Israel ‘could give up Golan for peace’

ISRAEL would not endanger its security by giving up the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria, Israel’s army chief said yesterday, departing from the military’s traditional view that Israel needs at least part of the plateau as a buffer.

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.