Like snowfall in the Middle East, skiing in Israel is a rare treat. Before the capture of the Golan Heights in the 1967 war with Syria, snow skiing here was an impossibility in a land better known for the arid depths of the Dead Sea.

Four years later came the creation of Israel's only ski resort, a cool idea by a couple of kibbutzniks that thrives today despite iffy snowfalls, a microclimate not conducive to man-made snow, and the nearness of frequent rocket barrages from neighboring Lebanon, with which Israel is still technically at war.

But the rarer the pleasure, the more deeply it is savored, especially in Israel. So when the first flakes came early this winter, blanketing Mount Hermon with nearly three feet of powder for a white Hanukkah, enthusiasts set off in the middle of the night.

Tomer Levine, 21, an avid snowboarder recently discharged from the army, took off from Haifa with two friends at 3 a.m. They arrived at the private resort around dawn to find a dozen cars ahead of them.

"You always try to be first, but it's hard," said Levine, who took five quick runs, and then a break inside the Alpine-style lodge patrolled by soldiers with M-16s on alert for possible attacks.

Situated on the rugged Hermon Ridge between Syria and Lebanon and just a few miles from an Israeli army observation post under frequent attack by the Lebanese Hezbollah, the 6,000-foot-elevation runs are planted with signs warning skiers not to stray into closed military zones.

About 12 hours after the slopes opened last week, a barrage of four rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Kiryat Shmona, damaging apartment buildings but causing no casualties. The town, a frequent target, is at the intersection of major highways about 12 miles from Mount Hermon.

If the skiers and boarders who turned up for opening day were concerned about personal security, they didn't show it. In a country as small as Israel, they came from everywhere, with the prevalent joke being that they ski the same way they drive, which is to say fast and a bit out of control.

There was the family of recent American immigrants now living in the Orthodox neighborhood of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. The father had a big bushy beard and wore a yarmulke under his knitted blue ski cap. His two adolescent daughters wore modest long skirts over bulky ski pants.

There was a sports trainer named Eran, from Tel Aviv, who declined to give his last name for personal privacy reasons. He said he learned to snowboard last year in the Czech Republic.

"People around the world can't believe Israel has a ski resort," Roup said. "When they think of Israel, they think of desert. But the snow here is not like in the United States or Europe. If, after three days, we don't get a fresh snowfall, warm days start turning it to slush. Israelis don't see snow every day. So just playing with the snow is a big adventure, for the adults as well as the kids."

Lurking beneath the fun is the notion that an eventual peace treaty with Syria could result in the return of the Golan Heights as a territorial concession, and that could include Mount Hermon.

By some estimates, Israel could keep strategic listening posts in the area and safely give back most of the Golan Heights. For some Israelis, that would be a reasonable price for full normalization of relations and a lasting peace.

"The United States defines Syria as one of the most terroristic (countries) in the world. We should give them this?" he said, panning his eyes across the resort from the elevated windows of the manager's office.

Last month, Mustapha Kafri, director of Syria's investment authority, announced plans for a $15 billion tourist resort to be built on the northern and eastern slopes of Mount Hermon. The project - to include hotels, shopping centers, skiing and other sports facilities reachable by cable car - is to be developed by an unspecified group of Syrian, Kuwaiti and Saudi investors.

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