Eating Syrian Hummus in Jerusalem

In 2007, the Turkish government helped to organize secret negotiations between the Syrian and Israeli governments.  An American businessman visited Syria with hopes to convince President Bashar Assad of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "serious intentions". 

Nahum Barnea in Yedioth Ahronoth:

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.

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 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 ready.