Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 18, 1994 TAG: 9401180019
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Medium
But Mordechai Gur said the government would hold a referendum on any extensive pullback from the Golan. He stressed that the price of a settlement with Syria was full withdrawal from the Golan.
His statements appeared to reflect gradual Israeli acceptance that it was unrealistic to hope for a compromise that would leave at least part of the strategic plateau in Israeli hands.
Arab governments, meanwhile, praised Syrian President Hafez Assad's conditional offer of peace with Israel, while Iran vowed to keep on fighting to annihilate the Jewish state.
Foreign Minister Amr Moussa of Egypt said he believed Sunday's summit in Geneva between Assad and President Clinton "will lead to breaking the logjam and moving the peace process forward."
Newspapers around the Arab world portrayed the summit as "a peace challenge" for Israel.
"If Israeli leaders have the bravery to respond to such peace efforts, then a new era of security, stability and normal peace relations among all will break out in the region," said Qatar's Al-Arab daily.
In Jerusalem, U.S. Middle East coordinator Dennis Ross separately briefed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Monday about the Geneva meeting.
Peres said the summit created a more promising air in the Middle East peace talks and hinted that Israel would have to weigh serious decisions about peace with Syria.
Talks are to resume in Washington on Monday, four months after getting hung up over whether Syria should say first what kind of peace it envisions or Israel should say first how far it would withdraw in the Golan.
Ross told reporters that Assad "broke some new ground . . . by talking specifically and explicitly about the strategic choice of peace with Israel."
But neither Ross nor Peres would be specific about whether Assad had pledged the kind of peace Israel seeks: open borders, exchange of ambassadors, tourism and trade relations.
There is strong opposition to a complete withdrawal from Golan by a generation of Israelis who grew up believing that Assad was an implacable enemy and that the heights were a vital buffer to Syrian attack.
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Rabin call early elections before agreeing to give back the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.
Gur's pledge of a referendum came during a Parliament debate in which opposition lawmakers criticized Rabin for seeming to back down from campaign promises to stand firm concerning the Golan.
The deputy defense minister said the price for peace was full withdrawal from the Golan, and seemed to indicate that it was not out of the question.
"We are a very strong country," he said. "We will provide a solution to the security of Israel. . . . On the basis of our strength, it is our duty to take the calculated risk.
"If the territorial price to be claimed from us in the Golan Heights is significant, the government will bring the issue to a referendum," Gur said, adding that he spoke for Rabin and the government.
However, Environment Minister Yossi Sarid told Israel radio the government had not decided on a referendum.
Talks on implementing the Sept. 13 Israel-PLO autonomy accord resume today in the Egyptian resort of Taba.
by CNB