COS Mofaz Plays Ball With Barak - Presents Political Analysis As Military
Analysis

IMRA: The 2 articles below cover recent political statements by COS Mofaz in
support of Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

While Mofaz claims that "My task will be to ensure that my opinion will be
completely unblemished, unbiased, purely professional and confined to the
security issue," in the same breath he employs the assertion the Syrians are
aware "that in a military clash with Israel, they will not be able to secure
the same achievements they can get through a peace treaty because of the
strength and might of Israel and the IDF" to reach the political conclusion
to support withdrawal from the Golan.

The military observation - that Syria can't push the IDF off the Golan with
force and thus opts to push off the IDF with paper - in no way leads to a
military conclusion that Syria wants peace with an Israel off the Golan.

The very same military observation could be made by someone whose political
analysis finds that Syria wants to destroy Israel but finds that it is more
efficient to move another step towards its goal via treaties than tanks.

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Mofaz: Israeli team will ensure security in Syria treaty

By Amos Harel Ha'aretz Military Correspondent - Ha'aretz 23.1.2000

Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz said Friday night that he is certain the
country's decision makers are taking full account of the nation's security
needs in the course of negotiations with Syria.

"I cannot imagine that they will arrive at a point where they will agree to
peace agreements that do not contain a maximum provision for security,"
Mofaz told Channel One news.

He added that in his view, both Syria and Lebanon have a true desire to sign
agreements with Israel. The Syrians, he said, "have their own reasons" for
embarking on the peace track, with their main motivation lying in the
economic sphere.

"Israel, too, is truly striving for peace and has a desire to achieve
maximum security in the agreements," Mofaz said.

He added that another motivating factor of the Syrians is their awareness
that in a military clash with Israel, they will not be able to secure the
same achievements they can get through a peace treaty - "because of the
strength and might of Israel and the IDF."

Mofaz said that at this stage he sees no reason for him to take part in the
security talks and prefers to have the IDF represented by the head of the
General Staff Planning Branch, Major General Shlomo Yanai.

"If the Syrian chief of staff decides to take part in the security
negotiations at some stage, it is very possible that I will be sitting
opposite him," Mofaz said.

Two weeks ago Mofaz said that he would not flinch from expressing publicly
his view on the security aspects of an agreement with Syria ahead of its
signing and also ahead of the referendum that would follow.

Asked about this on Friday, he said, "My task will be to ensure that my
opinion will be completely unblemished, unbiased, purely professional and
confined to the security issue."

It was the second time in less than a week that Mofaz expressed optimism
concerning a peace treaty with Syria. Last Wednesday he told a press
conference that he hopes to be "the chief of staff of peace.

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Barak's strongest card - By Aluf Benn
Ha'aretz 23.1.2000

Prime Minister Ehud Barak has begun to play his strongest card in the
campaign to win public support for a peace treaty with Syria - Chief of
Staff Shaul Mofaz. The chief of staff holds the key to the referendum on the
Golan: If he says the agreement achieved by the prime minister has security
flaws, critical votes could move to the opposing side.

Mofaz enjoys greater public prestige than all his predecessors since the
1973 Yom Kippur War. Until now, he has kept his distance from the diplomatic
process. At week's end, however, Mofaz threw all his professional authority
behind Barak's Syria move. The Syrians, he told Channel One, want an
agreement with Israel and he is confident that the political level - meaning
Barak - will take security considerations into account. In other words, the
chief of staff will not interfere with Barak on the way to the referendum.

Mofaz is sending a dual message: He is signaling Syrian President Hafez
Assad that the Israeli army supports a withdrawal from the Golan and he is
indicating to the Israeli public that it can rely on Barak.

This is not the first time the army has helped the prime minister market a
policy move. The initiative to abbreviate military service could have been
presented as a move to streamline the army, as the idea was put forward in
the past. But Mofaz went along with the connection Barak made between
cutting compulsory service and an agreement with Syria and Lebanon.

The relations between the prime minister and the chief of staff can be
likened to a separation-of-forces agreement. Barak is devoting very little
energy to his job as defense minister. He rarely shows up at the Defense
Ministry in Tel Aviv, makes few visits to the army and does not go around
wearing flight jackets, as Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres did. The result is
that Mofaz has virtually total freedom in managing the army under Barak's
lax supervision, and in return Mofaz makes no waves liable to engulf the
prime minister.

There is occasional friction between the two neighbors from the community of
Kochav Yair. Mofaz vetoed Barak's decision to send Deputy Chief of Staff Uzi
Dayan to the Shepherdstown talks and announced that the head of the Planning
Branch would go instead. Barak capitulated and Dayan, so the story goes,
stayed home for two days to calm down.

Mofaz's remarks about wanting to be "the chief of staff of peace" are a
clear hint that he wants to continue his reforms in the army and go down in
IDF history as the person who thrust the IDF into the new era. In other
words, he wants one or even two extra years added to his three-year stint as
chief of staff.