ISRAEL:ISRAELI PRIME minister Ehud Olmert's refusal to comment on reports that he has offered Syria a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace sparked a political storm in Israel yesterday. There was also speculation that there has been progress in indirect contacts between the two countries.
Two Syrian media outlets reported yesterday that Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had telephoned President Bashar Assad earlier this week to tell him of the Israeli offer regarding the Golan Heights, which were captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
The prime minister's office did not deny the report, saying that they "refuse to comment on the matter. In his interviews last week, the prime minister stated that Mr Assad is familiar with Israel's position regarding peace talks and vice versa."
The reference is to a series of interviews Mr Olmert gave last week on the eve of the Passover holiday in which he said he wanted "to make peace with Syria . . . I know exactly what the Syrians want and I think the Syrians know exactly what Israel expects from a peace process. More than that I do not want to say."
Just days later, former US president Jimmy Carter met Mr Assad and said that the Syrian leader believed that "85 per cent" of the differences between Israel and Syria - on issues like borders, security zones and water rights - had already been settled.
Hawkish Israeli parliamentarians, as well as several members of Mr Olmert's ruling Kadima party who strongly oppose giving Syria back the Golan Heights, accused the prime minister, who is currently spending his Passover holiday on the strategic mountain range, of "abandoning Israel's security".
David Tal, a member of Kadima, said he planned to fast-track a Bill that required the holding of a national referendum on any future agreement between Israel and Syria.
"Assad is the same Assad, with the terror organisations in Damascus and the missiles he transfers night after night to Hizbullah," said Effie Eitam, a hardline parliamentarian.