Peacemaking in the Middle East is frustrating to say the least. Ideal for those seeking lifelong employment, it is usually a heartbreaker for results-oriented types. Yet perhaps frustration with the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has prompted the feelers currently being put out between Israel and Syria.

Turkey, one of Syria's neighbors and the only Muslim country with which Israel has good relations, has reportedly been serving as an intermediary between the two governments. Turkish Prime Minister Receb Tayyip Erdogan was in Damascus last weekend meeting with Syria's President Bashar Assad and reportedly told him of Israel's willingness to give back the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace. Assad later confirmed the report and Israel declined to comment – in other words did not deny it.

It appears that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is serious about forging some form of peace agreement with Israel's neighbors. Stymied over Palestine by his own and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' domestic political weaknesses and the specter of Hamas, he is turning to a Syrian opening as perhaps offering more hope for concrete progress.

Syria too seems to be open for movement. Assad may well feel uncomfortable being painted into too tight a corner with Iran. Also the Israeli bombing last September of what U.S. President George W. Bush called a plutonium enrichment facility may have convinced Syria that nuclear weapons development was not the way to go.

There is no doubt that regaining the Golan Heights would be a major domestic coup for Syria. The challenge will be to offer acceptable security guarantees for Israel and winning the necessary political support. This is not just a liberal cause within Israel. Security hawks such as Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Binyamin Netanyahu have all supported returning the Golan Heights in return for security, in the past.

But there are also plenty of opponents, including such strange bedfellows as settler organizations on the one hand and birdwatchers and ski-buffs on the other. President Shimon Peres has declared such a deal unacceptable unless Syria agrees to break its links with Iran and with Hezbollah.

That is not going to happen, but should not lead Israel to insist on an ultimatum. An agreement over the Golan Heights would significantly change the nature of Syria's relations with Iran and Hezbollah. The one thing that Israel should hold the line on and that the United States should insist on is not giving Syria a free hand again in Lebanon as an implicit accompaniment to returning the Golan.

The prospects of actually concluding an agreement remain daunting. But there is a clear willingness to move in a new direction on the part of both Israel and Syria. The U.S. administration remains skeptical and wants to keep Syria at arms length. But a growing number of American voices are urging engagement with Syria without giving away the store.

These are all hopeful shifts, and in the Middle East that is already something worthwhile.