For Israel Holding the Golan is more important than peace with the Assad family. Syria should ask Israel for peace and offer in exchange the Golan. But of course that will not happen. So, there is no reason for Israel to be generous with the Mafia regime of Assad. The Assad family has established a hereditary dynasty shored up by repression within, and confrontation and terror abroad. The rule of the Assads is not aimed at improving the lot of their people or forwarding a particular ideology. They changed ideology from secular Arabism to a seemingly impossible confection of pan-Arabism and Islamist extremism. It is pointless to “engage” Syria in dialogue except insofar as it is possible to confront them with their violations and insist that they mend their ways as explained at : http://xrl.us/bjcsd

the same way giving back Gaza and South Lebanon did? Weird then that ALL the current fighting is coming from areas we withdrew from.

Olmert, Livni, Barak, Beilin etc are all the Rudolf Katzner's of today. They are secretly negotiating to give away Jerusalem the Golan and anything else they can surrender. Thankfully the Jews in the Golan are resisting Edud Katzner Olmert and his surrender policies. If Arabs had defeated Israel in 1967... would they be getting ready to hand back land that they`d won? Answer: no. Why does Israel have to bend over backwards time and time again. Olmert and his ilk are fools who believe in land for terror camps. Imad Mugniyah the most wanted terrorist behind Bin Laden was given refuge by Assad. Thankfully justice was served to Mugniyah in terrorist Syria. Just as the biggest Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner was given refuge by Syria for 40 years. The Golan Heights was never part of Syria before 1946. It was part of the British Mandate borders of 1917 that was supposed to go to Israel. Infact i advise people to read this article. 300,000 Syrian Kurds 'Buried Alive' http://kurdistanobserver.servehttp.com/feb06/15-2-06-kurds-buried-alive.htm

And in the six days war IDF had free the Golan from our enemy

Your arguments are very simplistic. You forget that Israel had wars with Syria through their surrogates of Hizbullah and Hamas. Was it not for Syria Hizbullah would never have been what they are now, a much more potent force to fight than Syria ever will. You can hide your head in the sand and wish that the Alawite regime survives but I am not sure what is best a potential Islamist government in Syria (assuming you are right) or fighting surrogates such as Hizbullah and Hamas. Your pick but if I had my choice I would give other players than the current Assad regime a chance. They have had theirs and it does not look good.

would give Golan to the impotent Assad for a net gain of nothing. The only thing we should be giving back is Ehud - back to civilian life to spare us of any more calamities. Ehud Olmart for non-prime minster.

I do not need papers to live with my girlfriend, we are ok without any formal agreement

Michael, you believe yet that babies come from Paris? Syrians will do whatever they want, even signing a letter. They are arabs !!!

Any peace deal with Syria needs to address at least the following issues: - Syria to immediately cut all ties with Hezbollah and end all support for and arms shipments to them. - Syria to halt all interference in the internal affairs of the Lebanon. - Syria to cease all military and related cooperation with North Korea, especially in the fields of nuclear energy and missile development. - Syria to refrain from all efforts to join the nuclear club, whether for military or supposedly civilian purposes. (Want nuclear power for peaceful energy? They’ll be queuing up to build you a nuclear power station.) - Syria to put an end to any form of support for or safe haven for terrorists (or their cousins the freedom fighters, gunmen, militants, militias and radicals) directed against Israel or the West. This is primarily but not exclusively directed towards Hamas and its leader Khaled Mashal. - Syria to end all military and related ties with Iran, and dissociate itself from Iran’s calls for Israel’s destruction. - Finally, Syria to end all attempts to obtain or exploit weapons of mass destruction (biological, chemical or nuclear) and delivery mechanisms such as missiles, or to deploy them against Israel Irrespective, Israeli public figures across the board need to stop talking the language of concessions and start talking about the legitimate rights of Israel! Altneuland http://blog.altneuland.info/

"Moreover, our border with Syria is quiet and stable and no clash has taken place there for dozens of years.. This is was talkbackers refer to as lucid analysis ? I suppose invading Syrian airspace and bombing a military installation is Israel's version of peace. Is one to understand from this that as long as Israel bombs with impunity she has peace? That a "clash", would require the other side responding?