Shas MK, Syrian rebel leader meet in Istanbul
Ultra-Orthodox lawmaker Yakov Margi and Association of Rebels in Syria leader Mohammed Adnan discuss cooperation in a post-Assad Syria
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAvi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.
An unprecedented meeting took place Thursday in Istanbul between an Israeli lawmaker and the leader of a Syrian rebel outfit.
MK Yakov Margi (Shas) met with Mohammed Adnan, head of the Association of Rebels in Syria, through the mediation of Mendi Safadi, the bureau chief of former Likud party minister Ayoob Kara. The two even gave an interview to Turkish television.
During the meeting Margi expressed his regret that innocents are being harmed in Syria’s civil war by President Bashar Assad, whom he called a tyrant. Margi emphasized that the Israeli people are interested in peace with Syria.
“I hope the Syrian people will throw down the gauntlet and choose its representatives as in any democratic country, and [then] they’ll find us extending our two hands for peace and living side by side,” Margi said.
Adnan replied, saying that the Syrian people are waking from the dream of lies of the Assad family, and that the facts prove the Israeli people are no longer the enemy, but “rather a partner in our struggle against the common enemy — Assad, Iran, and Hezbollah.”
Safadi, who got himself into hot water in 2012 when he “presented himself as an official envoy of the State of Israel working on cooperation with the Syrian opposition” without official approval, said that after almost three years of bloodshed in Syria, the time had come for the world to open its eyes and unite in order to end the slaughter.
He added that there was a series of meetings in the works to strengthen the ties between Israel and the Syrian people.
The Times of Israel Community.