AS CLINTON ANNOUNCEMENT OF A GOLAN DEPLOYMENT LOOMS, CENTER ROUNDTABLE SHOWS NEED FOR URGENT, SERIOUS DEBATE

(Washington, D.C.) On Wednesday, the Clinton
Administration intends to hold what is being described as
“an important briefing” on Syria at the White
House for influential figures in the American Jewish
community and other individuals. The briefer is to be
none other than Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
The choice of venue and spokesman suggest that this event
may be the occasion for an announcement that Mr. Clinton
has decided formally to commit the United States to a
deployment of American troops on the Golan Heights as
part of an anticipated agreement between Israel and
Syria.

If so, the reason for the announcement’s timing is
obvious: The Administration is properly concerned that
skepticism already expressed about this initiative by a
number of legislators who will be leaders in the new
Congress — for example, Sens. Jesse Helms, Alfonse
D’Amato, Pat Moynihan and Jon Kyl — will result in an
early, critical examination of the idea.

The Administration is also doubtless aware that such
scrutiny will only intensify opposition on Capitol Hill
and among the public at large to a U.S. deployment on the
Golan. For example, a recent, blue-ribbon study sponsored
by the Center for Security Policy which examined the
possible benefits and likely costs associated with an
American troop presence there concludes that “the
costs — undertaking of risks, commitment of resources
and transformation of the U.S. role in the region —
would substantially outweigh any benefits.” And
experience with a Roundtable Discussion of this study,
hosted last month by the Center, indicates that a
rigorous, informed debate only serves to intensify
reservations about the prudence and utility of any U.S.
military emplacement on the strategic Golan Heights.

This Roundtable was held on 1 November 1994 and
involved over 35 former government officials, policy
analysts from leading research institutes, senior
journalists, congressional staff members and
representatives of the Israeli embassy and the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It was
particularly noteworthy insofar as it permitted a
vigorous exchange of views between three of the authors
of the Center study — former four-star General
John Foss (USA, Ret..) , former Under Secretary
of State Eugene V. Rostow and former
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Douglas J.
Feith — and two of the authors of another study
of the Golan issue published last month by the Washington
Institute on Near East Policy, Michael Eisenstadt
and Andrew Bacevich. A six-page href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=94-P_123at”>summary of this Roundtable
Discussion was released by the Center today and may
be obtained by contacting the Center.

The Center for Security Policy believes that the
Clinton Administration will make a serious political —
as well as strategic — mistake if it attempts to preempt
needed congressional evaluation of the idea of deploying
U.S. forces on the Golan Heights. It urges the Congress
to serve notice that early hearings will be held on this
proposal and to discourage the Administration from taking
any steps that would commit the United States to make
such a deployment prior to those deliberations.