Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom spoke Monday about hints last week concerning messages supposedly sent by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Syria while Netanyahu was in Paris, with the aim of starting “negotiations for peace.”

"Negotiating is the right step,” he said, “but we must not reach an absurd situation in which the Syrians do not budge one millimeter from their position and Israel is the one that has to move from the position that insists that the Syrians must stop allowing a free weapons flow to Hizbullah and cease sponsorship for Hamas.”

Regarding the Syrian demand that Israel give up the Golan Heights as a precondition for beginning negotiations, Shalom said, "We need to come out and say it so that no one on the Syrian side will harbor illusions. Giving up the Golan is not on the agenda.”