Report: Netanyahu agreed to full Golan Heights withdrawal
Report: Netanyahu agreed to full Golan Heights withdrawal – Israel News, Ynetnews.
Yedioth Ahronoth reports that in late 2010 PM, Barak conducted secret indirect talks with Assad; US documents reveal Israel agreed to return to June 4, 1967 lines in exchange for peace deal; negotiations were interrupted by uprising against Syrian president
Shimon Shiffer
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The onset of the rebellion against Bashar Assad in January 2011 interrupted intense negotiations between the Syrian president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the latter agreed to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.
In the spring of 2010, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Baraklaunched secret indirect negotiations with Assad through American mediator Frederick Hoff, a former commander in the Marines and an expert on border demarcation in disputed areas.
Earlier this week Hoff resigned from his post as special US envoy to the Middle East. According to the Yedioth Ahronoth report, documents written by Hoff suggest that the negotiations were based on Netanyahu’s willingness to return to the June 4, 1967 lines, giving Damascus full control of the entire Golan Heights area. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.
American businessman and Netanyahu associate Ronald Lauder reportedly negotiated a similar deal in 1998, during Netanyahu’s first term as premier. At the time, Netanyahu denied that claim.
Netanyahu’s successor, Ehud Barak, also offered a Golan withdrawal for peace, but the talks failed.
Golan Heights (Photo: Reuters)
According to American sources, Netanyahu and Barak agreed to withdraw to the 1967 lines in exchange for a comprehensive peace deal that would include an Israeli “expectation” for the severing of ties between Syria and Iran. However, the sources said, the burgeoning deal did not include an explicit commitment by Assad to severe ties with the Islamic Republic.
The report said the sides did not agree on a timeline for the Israeli withdrawal: Syria wanted the agreement to be implemented within one and a half to two years, while Israel asked for more time before pulling out of the region.
Yedioth quoted a senior American official as saying that the negotiations were serious and far-reaching and would have likely ended with an agreement had they not been interrupted by the uprising against Assad. The official estimated that Netanyahu resumed the talks with Assad to justify the stalemate in the negotiations with the Palestinians and because he viewed Syria as the weak link in the so called “axis of evil,” which also includes Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah.
According to the documents written by Hoff, the discussions were held at the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem. Netanyahu and Barak kept the talks a secret, but in early 2011 a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that special US envoy Dennis Ross met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and said that Damascus was willing to resume talks with Israel and that the Jewish state was willing to return the Golan Heights. The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report.
Yedioth said US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were aware of the negotiations, as were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Dennis Ross. Syria’s representative to the talks was FM Moallem, but Hoff also met with Assad, the report said.
Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that “this initiative was one of many proposed to Israel over the past few years. At no point did Israel accept this American initiative. The initiative is irrelevant, and its publication at this time stems from political considerations.”
AP contributed to the report
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WarSclerotic 
October 12, 2012 at 1:58 PM
If this was indeed tue, it would be interesting what kind of security guaranties would have been put in place.
It’s hard to believe that any Israeli prime minister would give land of such crucial strategic importance without any guaranties away.
October 12, 2012 at 5:39 PM
If true, it means Bibi is not a statesman but merely a businessman. Peace deals with mad men are absurd when they continue to develop ever more dangerous weapons (missiles, atom bomb,…). The only reasonable solution is to send their countries back to the Middle Ages with EMP bombs. That is the only way to be safe in the long run. When the whole population of neighboring countries is formed of psychopaths, you cannot afford to let them acquire modern technologies, since they are dangerously powerful.
There is no realistic strategic vision at the head of Israel. Just a bunch of corrupt ignorant hedonists.
Iakov Levi should be at the helm instead.
October 12, 2012 at 5:49 PM
I shall add that as Ephraïm Kishon put it : “since the advent of television in Israel, it has become a normal country”. But like the Roman Empire, Israel cannot afford to become an hedonistic country. Rome could not afford it because Romans needed to be ready to fight barbaric enemies themselves anytime, to sacrifice their own lives and not rely on mercenaries. Israel faces the same problem, but even more acutely since barbarians can build very dangerous missiles and weapons of mass destruction if they are allowed to become technologically-advanced nations. Israel cannot afford a single strategic mistake. Israel cannot afford to underestimate the barbarians. A single strategic mistake and it is the Shoah all over again ! Better be too cruel than too naive.
October 12, 2012 at 7:21 PM
Reblogged this on servehiminthewaiting.