Nadene Goldfoot
The Golan and Gaza were both part of the plan for the Israelites to live in according to Moses who learned about it from G-d. Golan, the town, was a city of refuge (Josh.20-8), and was the capital of a region in 2nd Temple days and had a Jewish community until the 5th century CE. The Upper Galilee stretched from Mt. Hermon to the Sea of Galilee and was used as pasture land, sparsely populated, but the Lower Galilee, called Gesher, was rich and fertile until the Arab invasion. This continued to be the plan 3,620 years later in 1920 when the British held the 30 year mandate after a horrific World War I ended in 1917, and Jews were heard and about to receive their Jewish Homeland once again and stop being known as the Wandering Jews without a home.
By May 14, 1948, Israel became a welcomed state. Israel had lost about 80% of its promised land in 1948 because of the decisions of the British mandate holders and that 80% was now Jordan.
The Golan was one of 4 territories of administered territories in the course of the Six-Day War, when the Israel Defence Forces defeated the massed Arab armies which menaced Israel's frontiers in their combined effort to destroy Israel and its occupants.
The Golan Heights were, until 1967's Six Day War, under Syrian administration as the French had held that mandate. The status of the Golan changed after June 1967 when Israel won the outrageous war when they were attacked by all the surrounding Arab nations, yet won the battle. The Golan Heights became part of Israel this way, so it was then up to Israel to administer it.
Pending a peace settlement in which the borders between Israel and its neighbors would be decided, it was that of territories occupied during a war. Israel had not annexed any part of the areas. However, East Jerusalem was reunified in June 1967 with West Jerusalem at that time, as they were 2 halves of a whole city anyway.
In July 1972, The Golan Heights, an area of 11,250 sq. km or 500 sq. miles, was made up of a population predominantly Moslem Druzes.
Israel announced in 1981 that it had annexed the strategically important Golan Heights, which it occupied "illegally, " according to Syria, in the closing stages of the Six-Day War in 1967. That's not how Israel saw it, and Trump agreed, and so did the professor Kontorovich, a highly reputed American international expert, but of course, the UN, who never sees anything Israel does as okay, went against Israel once again.
The Syrians used the Golan Heights to bombard kibbutzim along the upper Jordan Valley, and was where the Israeli troops were stationed in the 1967 Six Day War. It was an area extensively populated with Israeli towns. Its 1985 population was 22,500 including all the Druze population.
Syria failed to regain control over the Golan in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which ended in a 1974 armistice and placement of a UN observer force along the ceasefire line. Syria demands the return of all or part of the territory in exchange for any future peace deal with Israel. Repeated indirect and direct peace talks between Israel and Syria have failed to reach an agreement.
After having changed the demographics of the region through Jewish settlements over 50 years during which its occupation was maintained in defiance of international law, Israel went so far as to convene a cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights last year. Afterward, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and signed a decree that recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that said Turkey regrets and strongly condemns the U.S. administration's decision. The U.N. Security Council, with Resolution 497 adopted in 1981, rejected the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights.
There are about 40,000 people living in the Golan. Around half of them are Jewish settlers. The rest are Druze and a small minority of Alawites. Druze are Arabs who practice an offshoot of Islam. Many of them consider themselves Syrian. Alawites are a branch of Shiite Islam. Syrian President Bashar Assad and key figures in his regime are Alawites.
The Golan is a hilly, 1,200-square-kilometer (460-square-mile) plateau overlooking Lebanon, Syria and the Jordan Valley. The Golan is only 60 km (40 miles) from Damascus and provides Israel with a strong defensive-offensive position and vantage point to observe military movements across the border. On the other hand, Syrian control over the Golan would provide it with strategic heights overlooking Israel. The security dimension has been heightened by the civil war in Syria, which has seen Iran and its Lebanese Shiite ally Hezbollah entrench themselves on Israel's doorstep through their support of the Assad regime. Israel says Iran and Hezbollah pose a threat and the Golan provides a security barrier.
What resources does Golan have?
"Another key issue is water resources in an arid region. The Golan catchment area feeds into the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee, both major sources of water for Israel. The fertile land is used for agriculture, with growing areas for vineyards and orchards. It is also home to the only ski resort in Israel." The Syrians are responsible for losing their hold on Syria, for if they hadn't been so hostile to Israel and had attacked in 67, they wouldn't have lost it. Israel fought defensively, and they fought well. They have been making all sorts of errors of judgement since then.
“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” he wrote Thursday afternoon in a tweet.
"One of the concerns that arose from US President Donald Trump’s Proclamation recognizing the occupied Golan Heights – captured from Syria in the June 1967 War – as part of the state of Israel, was whether it could serve as a precedent for the future annexation of parts of the West Bank, such as Area C, the major settlement blocks around Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, or some combination. This issue cannot be more timely, as just this weekend Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to annex Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories if he wins tomorrow’s election." Well, he didn't win.
"In the Security Council debate that followed, Israel’s representative introduced a new argument to retain the Golan Heights when he told the Security Council that: “The Jewish people’s roots in the Golan Heights go back thousands of years. The Golan is mentioned in the Tanakh—the Bible—multiple times.” To articulate such a view in the twenty-first century is rather worrying. Not only is the Bible now being invoked by Israel to annex Jerusalem and the West Bank, it is also being invoked to annex the Golan Heights."
Well, why be afraid? It's a fact we have followed ever since Moses gave us the facts of life after Egypt and in the new world they were entering. He is revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a great prophet. Just because many people don't believe anymore doesn't change the writing on the wall. Moses was so into legality that he gave us 613 laws to follow, for Pete's sake! Legally, this was the presentation we Jews have been following. He said that we were to live in Canaan. We did for 1,570 years until the Romans burned us out. 1500 years of existence with an established land should count for something.
Recognizing Israel’s claim to its northernmost territory is likely the best way to avoid future conflict—especially if the Syrian Civil War drags on. So said Eylon Asian Levy, Israeli news anchor and commentator. He wrote: Broadly speaking, there are four key ways in which a state can cease to exist under international law. 1., a state can splinter through a series of secessions, leaving behind a rump state that inherits its predecessor’s legal personality. For example, Russia is the recognized legal continuation of the USSR. 2, a state can be ripped apart by internal strife to such an extent that it is deemed to have ceased to exist and no single successor inherits its legal personality. Yugoslavia is an example of this. 3, a state can dissolve itself by agreement. Czechoslovakia, for instance, voted to divide itself out of existence. 4, a state can voluntarily merge or be absorbed into another state, as when East Germany dissolved itself when it was united with West Germany.
Syria could plausibly collapse along the lines of the first two possibilities: Secessions could leave a diminished core limping on like post-Soviet Russia; or the secessions could be of such magnitude that the world concludes Syria has ceased to exist, rejecting the claim that a rump Assad-governed enclave is the rightful continuation of Syria. But whatever happens, there will only be a stable border between these entities and Israel if the latter retains permanent control of the Golan Heights.
Syria is in deep trouble. "Syria's civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011 as a peaceful uprising against the country's president, Bashar al-Assad. It has since escalated — shattering the lives of Syrians, destroying cities, straining global politics, and spurring diplomatic efforts that are constantly questioned as the world witnesses the horrors of ongoing warfare. The Syrian civil war is not only one of the bloodiest conflicts in the world today, it's also one of the most complex." Iran has much control in Syria today. "C
A huge problem today is that "the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic are close strategic allies, and Iran has provided significant support for the Syrian government in the Syrian Civil War, including logistical, technical and financial support, as well as training and some combat troops. Iran sees the survival of the Syrian government as being crucial to its regional interests".of wiping out Israel. "When the uprising developed into the Syrian Civil War, there were increasing reports of Iranian military support, and of Iranian training of the National Defence Forces both in Syria and Iran".
Israel has been attacked and in reply must bomb those parts of Syria where the shooting came from
The Wall Street Journal reported on 2 October 2015 that Iran's Revolutionary Guard (the IRGC) has had some 7,000 IRGC members and Iranian paramilitary volunteers operating in Syria and was planning to expand its presence in the country through local fighters and proxies. The Journal also reported that some experts estimate 20,000 Shiite foreign fighters are on the ground, backed by both Shiite Iran and Hezbollah.
Resource:
Facts About Israel from the division of Information, Ministry for foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2019/08/01/israels-annexation-of-the-golan-heights-is-a-grave-violation-of-international-law
https://www.dw.com/en/golan-heights-why-it-matters-to-us-israel-and-syria/a-48019484
http://www.thetower.org/article/the-case-for-israeli-sovereignty-in-the-golan-heights/
http://opiniojuris.org/2019/04/08/the-false-premise-sustaining-israels-west-bank-claim-part-i/
https://www.cnn.com/specials/middleeast/syria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_involvement_in_the_Syrian_civil_war
Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-expands-role-in-syria-in-conjunction-with-russias-airstrikes-1443811030
https://lobelog.com/israeli-annexation-of-the-golan-heights-myth-and-reality/
israel cannot lose the golan heights! it is crucial to their defense!
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