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Good Move on the Golan Heights

(National Review) Douglas J. Feith - There is a sound rationale for America's recognizing the Golan Heights as a permanent part of Israel. Aided by Iran and Russia, the Assad regime has just won a long civil war through mass murder of its own civilians (including by use of prohibited chemical weapons) and by imposing on other countries millions of desperate, impoverished refugees. Under the circumstances, there is no compelling reason for local or world powers to remain committed to reassembling Syria as it existed before the civil war. Syria's borders do not have deep roots in religion, culture, or history. They reflect nothing profounder than the interests of France and Britain at a moment in the early 20th century. Some countries in the Middle East such as Egypt and Persia have long histories as independent powers. Syria is not one of them. It was a region of the Turkish Empire for 400 years until British forces conquered it in World War I. Until the 1920 post-World War I peace conference, there had never been a nation called "Syria." The writer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, served as undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration.
2019-03-29 00:00:00
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