Likud Knesset member Reuven Rivlin, who voted against the Hebron agreement in the recent Knesset vote, told Israel Radio that he would support a Golan withdrawal if it would enable Israel to retain large portions of the West Bank.
Rivlin also proposed that Israel could consider leasing the Golan from Syria for a period of time necessary to prove that a peace with Damascus would hold.
Likud parliamentarians Meir Sheetrit and Yehuda Lankri said Tuesday that they would back a Golan withdrawal if it furthered the cause of peace, according to Israel Radio.
Golan residents expressed shock at the remarks by the Likud lawmakers, whose party platform describes the Golan as essential to Israel’s security.
Golan regional council head Yehuda Wallman said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had clearly stated before and after the elections in May that two principles were essential to Israel’s future: no concessions on the Golan and no concessions on Jerusalem.
The Knesset members’ remarks came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was optimistic that the negotiations with Syria would resume soon.
Netanyahu `s comments came as he detailed his approach to peace talks with Syria to the Knesset for the first time Monday.
He was responding to calls from the Labor-led opposition to bring his Syria policy before the Parliament.
Netanyahu said Israel was making an effort to renew the stalled talks — but that it could not force Syrian President Hafez Assad to do anything he did not want to do.
Negotiations between the two countries were suspended last March, after Assad refused to condemn a wave of Hamas suicide bombings that targeted Israel, claiming 59 lives.
In recent months, Syria has demanded that the negotiations resume from where they left off, including verbal assurances from the previous Labor government that withdrawals on the Golan Heights would be considered in exchange for peace.
Israel captured the heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Netanyahu has said both sides can raise whatever demands they want at the negotiations, but they must come to the table without preconditions.
On Monday, the premier said the two sides were now “looking for a bridging formula between these two opposing positions.”
Netanyahu said he believed it was possible to reach such a formula and that Israel and the United States were developing one.
“I believe that with good will from both sides, and help from the United States, we can reach a formula that will allow the renewal of direct dialogue between us and Syria.”
Meanwhile, President Clinton said on Tuesday that bringing Israel and Syria back to the negotiating table will be a “major focus” of his Feb. 13 meeting with Netanyahu in Washington.
But Clinton said resuming the peace talks is dependent on “the willingness of the parties.”
“What our experience has been…that when both parties want to make peace, no matter how far apart they seem, we find a way to get there. If they’re not sure it’s time to make peace, no matter how close it seems to an outsider, we don’t seem to be able to bridge the gaps,” Clinton told reporters in the first press conference since his inauguration.
Last week, Foreign Minister David Levy confirmed an Israeli newspaper report that he had been in touch with his counterpart, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, via an unnamed senior European official.
On Monday, after addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Levy said that he, too, hoped a formula for renewing negotiations with Damascus could be reached soon.
Since Netanyahu’s election, ties with Syria have deteriorated. Syria has moved troops from Lebanon, which it occupies, to near Mount Hermon along the Golan.
Israel has responded by reinforcing its troops in the Golan as well, and in the last several months Israeli officials have said Syria is preparing for an all-out war to recapture some or all of the Golan. Israeli defense officials say Syria prefers to regain the Golan through diplomacy, but will attack if it deems force necessary to push for more political gains.