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Golan Heights: From Annexation to Recognition

(Ynet News) Zvi Hauser - Last Wednesday marked 35 years since the enactment of the Golan Heights Law, which essentially annexed the Golan to the State of Israel. For the first time in nearly 50 years, an historic window of opportunity has been created to change the formula of the future arrangement in the Golan Heights from yesterday's formula, which focused on an Israeli withdrawal in exchange for an agreement with Syria, to tomorrow's formula, which should include an international agreement for long-lasting Israeli control of the Golan Heights as a core component of the region's stabilization. Syria, if it even continues to exist as one state, will never be the same. The anachronistic international convention that the border between Syria and Israel should be along the shores of the Sea of Galilee is groundless, as is proved on a daily basis in light of the incomprehensible bloodshed which has been taking place in Iraq and Syria, reaching the Golan Heights. Neither the Islamic State nor the jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda or an Iran-Hizbullah-Assad foothold in the Sea of Galilee will allow the stabilization and recovery of the region. There is no other horizon in the Middle East apart from the Israeli horizon. The Golan Heights constitutes less than 1% of the territory of what used to be Syria. In 1975, President Gerald Ford gave a written presidential commitment to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which included an American acknowledgement of the Israeli need to remain in the Golan Heights even at times of peace. The writer is a former Israeli Cabinet secretary (2009-2013).
2016-12-20 00:00:00
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