Olmert, Minister in Clash Over Returning the Golan to Syria

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Olmert, Minister in Clash Over Returning the Golan to Syria

By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 22, 2006

TEL AVIV, Israel — Dissent within Israel's war Cabinet appeared to spill into the open yesterday with the country's minister for internal security defying an order from Prime Minister Olmert and publicly saying that if Syria was interested, he would endorse negotiating the return of the Golan Heights to the Baathist regime in Damascus in exchange for peace.

The statements from Avi Dichter — a former chief of Israel's FBI, known as the Shabak — seemed directly to contradict the prime minister, who said on Sunday before the weekly Cabinet meeting that members of the government should not discuss possible Golan negotiations.

Mr. Dichter's remarks prompted Mr. Olmert to state plainly again that no such talks would be in the offing so long as the Assad regime supports terrorists.

The incoherence from Jerusalem on the negotiations question got even knottier last night after Israel's Channel 10 news reported that a delegation of private businessmen last week approached a Labor Party leader and current defense minister, Amir Peretz, with an offer from President Assad himself to restart talks on the Golan Heights.

"I think that a process of discussions with Syria is legitimate. If it turns out that there is someone to talk to, I think that the idea is very suitable," Mr. Dichter said on Israel Army Radio. "Israel can initiate it. Ultimately, initiatives of this kind are of a third party and there is an abundance of third parties in the world. If a third party approaches us, we must reply in the positive."

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http://www.nysun.com/article/38316?access=691710