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Israelis Float Golan Split for Peace with Syria
(Reuters) Dan Williams - Top Israeli strategists have drawn up a proposal to return parts of the Golan Heights to Syria under a peace deal and will put it to a key policy conference next week. Israeli officials said the initiative did not reflect government thinking, but the Herzliya Conference has often served to float ideas that later became policy. Under the proposal by former Mossad intelligence operatives Uzi Arad and Shmuel Bar and academic Gideon Biger, Israel would withdraw to the Golan ridgeline overlooking the Sea of Galilee, keeping most of its settlements on the strategic plateau. In exchange for giving up its demand for a return of all of the Golan, Syria would receive land on its frontier with Jordan, and Jordan would receive a valuable swathe of desert land on its border with Israel. The strategists also suggest inviting Lebanon to develop a joint tourist site on Mount Hermon. Israel has ruled out rapprochement until Syria stops harboring Palestinian militant groups sworn to the Jewish state's destruction and backing Hizballah, which dominates southern Lebanon.