Israel appears to be in the process of trying to take advantage of the current weakness of Syria to legitimize its seizure and occupation of the Golan Heights in the 1967 war.
Israel appears to be in the process of trying to take advantage of the current weakness of Syria to legitimize its seizure and occupation of the Golan Heights in the 1967 war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the occasion of an unprecedented Israeli Cabinet meeting he organized April 17 in the Golan to declare Israel would “never” give the Syrian territory back. He called it “an integral part of the state of Israel in the new era.” The Golan was declared part of Syria in 1946 and was taken by Israeli forces in the Six-Day War of 1967.
In the past, there have been recurrent negotiations between the Israeli and Syrian governments regarding the return of the Golan to Syria. In recent years, however, Israel established some 41 settlements in the part of the Golan it retains, resided in by an estimated 20,000 Israelis and including vineyards and a dozen or so wineries. Genie Energy Ltd. of Newark, N.J., also is looking for oil and natural gas in the Golan.
The U.N. Security Council met April 26 and sharply rejected Israel’s claim, reminding the world of Israel’s military occupation of the Golan and illegal settlements there. The U.S. did not block the Security Council action. When Saddam Hussein’s Iraq attempted to annex Kuwait in 1990, America put together a multinational force and ejected Iraq from the neighboring state.
There has been some suggestion on Israel’s part that its occupation of the Golan should be recognized as legal as a form of compensation for the agreement Security Council members and Germany reached with Iran in June, trading an end to economic sanctions for Iran’s suspension of its nuclear arms program. Israel also suggested the annual military aid it receives from the U.S. be increased to $5 billion from its current $3 billion as another act of compensation for the Iran accord. Israel’s own arms exports amounted to $5.7 billion last year.
The current multiparty war in Syria is certainly reason for Israel to watch carefully the border of the two-thirds of the Golan it controls. At the same time, the current disorder in Syria can in no way serve as a reason to legitimize Israeli occupation there. Resolution of the ultimate fate of the Golan needs to await the end of the war in Syria.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette