News Brief10:01 AM

(IsraelNN.com) MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) slammed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday following reports that Olmert has expressed willingness to give up the Golan in exchange for a peace deal with Syria.  Olmert’s proposal shows an unprecedented willingness to compromise Israel’s security, he said. 

Without the Golan, Steinitz said, “Israel will find it difficult to defend her very existence and to protect the Kinneret and other water sources.  I have no doubt that ‘the people is with the Golan,’ and not with the Prime Minister.”

Jewish National Front leader Baruch Marzel went even further in his criticism of Olmert, saying, “His government is a government that is attempting to destroy Israel.”  The political right should relate to Olmert and his government as traitors, Marzel said.