Most Israelis oppose Golan return for peace: poll
Majority believes Assad “not serious”
A poll published on Friday showed more than two-thirds of Israelis opposing a complete withdrawal from the strategic occupied Golan Heights captured from Syria in June 1967 in exchange for peace.
A total of 68 percent of Israelis rejected the idea of a complete withdrawal with 51 percent opposing a partial withdrawal, said the survey carried out by the independent Dahaf institute and published in the daily Yediot Aharonot.
The poll was carried out after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Turkey has relayed a message to Damascus from Israel expressing a readiness to swap the Golan Heights for peace.
The survey reported that 74 percent of Israelis "did not believe Assad was serious" about a peace deal.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "informed me of Israel's readiness to withdraw from the Golan in return for peace with Syria," Assad was quoted on Thursday as saying by the Qatari daily Al-Watan.
In excerpts from an interview to be published in full on Sunday, the paper quoted Assad as saying that Ankara had been mediating between Israel and Syria since April last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said: "We have no specific comment on President Assad's statements," adding that "Israel wants peace and wants to engage in peace negotiations with Syria.
"We know what Syria would expect from such negotiations and Syria knows what we would expect."
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.
As its price for peace, Syria demands the return of all of the Golan right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- Israel's main water source.
Israel balked at the demand in the most recent peace talks, which broke off in 2000. But Israeli media reported last year that the government was considering accepting it in return for Syrian agreement to end its longstanding alliance with Iran and its support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups.