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Source: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/05/syria_and_israel_tactical_advantage
Syria and Israel: Tactical Advantage
[Middle East Strategy at Harvard] Jon Alterman - Assad is quite eager to ease his isolation - life is tough when your greatest friend in the world is Iran - and engaging with Israel presumably renders kosher a whole range of countries' dealings with Syria. Not least, I think Syrians believe that such negotiations will protect them from attack by both Americans and Israelis, the two countries they fear most. For Israel, such talks serve to light a fire under the Palestinians, who fear that the prime minister will lose interest in their track to concentrate on Syrian negotiations. The Bush administration's keen disinterest in engaging Syria dims hopes, as one of the prizes the Syrians seek is U.S. acceptance. The writer is director and senior fellow of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.