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Sharon To Keep Jerusalem, Syrian Golan Heights Under Israeli Control
MADRID, Feb 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In remarks likely to upset his Arab neighbors, Israel's rightwing prime ministerial front-runner Ariel Sharon said he would keep "unified" Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights under Israeli control.
In an interview with a Spanish newspaper published Thursday, the 72-year-old general told El Mundo he would list his terms and conditions for peace before any talks in the Middle East.
"First of all, Israel must maintain its sovereignty over the whole city of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount," Sharon said referring to al-Aqsa Mosque, a site holy to Jews as well.
Secondly, he said, was the proviso that "the Jordan Valley, including the Dead Sea, constitutes Israel's eastern security zone."
"Thirdly, there will be no return of Palestinian refugees to Israeli territory," he added, and insisting fourthly, that "Israel will not withdraw from the Golan Heights under the terms of a peace agreement with Syria."
Lastly, Sharon said he was also opposed to a plan to give the Palestinians an area of Israel's Negev desert in compensation for Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. Such a move, he said, would "put the territory into the hands of armed Palestinian forces, which would turn 15 of our villages into front line posts."
Sharon said: "I'm aware that to achieve peace we have to make painful sacrifices," without spelling out what those might be.
In a perhaps an unexpected tribute to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Sharon said "I respect the tenacity with which he defends what he considers the vital interests of the Palestinians."
But Sharon said he would not shake Arafat's hand as long as the Palestinian leader "refuses to renounce terrorism" and because he does not recognize "the historic rights of the Jewish people on their own soil."
Sharon, potentially Israel's next prime minister, said that if elected to the post he would offer his defeated opponent, Ehud Barak, the defense ministry. Barak has already said he would not accept the position.
"I have a special fondness for Ehud Barak from his military days... he was a brilliant officer. I'm sorry to see him in the situation he's got himself into", he said. Sharon's stance over territorial issues, and particularly the Temple Mount, will be crucial in future peace negotiations should he be elected prime minister in Tuesday' election.
The future status of the controversial hill, known as al-Haram al-Sharif, is one of the most vexing questions being discussed by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in the search for a Middle East peace settlement.
The al-Aqsa mosque, on top of what Israelis call the Temple Mount, is a holy shrine in Islam, but is also venerated by Jews. Jews say it's the site of their temple destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, whose last vestige is the Western, or Wailing, Wall at the foot of the mount.
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