Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has stepped up signals that Israel is ready for territorial compromise on the Golan Heights.
But he is insisting that Syria commit itself to a peace treaty with Israel before he agrees to discuss any withdrawal from the strategic plateau.
In an interview Thursday with Israel Radio, Rabin declared: “We have said that in exchange for a peace treaty that promises an end to war and opens the borders between Syria and Israel, diplomatic relations and normalization, that Israel is ready to implement” U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
“This imposes, of course, some sort of territorial compromise,” he said.
Israeli negotiators returning to the peace talks in Washington next week reportedly have been instructed to tell the Syrians they are prepared to negotiate “everything” in exchange for a peace treaty.
Rabin is sticking to this new, more flexible position despite mounting criticism at home from even members of his own Labor Party.
Settlers in the Golan announced they would wage “war” against Rabin and stage mass demonstrations to rally opposition to any territorial concessions.
One protest was to be mounted at Ben-Gurion Airport as Israeli negotiators departed to resume the talks in Washington after a 10-day recess.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Thursday praised the direction of Israel’s negotiations with Damascus.
Speaking during a visit to Paris, he said Israel must make sure its security needs are met, but it could not ignore the “at least stated” change in Syria’s stand.
Peres characterized the recent exchange of signals between Damascus and Jerusalem as “the best ever in the history of the two countries.”
Criticism of the moves toward an accommodation with Syria cut across party lines, with Labor Knesset member Avigdor Kahalani heading the parliamentary lobby against concessions on the strategic heights.
Likud’s Ariel Sharon said Thursday that Israel Defense Force film crews have begun filming along Israel’s demarcation lines with Syria as the first step toward withdrawal.
And the leader of a group called the Temple Mount Faithful has filed a petition in the High Court of Justice against Rabin and the Israeli negotiating team with Syria.
Gershon Solomon argues that Jerusalem’s extension of Israeli law to the Golan Heights 11 years ago puts territorial concessions out of legal bounds.
Unconfirmed reports here say that when the peace talks resume next week, Israel will respond formally to a Syrian paper presented last week with a document calling on each side to recognize the other’s security needs.
The reports say that Rabin told the Israeli negotiating team Wednesday that an “initial achievement” with Syria might be attained in six months.
He said failure to achieve a breakthrough in the first two weeks of negotiation “was no cause for despair,” according to the reports.
The revised stance on Syria was reflected in remarks made Wednesday by the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak.
Syrian President Hafez Assad “understands that political dialogue is for the moment the only game in town,” Barak told military correspondents in Tel Aviv. “He is now putting forth maximalist conditions and waiting for developments.”
Barak said Israel can expect difficult negotiations as Syria continues to build up its military strength. But he said it is significant that Syria is conducting direct negotiations with Israel at all.
Similar views were voiced by the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ori Orr of Labor.
“I don’t suspect Assad of having become a fervent lover of Zion, but at the same time Syria’s president is more of a pragmatist than some others,” he said Wednesday during a special Knesset session on policy toward Syria.
Assad “won’t come to Jerusalem as Sadat did,” Orr said, “but Syria’s behavior across the board shows that something has changed even in Syria.”
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