RABIN COMES CLEAN: NO MORE TIME TO LOSE IN ESTABLISHING WHY A U.S. GOLAN DEPLOYMENT IS NO-GO

(Washington, D.C.): Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin has finally confirmed publicly what the Center for
Security Policy and others have been saying all along:
Mr. Rabin plans to use a deployment of American troops to
clinch a deal with Syria involving Israel’s withdrawal
from the Golan Heights. According to today’s Washington
Post, Mr. Rabin advised the Knesset that he
would make “an Israeli request for U.S. troops to
monitor any peace accord with Syria.”

The Post also reported that “Rabin noted
U.S. participation in a peacekeeping unit in the
neighboring Sinai region and added: ‘We will ask
nothing else of the Americans when we achieve a peace
agreement with Syria on the Golan Heights — the same
thing.‘”

Since Mr. Rabin also indicated that “wide and
deep rifts still exist” in the negotiations with
Syria, there is clearly time for a careful
assessment of the strategic, diplomatic, political and
military implications of deploying U.S. forces on the
Golan Heights. Specifically, an opportunity is
now afforded to examine carefully the proposition that
the Americans would, in fact, do “nothing else”
on the Golan than they are currently doing in the Sinai.

At a Capitol Hill briefing last Thursday for Members
of Congress, their staff and the domestic and
international press sponsored by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ),
the Center for Security Policy released the href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=94-P_99at”>attached precis
of a study it will be publishing this week entitled Mission
Impossible: The Case Against a U.S. Deployment on the
Golan Heights. This study — which is the
product of a number of former senior national security
policy-makers and retired military officers — will,
among other things, establish that the conditions
on the Golan are so different from those that apply in
the Sinai as to make untenable any equation of the two.
As the precis notes:

“In a number of respects, the U.S.
deployment on the Golan Heights now being
contemplated bears no resemblance to the American
involvement with the Multilateral Force and Observers
(MFO) based in the Sinai as part of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Whereas
Americans in the Sinai are far removed from any
populated areas, situated well away from any likely
lines of attack and responsible for doing nothing
more than monitoring compliance with the agreement,
those deployed on the Golan would find themselves
directly in harm’s way, particularly if they were to
assume responsibility for providing early warning,
deterrence or defensive capabilities for
Israel.”

The Center welcomes Prime Minister Rabin’s decision
formally to announce what he has in mind for U.S. forces
on the Golan — rather than waiting until such an
initiative was made a part of a “breakthrough”
in the peace process, effectively foreclosing
any opportunity for informed public debate, careful
congressional review and prior approval of a Golan
deployment. Given the high stakes involved for
United States’ interests, for Israel’s security and for
the important U.S.-Israeli relationship, the idea of
putting American forces on the Golan must be rigorously
examined and debated at once.