The American administration is working behind the scenes to jumpstart diplomatic talks between Israel and Syria. Senior official Fred Hoff, a member of special Mideast envoy George Mitchell’s team met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday along with Defense Minister Ehud Barak along with a number of senior officials. From here, Hoff heads to Syria for talks with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Mualem.

The daily Yediot Achronot reports that Israel remains firm to its stand, a willingness to resume talks without preconditions. Israel’s intelligence community however favors a resumption of talks, with the report adding intelligence community officials are even willing to accept a Golan Heights land compromise in exchange for Syria’s cutting ties with Iran.

To advance US President Barak Obama’s policy to bring additional Jewish organizations into the negotiating fold, representatives of the radical left-wing Peace Now organization in the United States were invited to take an active part in ongoing efforts.

Obama believes the American Jewish organizations can act as emissaries to assist in promoting his agenda in Israel. Following his appointment of George Mitchell as his special Mideast envoy, Mitchell met with officials of a number of Jewish organizations personally to brief them while others were briefed in phone conversations.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)