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Prime Minister Bennett Should Nail Down Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights with President Biden
(Israel Channel 12-Hebrew-30June2021) Dore Gold - Is the Biden administration continuing to support Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights that was formally recognized by President Donald Trump? A 1975 letter from President Gerald Ford to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stated that the U.S. "will give great weight to Israel's position that any peace agreement with Syria must be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan Heights." In 1991, Secretary of State James Baker wrote to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that "the United States continues to stand behind the assurance given by President Ford to Prime Minister Rabin" in 1975. A second American letter reconfirming the Ford letter was written in 1996 by Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have not renounced President Trump's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan on March 25, 2019, but they haven't accepted it either. Iran is seeking to encircle Israel with its Shiite militias, in Lebanon, in new bases within Syria, and eventually in Jordan. If U.S. policy over the Golan Heights is interpreted as changing, that might even invite a conflict that neither the U.S. nor Israel is seeking. The writer is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.