controlled the Golan only for two years prior to its first use of the territory in its series of attacks against Israel, 1946 to 1948. Yet, the Golan, historically has been part of Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) as is demonstrated by biblical, archaeological and historical accounts. For these reasons and for the reasons I mentioned above, Israel should try to reach an accommodation of peaceful coexistence between it and Syria. But that accommodation should be based on peace for peace from which all can benefit, first and foremost the Arabs of Syria and the Jews of Israel.

I wouldn't trust Bashir Al-Assad futher than I could throw him. The Syrians are much more treacherous than the Egyptians. When they also recognize how shockingly they treated their jewish citizens from 1947 after the (Aleppo-Pogrom) when My family left Aleppo, to the 1980s when Hafez al-Assad reluctantly under pressure from the USA allowed the remaining Jews who wished to leave their homes in Syria,mainly for the USA could do so. There were many girls still left in the community of marriageable age who could not find any suitable husbands, therefoe there was a well established sizeable Syrian Jewish community for those girls to choose suitable husbands which undoubtedly would solve at least some of their parents problems.

ABSOLUTELY CORRECT RE SYRIA Anyone who attacks Jerusalem will NOT have peace.

YOU WILL GUARANTEE ME OF MY PRIZE BEFORE I EVEN AGREE TO SIT DOWN. I don't remember either Sadat saying to the Knesset that you will guarantee me the whole Sinai or I will not even talk about the idea of peace. Assad sounds like talks are a minor issue and the priority here for everybody concerned is he gets the Golan. Israel needs the Golan alot more than it needs a deal with this maffia thug who openly and proudly admits he supports terror. Only when it comes to Israel can anybody be so stupid as to thing that we should agree to give away land to a man who on Sunday will say he wants peace and on Monday will say how he supports terror attacks against Israel. We earn millions every year from Golan exports. Its home to 30,000 jews who live peacefully with their druze naighbors. Withdrawing from Gaza alone cost billions of dollars & that was jus the inital cost we are continuing to pay out money in things like unemployment & other benefits because so many still don't have permanent housing or jobs. The Golan has 3 times as many jews + the druze peobably will all start wanting Israeli citizenship and to move rather than live under Assad so we will have to deal with around 60,0000 people. Homes need to be found, jobs for that many people can't be pulled out of thin air, we will probably have to relocate military bases & early warning stations. The financial cost alone would run into tens of billions & we are going to be paying the bill for the next decade or more. Assad will of course get the standard US military aid program which is a formality that any arab state who signs a treaty with Israel gets. So instead of flying aging MIG 25s & T55 & T72 tanks the Syrian army will be using the Abrams. US corvettes to replace the rusting Soviet era things the navy currently operate. So Assad will have a military thats equipped with the same hardware as Israel and he has the strategic high ground. He plans to build homes for 500,000 arabs on the Golan. Breeding grounds for terrorists so we risk the creation of a potential Gaza in the north. Assad can't just abandon groups like Hizbollah and stay in power. It would be seen as a betrayal and he would be lucky if he doesn't end up same way as Sadat. He will do what Arafat did supprot the terrorists quietly and when they carry out attacks he has plausable deniabilty so he has done nothing wrong. Maybe now and again operate a revolving door prison where for show his people arrest low level terrorists and let them go a little while later when nobody is looking. He will want his share of the Kineret waters & he will almost certainly get it. We allowed Jordan a share of the Kineret in return for peace with them & they never even has access to that water before 1967 Assad will want the shame because Syria has a serious water shortage. Israelis will pay the price through higher taxes for their water. Also it doesn't matter if Assad breaks off his alliance with Iran or not because he isn't running things. He is a parasite that gets Iran to pay his bills, he does what he is told by Iran. If anybody thinks this is going to give us extra leverage over Irans nuclear program then they are fools. Israel has alot to loose in terms of security & economically through any treaty with Assad that involves giving up the Golan. Sometimes peace treaties can make things worse rather than better.

"Syria, which had used the area for years to pound Israeli towns below with deadly rockets. These attacks killed 140 Israelis", Ron Lod. Not many dead over the years. Maybe you really want water!!!

Until the Golan was liberated, the Syrian military sat atop the Golan firing bombs at Israeli villages and farms below. I saw the craters left from the bombs and heard reports directly from Israeli residents when I lived on a kibbutz below the Golan. Under Israel's control, the area is peaceful and the Golan flourishes. The Syrians want the Golan back to resume attacks against Israel. That's Syria's definition of peace.

I understand with all the critical notes of the past months from Edogan, people in Israel are getting paranoid. Look it in another way, Erdogan is getting more trusted by the arabs and that makes it easier for Israel to return to a peacefull relation with the arabs. All it has to do is to stay calm and keep on talking in stead of fighting. Turkey is becoming the key for peace not Syria or Iran. I know everybody is paranoid in the Middel east...but 1 thing i can tell you...you can trust Edogan. HAve you ever heard anti-semitic words out of his mouth...no. Being critical is good. And yes he is less critical about the arabs ...but wake up..this is politics to get the arabs trusting him...and for his own economic reasons and for political reasons so that the EU gets the idea they will need Turkey. And yes he is a muslim and many israeli are jews ...so what. The big picture is that a Middle East in peace will benefit all parties economically..and that is what he is trying to do with all his neighbours (iran, Irak, Greece, Armenia, Russia, Syria). Start trusting him more and get less paranoid and less agressive.