December 14, 1999
Web posted at: 11:12 a.m. EST (1612 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak left Israel on Tuesday for peace talks with Syria in Washington in an attempt to break an impasse over the Golan Heights.

"It is our historic responsibility to work towards an end to this conflict and to bring peace and security to Israel," Barak said in a live radio speech before his departure from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport.

VIDEO Go to the Golan Heights, where CNN's Jerrold Kessel talks with people living there. (December 14) Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Mideast peace

The talks, which begin Wednesday between Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister , hinge on an agreement on the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war. Syria wants Israel to withdraw completely from the Golan; Israel wants the scale of a withdrawal tied to security arrangements.

Sharaa left Damascus on Monday for Washington. Before departing from Israel, Barak heard a warning from a delegation of Jewish Golan settlers that they would resist evacuation.

"We made clear to the prime minister that the terrible act he is going to commit ... is something that we cannot allow to pass quietly," Golan settlement leader Eli Malka told Israel Radio.

About 17,000 Israelis live in the Golan, and about 20,000 Druse Arabs. Several hundred residents of Majd al-Shams, the Golan's largest Druse community, marched in support of Syria Tuesday, marking the 18th anniversary of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights.

Low-level talks between the two Middle East countries broke off in 1996 after a series of deadly suicide bombings inside Israel. Wednesday's talks will be on the highest level ever between the two.

Opposition accuses Barak of capitulation

Barak left Israel with the backing of Israel's parliament, which was swayed by his call for "painful" sacrifice.

"If we miss this time," Barak told Israel's Knesset on Monday, "this might lead to bloodshed, God forbid. The condition is the Syrian delegation to the talks will be equipped with the same degree of determination and good will that we are taking with us. Peace is a joint interest," he said.

"Our supreme responsibility is to act today so that we will not dig new rows of graves tomorrow in a conflict that could have been ended," said a hoarse Barak, struggling with the flu.

Sharon

Israeli lawmakers who oppose the talks accused Barak of kowtowing to President Clinton, who they describe as wanting a major Middle East success before ending his term of office. They said the talks also go too far to help Syrian President Hafez al-Assad -- whose political future, they said, was anything but secure.

"Never have I seen such a desire to capitulate," Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon told parliament.

Sharon accused the prime minister of gambling away Israel's security by opening the door to Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

"Israel is being asked to pay by giving up a strategic asset while getting nothing in return," Sharon said.

Following both speeches, the Knesset approved negotiations with Syria by a 47-31 vote, with 24 abstentions. But Barak will need 61 votes in the parliament to approve a Golan withdrawal, and he has promised to put any Syrian peace treaty in a national referendum.

Correspondents Jerrold Kessel, Brent Sadler, Reuters and The associated Press contributed to this report.

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