21.   In an apparent effort to prepare Israelis for a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Sunday that the strategic plateau belongs to Syria.

22.   In that war, Israel captured the strategic Golan plateau in southwestern Syria and later annexed it.

23.   Israel wants to keep at least part of the strategic plateau for security reasons.

24.   Israeli media said Israel was presenting several withdrawal scenarios to Syria, the most extensive one involving a pullback to the edge of the strategic plateau.

25.   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated he might be willing to cede some but not all of the strategic plateau.

26.   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes the strategic plateau id essential to national security.

27.   Israeli concerns that surrendering the strategic plateau would endanger its security have helped slow peace negotiations.

28.   It concluded that one widely discussed solution, stationing American troops on the strategic plateau, was improbable.

29.   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated he might be willing to discuss some pullback on the strategic plateau, but opposes its full return.

30.   Likud has rejected making the return of the strategic plateau a centerpiece of peace talks.