Israel Could Give Up Golan Heights

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4417949,00.html

Israel Could Give Up Golan Heights

Friday August 13, 2004 1:46 PM


By GAVIN RABINOWITZ

Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel would not endanger its security by giving up the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria, Israel's army chief said in remarks published Friday, departing from the military's traditional view that Israel needs at least part of the plateau as a buffer.

Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon spoke a day after Vice Premier Ehud Olmert indicated that Israel will have to evacuate more Israeli settlements in the West Bank than the four mentioned in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan of ``unilateral disengagement'' from the Palestinians.

As part of the plan, Israel would withdraw from all of the Gaza Strip and the four West Bank settlements by the end of 2005.

Also Friday, an Israeli guard at a West Bank settlement was killed in an ambush. Other guards then killed the Palestinian gunman.


..more..

I'm not necessarily supporting them in this, but it is what it is and I don't see Israel giving it up without some kind of compromise from Syria on border issues.The Israelis occupied that territory in 1981 because syrian-supported terrorists were bombing Israel from that location.

or remotely, for that matter.. the last part, I mean.

It was occupied in '67, because local Zionist farmers desired the farmland on the other side. A series of clashes were manufactured where armoured bulldozers deliberately drove as far into Syrian territory as they could to provoke the legitimate response from the Syrians, followed by IDF maneuvers beyond that. That spiriled out, and large tracts of lands were seized with tens of thousands more people driven out of the occupied lands (yet again).

What you're referring to is the so-called "security strip" in south Lebanon, invaded in '78 and '82 with tens of thousands of people murdered in the process of the invasion and occupied, which is also not true as to what you say for motivations. The truce had been held for months;--Sharon & Begin were just engaging in their natural inclinations and jumped at the first nonsensical opportunity. But thankfully, they lost that one eventually and are still fuming in riotous embarassment over it.

When they both decide to run off at the mouth like this, some
sort of bullshit offensive has to be in the offing.

The high ground at Golan had a great deal of military signifigance, and in '67 its seizure seems to me to have been most justified by ordinary military practice. In the current situation, it has little strategic signifigance, particularly if its cessation back to Syria is accompanied by a genuine treaty of peace between the two nations.

As we both know, of course, there is a good deal more to it than that. The precise deliniations of the borders there will have tremendous influence on water supplies, for those heights are the key to that in the region. That is the real sticking point in the matter today, and talk of security mere camouflage for that...

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

That is where Israel gets its water. Water=Life.



links:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/Golan+Heights.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights

DAMASCUS - Syria will not take
seriously Israeli offers to pull out of the
Golan Heights unless they are backed by
moves on the ground or an open
commitment to withdraw, an advisor to
the Syrian information minister said
Friday.


Ahmad Haj Ali was responding to
comments by Israel Defense Forces
Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, who told
the Yedioth Ahranoth newspaper Friday
that there was no military reason why
Israel could not withdraw to the border
Israel shared with Syria before the 1967
Six-Day War.

Haj Ali was not impressed by Yaalon's
comment, telling The Associated Press:
"We don't give such statements any
weight unless they are associated with a
serious move and with
international guarantees."

Haaretz

Shows some negotiating can take place, whatever the end result.