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The Golan Heights Was Once an Arab Rallying Cry. Not Anymore.

(New York Times) Ben Hubbard - In 2011 a civil war erupted in Syria that would destroy the country and reshape the regional order to such an extent that when President Trump on Thursday called for the U.S. to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, the shift was met across much of the Arab world with a shrug. Today, the Gulf countries are more interested in partnering with Israel against Iran, while unrest and economic troubles have left other Arab countries more concerned with their own affairs. As for Syria, few care what it wants. "The Golan was always seen as the carrot that Israel would cede for peace with Syria, and now peace doesn't matter, Syria doesn't matter and maybe Syria doesn't exist at the table as the legitimate owner of the land," said Kareem Sakka, editor in chief of Raseef22, an Arabic news site. Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said, "The public, when they think about Syria, will be more concerned with the death and suffering than with the official loss of something that has been gone for a long time."
2019-03-25 00:00:00
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