JERUSALEM, DEC 12: Israel could not fund the cost of a pullout from the Golan Heights if it hands over the strategic plateau to Syria under a future peace treaty, Israel's finance minister Avraham Shohat said on Sunday.Shohat said the cost of removing the 17,000 settlers who live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in mostly rural villages and kibbutzim was exorbitant. He indicated Israel was hoping the United States would help fund any pullback.``I have no doubt the Americans know a process of this type that requires removing military infrastructure and building new military infrastructure including warning stations will cost a lot of money,'' he told Israel Radio. ``Everyone knows the state of Israel cannot support a process of this type with the kinds of investment involved,'' he said.Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.While Shohat did not stipulate the price-tag of an Israeli handover, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported treasury officials put the costat about $18 billion. The newspaper reported officials estimated it would cost $10 billion to compensate Golan Heights settlers for having to leave their homes and move back to Israel and a further $8 billion to remove military bases and rebuild them in Israel.The Israeli army has several highly sophisticated listening stations in the Golan Heights which allow it to keep an eye on military movements deep inside Syria.Cabinet minister Haim Ramon said the Galilee or the southern Negev desert were possible relocation sites for the settlers.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara will relaunch peace talks in Washington on Wednesday in the highest level meeting of an Israeli and Syrian in more than a half century of conflict.Barak told members of the Labour Party on Thursday that if the talks got off to a good start he expected peace deals with Syria and Lebanon in the coming months. Middle East analysts surmise the parties have already resolved many of theoutstanding disputes and that the question of borders will be at the centre of the negotiations.Syria demands the borders return to the lines it held on the eve of the 1967 war near the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee, at the foot of the Golan Heights.Barak has not indicated the size of a pullback but Shohat said on Saturday it would entail the removal of thousands of Golan Heights settlers. He said Israel's economy would reap huge benefits from a peace deal with Syria. Polls show Israeli public opinion is split down the middle on whether to withdraw fully from the Golan.
