in Israel's hands, he said. For years before his death in 2000, Syrian leader Hafez Assad believed that peace was a strategic option. He didn't have the means to challenge Israeli militarily without the backing that he once had from the former Soviet Union, according to Indyk.



But trading the Golan Heights for peace would have shaken his internal hold on the country, Indyk continued.



"Peace was threatening to his hold on power and his hold on power was more important than getting the Golan back," said Indyk.



As a result, even though former prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak all offered him full withdrawal, he refused. When he was dying in December 1999, Assad went for the deal.



"He was ready, but Barak was not. When Barak was ready, it was too late," said Indyk.



It was a tragedy, which Indyk believes helped lead to the present violence.



If a deal with Syria had gone through, "Camp David would have been a different story," said Indyk.



Peace with Syria would have led to peace with Lebanon.



"Other Arab nations would have normalized their relations with Israel," he said. "[Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser] Arafat would have been scared that he was going to miss the boat," said Indyk, and he would have had no choice but to make concessions at Camp David in the summer of 2000.



Indyk seems to miss the point when it comes to Syria.



Arafat turned his back and walked away from an unprecedented offer of a second Arab "Palestine" (the first one is Jordan, formerly Trans-Jordan, according to the British Mandate) and statehood, which would have given him East Jerusalem as capital, 100% of Gaza and 97% of Judea and Samaria (wrongfully called "West Bank" by most of the world today), without so much as a counteroffer. Instead, he launched a bloody campaign of hatred, incitement, terrorism and violence called Intifada II. It was Barak that nearly gave away Jewish "Holy Land" and "Promised Land" to Arafat and his band of Arabian thieves.



"Peace" was threatening to Arafat's hold on a corrupt dictatorship, ruthless, repressive regime and tyranny, controlled and dominated by his Palestinian Authority/Palestine Liberation Organization (PA/PLO) - which has "occupied" his people since 1964, when he came to power and became a symbol.



Power and his hold on power was more important than getting the people a second Arab "Palestine", and his symbolism as "Chairman of Terror" more important than to be truly deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize.



Lebanon presently is ruled by Syria. They are one and the same. No other Arab nations will ever normalize relations with Israel. Don't believe me. Watch their actions and listen to their words.



Syria is a top state-supporter of terrorism. Syria "occupies" Lebanon with its partner in the "axis of evil", Iran, with their jointly sponsored Hizbullah. Syria already has WMD and is developing a nuclear weapons program and missile program. Syria would destroy Israel once it gave back the strategically necessary Golan Heights.



Indyk appears to be backwards in his honest intellectual evaluation and thought process.



Perhaps Indyk should be Syrian Ambassador to the US.