Thursday, November 12, 2009

Netanyahu Denies Arab Media Report, Says No Golan Surrender

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A7 News

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office denied a report in the Arabic-language newspaper al-Arabiya that he will inform Syria, through French channels, that Israel would agree to surrender the strategic Golan Heights in return for a peace treaty. The platform of the Prime Minister’s Likud party specifically states that his government will not withdraw from the area.

The office of the Prime Minister stated Thursday morning, “The subject of the negotiations with Syria came up during a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy,” with whom he met in France on Wednesday. “The Prime Minister said he is prepared to begin negotiations immediately at any place and at anytime but without any preconditions” by Israel or Syria.

The journalist for al-Arabiya insisted that Prime Minister Netanyahu specifically informed Assad he would agree to withdraw from the Golan but only after official meetings. French media reported that the information of the Israeli leader’s promise came from aides to the Prime Minister and not from French officials.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Sarkozy met Wednesday night in Paris and discussed several international issues, including the threat from Iran that it will be able to produce uranium that can be used for a nuclear weapon.

The subject of the Golan Heights, where 50 percent of the residents are Jewish and living in most of the area, has periodically been raised in Israel, often by mainstream media. Israel officially annexed the area as part of the country, and it would take an absolute majority of 61 Knesset Members to approve any surrender and expulsion of its residents.

Arab Affairs expert Professor Moshe Sharon told Arutz Sheva that Syria is interested in water and not peace. “We need not take seriously Assad’s threats to ‘resume resistance’ in the Golan,” he said. Sharon emphasized that Israel must always remember that Syria is its perpetual enemy who might one day help Iran in a war against Israel, and that their only interest is in taking over the Golan and taking water from the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).

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