Syria Is Key to Returning Israel's POWs and MIAs How Syria Can Get a Discount Ticket to International Legitimacy

Even as State Department and National Security Council officials were paving a new path to Damascus last week for “preliminary conversations” with the Syrian government, the American ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory Schulte, was warning of “growing evidence of clandestine nuclear activities in Syria."

Recently, some analysts and policymakers expressed the belief that engaging Syria’s President Bashir Assad could almost magically delink Syria from Iran, halt Syria’s assistance to Hamas and Hizbullah, and help bring the dawn of a regional peace in the Middle East. At the same time, however, there was a reminder of why Syria landed on the axis of evil membership list when an international tribunal convened in The Hague on March 1 to deliberate the evidence surrounding the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Top Syrian officials, including some close to President Assad, are believed to be involved in the plot.

Despite all the pollyannish rhetoric and analysis, it is correct and responsible to be skeptical of Syria’s leadership and their activities. And Israeli leaders and voters are very skeptical. After all, Hamas headquarters are located in Damascus, Hizbullah’s thousands of rockets and missiles are manufactured in Syria or transported through Syria from Iran, and Syria maintains an arsenal of long-range Scud missiles, many believed to be armed with poison gas warheads. International experts no longer doubt that a clandestine nuclear facility was under final stages of construction when it was destroyed by Israeli bombers.

But there is one way for President Bashir Assad to dissipate Israel’s mistrust, and it does not require the monumental Sadatian step of journeying to Jerusalem to declare an end of war. Syria can clarify the status of Israeli soldiers who are missing in action and believed by some to be sitting in Syrian prison cells.

Tzvi Feldman, Zachary Baumel and Yehudah Katz (from left to right) were soldiers missing in action after the June 1982 Sultan Yaqub battle with Syrian tanks in Lebanon. Various reports, including some quoting Syrian officials, suggest that they may still be alive 27 years later. Baumel was also an American citizen.

Guy Hever (right)was stationed at an Israeli base on the Golan Heights, near the Syrian frontier. In 1997 he disappeared, and no trace has been found. Did Syrian commandos grab him? Did he wander into Syrian territory?

Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad (pictured left) was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. He was captured by one of the Lebanese militias and reportedly “sold” to the Iranians. In those days, grass didn’t grow in Lebanon without Syrian approval. At some point, Ron Arad passed through Syrian hands and territory.

Gilad Shalit (right) has been held by Gazan militia forces for almost three years. Ostensibly, Hamas – not Syria – is responsible for his fate. But with Hamas headquarters located in Damascus, Syrian security forces have the ability to “encourage” Hamas to release the Israeli soldier.

Is there any chance that Israeli soldiers are still alive 10 or 25 years after their capture? Yes. Dictatorships are notorious for their decades-long imprisonment of POWs. In 1996 the Pentagon was still analyzing reports of American POWs held in North Korea since the Korean War. In 1998 Iran released some 5,600 Iraqis, many held for more than 15 years after their capture in the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Iraq released some 380 POWs in exchange, including an Iranian pilot shot down at the start of the war.

If the Israeli MIAs are dead, then Syria could provide details to their families and begin the process of repatriating their bodies for burial. The Israeli nation would immediately take note of these steps. All of the American and French diplomats making pilgrimages to Assad should move the issue of MIAs/POWs higher on their priority list. There is probably no greater confidence-building step that Syria can take at this time.

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On Israel's POWs and MIAs -- Dear Bashar Assad, Redeem Yourself before It’s Too Late

[A personal note: A newspaper has been sitting on this Op-Ed column for a month. Unlike wine, it doesn't get better with age. So here it is.]

Bashar, I’m sure it’s tough. Israeli planes flew deep into Syria in early September and destroyed something that you know you shouldn’t be playing with. It seems pretty clear that you and that creepy son of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jung II, were fooling around under the covers with something very dangerous. Or maybe you were cooking something explosive with that other punk, Ahmadinejad. Your father dealt with the likes of big time capos like Brezhnev and Kosygin. Look at the thugs you run with.

Meanwhile, the UN investigators keep getting closer and closer. Once they have implicated your brother-in-law and your close associates in the assassination of Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri, how much longer can you tough it out? The special international court is now slated to take place in The Netherlands, and soon judges will be chosen by the UN Secretary-General. I’m sure you’ll try to kill off as many as you can, but the noose is tightening.

Yeah, you could blame the Neocons/Zionists/Jews/Israelis for fanning the flames and conspiring against you. But, as they say in New York, fuggetaboutit. You, your father, Hafez, and your cronies brought this on by yourselves. You ran Lebanon as your own fiefdom, acting more like Tony Soprano than like the noble descendant of Alawite leaders. You got into bed with Iranians, Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists, North Koreans and Iraqi Baathists, and now you wake up wondering why no one can stand your stench?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re probably going down, maybe not tomorrow, but just make sure your private jet is fueled and staffed around the clock for your quick get-away. Iran would be a good destination. Don’t forget to tip the kitchen staff and give the cat away to the neighbors.

Bashar, there’s still a respectable way to make your exit. It will get you some good PR, and boy, you could use it.

Bashar, cough up the Israeli soldiers missing in action. They are either sitting in the dungeons under your palace, or were tortured to death by your thugs, or were traded by Syrian proxies to the Iranians. If they’re not alive, then give over the information on where they are buried.

Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman and Yehudah Katz were soldiers missing in action after the June 1982 Sultan Yaqub battle with Syrian tanks in Lebanon. Twenty-five years! Various reports, including some quoting your relatives, suggest that they may still be alive. Baumel, as you probably know, was also an American citizen.

Guy Hever was stationed at an Israeli base on the Golan Heights, near the Syrian frontier. In 1997 he disappeared. Did Syrian commandos grab him? Did he wander into Syrian territory?

Navigator Ron Arad was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. He was captured by one of the Lebanese militias and reportedly “sold” to the Iranians. But we know that in those days, grass didn’t grow in Lebanon without Syrian approval. At some point, Ron Arad passed through Syrian hands or territory.

Don’t forget the two Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, who Hizbullah kidnapped last year, an act that ignited the month-long war. Hizbullah couldn’t have carried out that act or fired off thousands of rockets into Israel without your assistance. Some of the most lethal rockets came from your factories and armories. You also host the head of Hamas, Hamad Mishal, who lives down the road from your residence in Damascus. Your security forces could grab him and his most sensitive parts and easily persuade Hamas to release Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped last year and is being held in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Bashar, before your security offices are looted and burned by the mobs that will pour out into the streets someday, give up the information on the POWs and missing-in-action. Some of the Israeli prisoners are sitting in prison for more than 20 years, which is twice what you’d get in a Western jail with time off for good behavior. And in case you didn’t hear, there is a $10 million reward on information on Ron Arad. I know it’s pocket change compared to what you have stashed away in the Cayman Islands or in Swiss banks, but as you’re looking for a refuge, you could use that kind of pocket change.

Don’t forget to turn off the switches on the Weapons of Mass Destruction as you go out, especially all those chemical warheads on the SCUD missiles you have pointed at Israel. And it would be a good idea to deep-six the WMD Iraq’s Saddam Hussein probably stashed in Syria before he got his comeuppance. Hey, I just realized -- is that where you got the idea to stash North Korea’s nukes?

Bashar, the world will be a better place without them – and without you in office.


Your Pal, LBD

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