COMPROMISE OFFERED ISRAELI LEADER READY TO GIVE UP PART OF GOLAN HEIGHTS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 16, 1993                   TAG: 9303160014
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
COMPROMISE OFFERED ISRAELI LEADER READY TO GIVE UP PART OF GOLAN HEIGHTS
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin emerged from a meeting Monday with President Clinton "ready for compromise" and offered to surrender part of the Golan Heights to Syria.
But Rabin said Israel would not negotiate a pullback in the strategic territory without knowing Syria's peace terms.
Clinton endorsed Rabin's demand. He said peace must include open borders and full diplomatic relations. And he pledged to maintain Israel's military edge over the Arabs as an inducement for a compromise settlement.
The statements by the two leaders after a 3 1/2-hour Oval Office meeting set the stage for a resumption of Arab-Israeli peace talks in Washington on April 20.
The Palestinians are holding out, demanding that Israel immediately repatriate 396 deportees forced into Lebanon in mid-December on suspicion of promoting terrorism against Israel.
That issue, and Palestinian allegations of Israeli human rights violations on the West Bank and in Gaza, did not figure prominently in the meeting, 75 minutes of which was held by Clinton and Rabin without their aides present, U.S. officials said afterward.
Rabin and Secretary of State Warren Christopher agreed Feb. 1 that 101 of the Palestinians would be taken back immediately and the others by the end of the year.
Clinton said that framework was the right approach. And Rabin urged the Palestinians to drop their threatened boycott of the negotiations.
At the joint news conference, Clinton said Rabin was prepared "to take risks for peace," and Rabin confirmed it.
"We made it clear that we accept the principle of the withdrawal of the armed forces of Israel on the Golan Heights to a secure and recognized boundary," Rabin said.
"But we will not enter negotiations on the dimension of the withdrawal without knowing what kind of peace Syria offers us." He asked, for instance, whether it would involve an exchange of ambassadors and a normalization of relations.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB