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Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Israel should resume negotiations with Syria. (AP file)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 21, 2006 |
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Israel should resume negotiations with Syria and, in exchange for peace, give up the Golan Heights, Israeli Cabinet minister Avi Dichter said Monday.
It was not immediately clear whether Public Security Minister Dichter expressed his personal views or spoke for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War. Asked by Israel Army Radio whether Israel should surrender the territory in exchange for a peace deal, Dichter referred to treaties with Egypt and Jordan in which Israel handed over all war-won land.
"What we did with Egypt and Jordan is also legitimate in this case," Dichter said. Asked whether that meant Israel should return to its international border with Syria, he said: "Yes."
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday the time is not right to resume negotiations with Syria, adding that Israel is too busy trying to deal with Lebanon and the Palestinians.
Israel's defense minister, Amir Peretz, had proposed last week that Israel put out feelers to Damascus, amid growing concerns in Israel that Syria, if left on the sidelines, would further deepen its ties with Iran.
Peres dismissed the idea. "I think that at the moment, we can't take on too much," Peres told Israel Radio. "We have the burden of Lebanon and we have the negotiations with the Palestinians. I don't think a country like ours can deal with so many issues at a time."
He also suggested there would be domestic repercussions if Israel were to approach Syria. After the messy war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, it appears many Israelis would be in no mood to make the territorial concessions seen as inevitable for reaching a peace deal with Syria.
Peres said he believes its unlikely Syrian President Bashar Assad was even contemplating a return to negotiations. "The Syrians, if they are serious (about peace talks), should come and say 'we are interested in holding negotiations,"' Peres said. "I don't see Assad doing this."
According to Haaretz, Dichter's remarks sparked immediate criticism from rightists, led by senior MK Yuval Steinitz.
"The Golan Heights is a part of the state of Israel. It bears critical importance for the security of the state, the peace of the state, its ability to drink [water] and to make the desert bloom in this difficult region," he told the radio.
"It would be folly to give up the Golan, in an effort to achieve some agreement with Syria, stable or not."
The AP contributed to this report.
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