President Donald Trump formally recognized Israel’s sovereignty March 25 over the disputed Golan Heights. Formerly part of Syria before four Arab States, including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and so-called Palestinians, waged war June 5, 1967 against Israel. When the dust settled June 10, Israel had vanquished the four powerful Arab militaries, seizing Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Syria’s Golan Heights and Jordan’s West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel seized the territories as spoils of the Six Day War, buffer zones to protect Israel against ongoing Arab threats to exterminate the Jewish State. As the years passed, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter convinced Israel in the 1978 Camp David Accords to honor part of 1967 U.N. Resolution 242, demanding Israel return to the pre-1967 borders, returning the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt in exchange for a formal peace treaty,
Carter helped consummate Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt against objections from the Arab League and every other Arab organization. After turning Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula into a terrorist-free global resort, Israel met its end of the bargain, returning the Sinai back to Egypt. Fast-forward to 2005 when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned the Gaza Strip, no longer controlled by Egypt but by Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], after his death Nov. 11, 2004. Since leaving Gaza Sept 12, 2005, the PLO with its terrorist wing Hamas, dug tunnels and stockpiled weapons for the next war to annihilate Israel. Two years after Israel withdrew from Gaza, Hamas seized the seaside enclave June 7, 2007 from the West Bank-based PLO. Hamas’s media wing routinely tells Gaza residents it’s going to conquer Israel and return to the land of their ancestors in Israel.
Three wars later, Hamas controls Gaza in one of the world’s most impoverished, dilapidated areas. Handed billions by oil-Rich Gulf State and others, Hamas periodically runs out of cash and wages war with Israel. Since March of 2018, Hamas has staged violent protests on the Israel border, promising Gaza residents a return to their ancestral homes in Israel. Israel defends its border from violent protests, attempting to breach Israel’s border fence. Hamas and its backers complain that Israel uses lethal force to defend its borders. Spewing endless propaganda to Gaza residents, Hamas insists that its war of liberation against Israel will succeed. Since 2007, Hamas has brought only death, destruction, terrorism and poverty to the Gaza Strip, unable to supply residents with basic necessities, like electricity and clean water. Yet to Hamas, the war against Israel continues unabated.
When Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital Dec. 6, 2017 it created an uproar in the Arab world. Palestinians protested violently on the Gaza border, accusing Trump of robbing them of a future state. Ramallah-based PLO, led by 83-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, broke off ties with the U.S. Dec. 23, 2017 to protest Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump never said in a peace negotiation that the Palestinian Authority could not negotiate in a final peace deal for East Jerusalem as its capital. Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was an attempt to get Palestinians back to the peace table. Israel has controlled Jerusalem since 1948 when it declared independence May 14, 1948. One year later, after formal U.N. recognition May 11, 1949, the Knesset [the Israeli parliament] began meeting in Jerusalem, showing its control over the holy city.
Trump’s March 25 decision to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory stated the obvious, despite objections from the U.N. and Arab League. Of all the territories seized by Israel in the Six Day War, none is more strategic to Israel’s security that the Golan Heights. Past U.S. policy maintained the U.N. façade that Israel must honor U.N. Resolution 242 and return to the pre-1967 borders. With terrorism rampant in the Middle East since Sept 11, 2001, past U.N. resolutions are null-and-void. Trump stated the obvious when he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. With the 2011 Syrian War destroying much of Syria and flooding the country with terrorists, the Golan Heights has never been more important to Israel’s national security. Returning to obsolete U.N. Resolutions, like 242, no matter how much Arab support, is impossible in today’s terrorist atmosphere.
Arab officials say Trump’s decision to recognize the Golan Heights “brazenly violate international law,” referring to past U.N. Resolutions. U.N. Resolution 242, demanding Israel return to the pre-Six Day War borders, is null-and-void. Media reports suggest Trump made an impulsive decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, something Israel’s controlled for 52 years. “Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity . . .,” said elder Palestinians statesman Saed Erekat. Erekat knows that any final settlement on a two-state solution would never involve the Golan Heights, a territory held by Syria before the Six Day War. Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights simply states the reality of the Middle East landscape.
