(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Efraim Inbar - Giving up the Golan plateau deprives Israel of its best defense against potential Syrian aggression. It also signals Israeli weakness and undermines Israel's deterrence. Designing borders in accordance with current but changing military technology and transient political circumstances is strategically foolish. Moreover, the expected political returns for Israel from a peace treaty with Syria are meager. Syria is unlikely to align itself with pro-Western Arab states and abandon its regional alliance with Iran in return for Israeli territorial concessions on the Golan Heights. Moreover, a return to the 1967 border is morally repugnant because it implies that the aggressor of 1967, Syria, should not pay any price for its flagrant violation of international norms.
2011-09-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive