AHC: Syria is the first neighbor to sign a peace treaty with Israel

what is says on the tin.

How could we make this happen?

Israel replies positively to President Husni al-Za'im's peace proposal of 1949. "'He made a peace overture to Israel offering to settle 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, in exchange for border modifications along the cease fire line and half of Israel's Lake Tiberias.[4] Settling the refugees was made conditional on sufficient outside assistance for the Syrian economy. The overture was answered very slowly by Jerusalem and not treated seriously.[5]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husni_al-Za'im Of course one problem was that al-Za'im was unpopular and soon overthrown (and killed)...
 

raharris1973

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Might the Israelis have responded faster to Zaim's OTL proposal?

Or might they have responded faster if Zaim proposed a simpler deal, where he was demanding less territorially and offering less on the refugee front?

Any other ways to pull a Syrian-Israeli separate peace off later in Syria's history?
 
Might the Israelis have responded faster to Zaim's OTL proposal?

Or might they have responded faster if Zaim proposed a simpler deal, where he was demanding less territorially and offering less on the refugee front?

Any other ways to pull a Syrian-Israeli separate peace off later in Syria's history?

There was a peace process underway at several points during the regime of Hafez al-Assad though it often got interrupted by various regional crises and such.

It would have been contingent on an Israeli return of the Golan Heights but that's a pretty low price to pay for peace with Syria and an end to Syrian support of Hezbollah and other groups.
 
There was a peace process underway at several points during the regime of Hafez al-Assad though it often got interrupted by various regional crises and such.

It would have been contingent on an Israeli return of the Golan Heights but that's a pretty low price to pay for peace with Syria and an end to Syrian support of Hezbollah and other groups.
Does you really think Israel would trust the Syrians to keep the peace once they had the Golan Heights? It's geographic location as the tallest points makes it easy to target all of northern Israel. Israel tried to return it in return for peace but the Khartoum Resolution denounced it (1967?). But since 1981 Israel has fully annexed it (which is different than the status of Samaria & Judea, and the Gaza Strip) and I would say ever since 1981 there's no way of returning it. Settlements are being built. Even in Judea and Samaria you don't see ALL of it being given to the PLO, Jewish settlements are kept. Golan Heights is too small to say "settlements we keep, the rest you can have. Israel has given back a small eastern civilian populated portion to Syria as a DMZ. That's likely to be all after 1981.
 

raharris1973

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But since 1981 Israel has fully annexed it (which is different than the status of Samaria & Judea, and the Gaza Strip) and I would say ever since 1981 there's no way of returning it.

Well after 1978 there's much less incentive to trade land for a treaty on the Israeli side, because they have gotten a peace on the Egyptian side. Syria's leverage is greatest if it is the one making the first deal. Same for any neighbor like Jordan and Egypt (although Egypt's size provides some leverage too).
 
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