http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000124/aponline192114_000.htm
Mideast Peace May Cost US Billions
By Mark Lavie
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Jan. 24, 2000; 7:21 p.m. EST
JERUSALEM -- The United States will be asked to pay the
multibillion dollar bill for peace between Israel and
Syria, a Cabinet minister involved in the negotiations
said Monday.
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, chief of staff of the Israeli army
before entering politics in 1998, said the bill could
reach the $17 billion reported in the Israeli media,
and said it would be a "reasonable price" for the
United States to pay.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak picked Lipkin-Shahak and
Foreign Minister David Levy to join him in talks with
the Syrians. Syria called off the most recent round,
scheduled for last week. No new date has been set.
"The (Israeli) army knows what it needs," Lipkin-Shahak
told The Associated Press in an interview at the
Knesset, Israel's parliament, spelling out the
expensive security arrangements Israel would require as
part of its peace deal.
Syria is demanding that Israel return the strategic
Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Israel's north and
providing Israel a clear view of Syrian military
deployments. Israel captured the territory in 1967.
Barak has indicated that he would be prepared to give
up most or all of the highlands in return for security
assurances from Syria.
Washington is hoping a peace arrangement between Syria
and Israel will help push the region to an overall
peace. In return for cooperating with U.S. efforts in
the region, Syria hopes for massive U.S. aid to revamp
its economy.
Despite some signs of shock from Washington at the
thought of a multibillion dollar pricetag,
Lipkin-Shahak expected that the U.S. would pay the bill
in the end, calling it an investment.
"How much did the (1991) Gulf war (against Iraq) cost?"
he asked. "How much is it worth (to the United States)
to have stability in oil prices? How much is it worth
to develop a Middle East market to American products?"
The ex-general said Israel must keep its listening post
high atop Mt. Hermon at the northern edge of the Golan
Heights, the highest elevation in the region, where
Israeli soldiers keep an eye on Syrian troop movements
all the way to the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Lipkin-Shahak confirmed media reports that Israel would
ask for Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United
States.
Israel would need cruise missiles in case of a war
against faraway enemies like Iran or Iraq, said
military analyst Shlomo Brom, a former director of
military planning, "to hit distant targets without the
need to overfly countries with which we are at peace,
using manned aircraft."
Much of the expense would be for relocating Israeli
army bases on the Golan Heights, Lipkin-Shahak said. He
said security arrangements would have to be in effect
for ten to 15 years "to build credibility between the
two sides."
Lipkin-Shahak rejected the contention by some military
experts that Israel must recreate its entire array of
offensive and defensive capabilities once it withdraws
from the Golan Heights. "We are making peace, not war,"
he said.
(c) Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
