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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Ya'alon: Israel can return Golan Heights to Syria |
| 2004-08-13 |
| Israel would not endanger its security by giving up the Golan Heights for peace with Syria, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said in remarks published Friday, departing from the military's traditional view that Israel needs at least part of the plateau as a security buffer. Ya'alon spoke a day after Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert indicated that Israel will 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 four West Bank settlements by the end of 2005. 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, 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, Ya'alon 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," Ya'alon told the daily Yediot Ahronot. "The army is able to defend any border. This is correct for any political decision that is taken in Israel," he said. Responding to Ya'alon's comments, Ahmad Haj Ali, an advisor to the Syrian information minister, said Friday that Syria will not take seriously Israeli offers to pull out of the Golan Heights unless they are backed by moves on the ground or an open commitment to withdraw. Haj Ali was not impressed by Ya'alon's comment, telling The Associated Press: "We don't give such statements any weight unless they are associated with a serious move (toward peace) and with international guarantees. Whoever is willing to make peace should return the land to its owners and withdraw immediately or declare that openly and clearly." Other Syrian government officials could not be reached for comment Friday as it was the Muslim Sabbath. Haj Ali said he believed Ya'alon's statement was designed to "show Israel was the party seeking peace in order to look good in the upcoming American elections." |
| Posted by:Mr. Davis |
| #17 Not Arizona, Caliphornia. And it will happen, democratically. |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-08-13 3:47:31 PM |
| #16 Shipman, Better get those gloves on or you'll have to do a lot of splainin' to Mama. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-08-13 7:56:53 PM |
| #15 Ruhoh, looks like a redundant deamon damon again |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-13 7:53:27 PM |
| #14 LOL and good advice Mrs. D. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-13 7:52:30 PM |
| #13 LOL and good advice Mrs. D. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-13 7:52:17 PM |
| #12 I told him that's what happens when you don't practice safe surfing. Always wear gloves I tell him; may be more typos, but you don't come home with somebody else's IP address. That's the kind of thing that stays with you the rest of your life. So I'll do the talking from now on. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-08-13 6:03:40 PM |
| #11 Probably nothing. The trip wire could simply be that your IP address resembles one from a real troll. Just ask Fred to pull you out of the sink trap, AND DON'T FORGET TO SHOWER OFF! |
| Posted by: Anonymous6072 2004-08-13 5:22:43 PM |
| #10 Wonder what I did wrong? |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-08-13 5:19:50 PM |
| #9 DAAAAAAAAAAAAAVIS!!!! No, seriously. What's going on? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-08-13 4:45:29 PM |
| #8 I don't know but his comments are gone from every article I've seen in the last 20 minutes or so. Did someone do a global search/replace of everything he wrote? |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-08-13 4:43:38 PM |
| #7 What in the world happened to Mr. D.? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-13 4:37:58 PM |
| #6 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis TROLL 2004-08-13 3:47:31 PM |
| #5 What's next? Arizona returned to Mexico! Que barbaro! ________Tucson Denizen |
| Posted by: borgboy2001 2004-08-13 3:15:01 PM |
| #4 "The army is able to defend any border. This is correct for any political decision that is taken in Israel," he said. There is part of me (I not an Israeli) that sez okay, back to the 1967 border ..... give it a year and get all the excuses and sealed waxed, red-beribboned paper necessary to overrun everything from Kurdistan to the Nile. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-13 2:22:31 PM |
| #3 the concent worked well in the case of Egypt - the absence of threat from that quarter has been very important to Israel. Netanyahu himself was willing to negotiate a withdrawl from Syria in exchange for peace,as did Barak. These never went anywhere because A. Syria insisted not only on every inch of the Golan, but took an expansive view of the border between the Golan and pre-67 Israel and B. Syria was reluctant to take an expansive view of peace - no cultural, economic, other relations. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-08-13 1:28:06 PM |
| #2 It's not you, Raj. I wanna hear what Ariel Sharon thinks--but this isn't going to go down well with lots of Israelis and I don't blame them! Why trust Baby Assad and as you said, why voluntarily cede land that was paired for with precious blood? |
| Posted by: GreatestJeneration 2004-08-13 1:17:35 PM |
| #1 Is it me or is the concept of giving land back to those who lost it in a war (in exchange for what?) really, really stoopid? |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-08-13 1:14:08 PM |