Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel should explore the possibility of making peace with Syria. "| Israel needs to demonstrate its willingness to make painful concessions. |
Israel needs to demonstrate its willingness to make painful concessions if our main interests are [to be] maintained," he said, while stressing that Israel has to be "ready for every scenario of military confrontation" with its neighbor along the northeast border.
Peretz noted that Syrian President Bashar Assad has recently made overtures of peace as well as threats of military confrontation in interviews with the international press. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has dismissed Assad's remarks about peace with Israel and recently declared that he would never give back the Golan Heights. But Peretz said the government should "consider" each of the Baathist leader's positions. More broadly, he said that Israel needs to be engaging moderate Arab leaders, specifically Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. |