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Last Updated: Jun 28, 2009 - 8:05:43 AM |
An
unnamed American businessman who ferried secret
Syrian hummus from President Bashar Assad to Jerusalem where
then-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert ate the culinary peace offering without
having it tested by security..
In February 2007, the secret negotiations between Israel and Syria
began under the auspices of the Turkish government.
Shortly afterwards, a North American businessman visited Damascus. He
was invited to a long meeting with Bashar Assad. Ehud Olmert’s name
arose in the conversation. The American tried to convince Assad that
Olmert’s intentions were serious. Along the way, he told Assad that one
of Olmert’s favorite foods was hummus.
The businessman was scheduled to leave his hotel the next day at 9:00
AM. At 8:55 AM, a Syrian officer knocked on his door. He was holding a
jar filled with Syrian hummus.
“This is for the Israeli prime minister,” he said. Hummus
The man took off from Damascus to Amman, and from there to Israel.
That afternoon, the jar was brought to the prime minister’s office in
Jerusalem. Olmert instructed [staff] not to subject the jar to security
checks; it was a gesture of trust.
Olmert, his chief of staff Yoram Turbowicz and the political adviser
Shalom Turjeman—all three shared in the secret. They sat around the jar
and ate heartily.
It could be said that a dark deal was devised here: hummus in exchange
for the Golan. But there was no deal: Assad sent hummus, but secretly
built a nuclear facility in northern Syria; Olmert ate the hummus, but
secretly gave instructions to attack the facility. The strike was
carried out in September.
Now there is a new government in Jerusalem, and it has not yet
experienced the taste of Damascus hummus.
If Assad wants to renew the negotiations, he should get the chickpeas
read
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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