Talk of Evicting Golan Settlers Sparks Uproar : Israel: Rabin says some villages could be abandoned in first phase of treaty with Syria, refuses to elaborate.

Settlers on the Golan Heights, right-wing opposition parties and even Israeli President Ezer Weizman were in an uproar Sunday over Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s stated willingness to evacuate a Jewish settlement from the Golan during the first phase of an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty.

But Rabin chose to ignore the outcry. Israel Radio reported that the prime minister was “unwilling” to discuss either the status of newly energized Israeli-Syrian negotiations or Israel’s talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization on extending Palestinian self-government throughout the West Bank.

Instead, as he stood in the eye of the political storm created by his remarks in an Israel Television interview, Rabin devoted Sunday’s Cabinet session to the high rate of deaths caused by traffic accidents.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher is due in the region soon to launch his 13th Middle East peace shuttle, and expectations are growing that Israeli-Syrian talks may finally be getting down to essential issues that will involve Israel relinquishing most or all of the strategic Golan in return for peace.

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But Rabin appears far from ready to launch a concerted campaign to convince the Israeli public that peace with Syria is worth ceding territory that every government since the Golan was captured in 1967 has said is vital for Israel’s security.

Rabin told Israel Television on Friday night that he would be willing to evacuate one Jewish settlement on the Golan and four Druze villages in the first phase of a peace treaty with Syria. He described the proposed evacuation as “more symbolic than geographical.”

By Saturday night, Israel Television was broadcasting live from Kibbutz Elrom, a small settlement just a couple of miles from the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria that is considered a prime candidate for withdrawal. Residents told the sympathetic interviewer how Rabin’s comments shocked and infuriated them, and they vowed to fight any government decision to evacuate settlements.

Golan settlers demanded a meeting with Weizman, who plans to hear their complaints today. On Sunday, Weizman issued a statement saying that a national referendum on the fate of the Golan should be held before any settlements are evacuated. He urged Syrian President Hafez Assad to engage in direct talks with Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the opposition Likud Party, went to the Golan on Sunday to declare that giving it back would be tantamount to surrendering Israel to its Arab enemies. Likud lawmaker Uzi Landau went so far as to advise Israeli soldiers that they should disobey any government order to evacuate Golan settlements.

But as the controversy grew, Rabin kept his silence, instead letting other members of his Labor Party respond to the chorus of criticism.

“People are beginning to understand now that the moment of decision is approaching--peace or the Golan,” said Ori Orr, a Labor lawmaker who is head of Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee.

“The question is: As far as our public opinion is concerned, are we ready for withdrawal? I believe that we are not,” Orr said, acknowledging that the government “does not have a majority now” for the full withdrawal that Assad is demanding as the price for a peace treaty. He said that it will have a better chance of convincing people once the full terms of peace with Syria are known.

But Abraham Diskin, a professor of political science at Hebrew University, said that history is on Rabin’s side.

“There is a general rule in Israel,” Diskin said. “Whenever the government has made any dramatic decision about foreign affairs--either to begin a war or to give up territories to make peace--in every case, a majority of the public supported the government.”

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Diskin cited former Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s decision to relinquish the Sinai peninsula and Israeli settlements there and Rabin’s 1993 decision to sign a peace agreement with the PLO as two illustrations of the government’s ability to change public opinion.

Until Begin made peace with Egypt, Diskin said, a majority of Israelis consistently said in opinion polls that they opposed giving back the Sinai and opposed dismantling settlements there. Once a peace treaty was signed, a majority supported both giving back territory and abandoning settlements.

And until Israel signed the September, 1993, accord with the PLO, a majority of Israelis were against making peace with the PLO and recognizing what they had for decades regarded as a terrorist organization bent on Israel’s destruction.

It is too early for the taciturn Rabin, a former general, to launch a full-blown public relations campaign about the importance of giving up the Golan, Diskin said, because a deal with the Syrians is still far from being closed.

Israel and Syria have agreed to resume talks by the end of June on Golan security arrangements. But wide differences are said to remain.