JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli Cabinet unanimously endorsed Prime Minister Ehud Barak's repeated pledge to pull the troops out of south Lebanon in four months, preferably in an agreement with Syria.
Peace talks between Israel and Syria, the major power broker in Lebanon, broke down almost two months ago over the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Damascus insists must be returned.
"It puts Syria and Lebanon to the test. If Syria really wants peace, and its declared desire for peace is not just a tactic, the pullout from Lebanon will push them [towards peace]," said David Levy, Israeli foreign minister.
Levy, who last month triggered outrage in the Arab world with fierce warnings of revenge attacks against Lebanon, said it was time to leave Israel's self-declared security zone across the border, with or without an accord.
"To stay there is to give the Hizbullah legitimacy and an excuse to distort the reality ... to say we are there as conquerors," Levy added, saying Israel would no longer be hostage to Syrian "nay saying."
It was the first time Barak's Cabinet voted unanimously – without abstentions or opposition – in favor of a proposal by the prime minister. The cabinet vote followed mounting calls among Israelis for an end to the fighting on the last active Arab-Israeli battlefront after the death of seven soldiers in Hizbullah attacks soon after the collapse of the Syria peace talks.
"It's an end to the tragedy, an end to the bloodshed," said Barak. Washington welcomed the new development and reiterated its efforts to revive the peace talks.
"Israel has made it clear for some time that it is committed to withdrawing its forces from South Lebanon by the middle of the year," said Philip Reeker, State Department spokesperson
"The cabinet vote reaffirms that commitment, also making clear that Israel would prefer to withdraw as part of a negotiated settlement with Lebanon and Syria," he said in Prague, where Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was visiting.
An analysis in the right-wing English-language newspaper the Jerusalem Post described the decision as a "double-edged sword," saying that without the south Lebanon card, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad has little else to pressure Israel to return the Golan Heights.
But it said that if the cabinet decision was made without any behind the scenes negotiations with the Syrians beforehand, "it could boomerang in a big way."
Israel accuses Syria of encouraging attacks on its troops by the Muslim Hizbullah to pressure the government in peace negotiations.
In Lebanon itself, the violence continued as Israeli warplanes bombarded Hizbullah targets to the north of the Israeli-occupied "security zone" with missiles, a day after similar raids in response to Hizbullah attacks.
Syria's government newspaper Tishrin questioned whether Israel would make good on its decision, warning that anything less than a full withdrawal would mean a worsening of the conflict.
The paper's chief, Mohammad Kheir al-Wadi, said in an editorial that the plans approved by the Israeli Cabinet only stipulated a redeployment of forces.
"This means that Israel will not withdraw totally to behind the international border but wants to keep strategic areas of southern Lebanon," he said, warning that this "carries the seeds of war for the whole region and complicates further the peace process."
Wadi also alleged that the move was designed to split Beirut and Damascus, who say their eventual respective peace deals with Israel are inseparable.
