Israel ‘could give up Golan for peace’
Lieutenant Gen Moshe Yaalon spoke a day after Vice Premier Ehud Olmert indicated that Israel would have to evacuate more Israeli settlements in the West Bank than the four mentioned in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan of “unilateral disengagement” from the Palestinians.
As part of the plan, Israel would withdraw from all of the Gaza Strip and the four West Bank settlements by the end of 2005.
Meanwhile, an Israeli guard at a West Bank settlement was killed in an ambush. Other guards then killed the Palestinian gunman.
Israel has long argued that giving up the Golan, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed in 1981, could leave northern Israel vulnerable to Syrian attack.
In failed peace talks with Syria, Mr Sharon’s moderate predecessor, Ehud Barak, offered to withdraw from virtually all of the heights, but insisted on special security arrangements and some border adjustments.
However Lt Yaalon suggested that from a military point of view, Israel could afford to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines - a key Syrian demand.
“If you ask me, theoretically, if we can reach an agreement with Syria ... my answer is that from a military standpoint it is possible to reach an agreement by giving up the Golan Heights,” Lt Yaalon told the daily Yediot Ahronot.
The last round of Israeli-Syrian peace talks collapsed in 2000, however last year Syria made overtures indicating it wanted to resume talks.
Israel says Syria must first end its support for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian radicals it hosts in Syria.
Yesterday’s shooting was near the Itamar settlement.
The gunman ambushed a car driving near the entrance to the settlement, seriously wounding a security guard who died on the way to hospital, the army said.
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