Israel hopes to reach a framework agreement on peace with Syria at the second round of high-level peace talks between the two countries, set to start in Virginia in the US on January 3rd, Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, said yesterday.
His remarks reinforce suggestions by aides to the Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, that negotiations with Syria, which resumed last week after a break of nearly four years, may now unfold along the rapid lines of Israel's peace talks with Jordan in 1994, which led to a full peace treaty within months of those two countries commencing intensive contacts.
The heightened expectation of fast progress at the talks is causing severe strain within Mr Barak's multi-party coalition.
One faction, the National Religious Party, held a conference on the Golan Heights yesterday at which its leader, Rabbi Yitzhak Levy, pledged to work to frustrate a Golan-for-peace deal with Damascus.
He threatened to bolt the coalition if Mr Barak brought an agreement along such lines to the cabinet for approval, and to urge all Israelis to oppose that kind of compromise in a promised referendum.
"We cannot be a party to the uprooting of settlements," said Rabbi Levy, referring to the likelihood that the 17,000 Jewish residents of the Golan would have to leave their homes as part of a treaty. (About three-quarters of the Golan Jews say they'll oppose a withdrawal; some of those who are willing to leave have already begun preparing claims for government compensation.)
The NRP and members of two other coalition parties, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and the Russian immigrant-backed Yisrael Ba'aliya, are also supporting legislation that would hugely complicate Mr Barak's chances of prevailing in the referendum.
Initiated by the opposition Likud, the legislation would require that an absolute majority of all Israeli voters, rather than a simple majority of those who turn out to vote, approve the peace deal.
Mr Barak is fighting the legislation but the role of Shas, in particular, will be crucial. With 17 members, the party is the second largest in the coalition. Its voters tend to be right-wing and would oppose relinquishing the Golan. But its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadya Yosef, supports trading land for peace.
The key question is whether Rabbi Yosef will ultimately order his dutiful Knesset representatives to vote down the later readings of the Likud's referendum legislation, and to vote with Mr Barak when a deal with Syria is presented to the Knesset.