The Golan Heights: A Vital
Strategic Israeli Asset
When Yitzhak Rabin ran for election as Israel’s Prime Minister in 1992,
he publicly declared at a giant election rally just two weeks before the
election, “Whosoever gives up the Golan Heights, abandons the security of
the State of Israel.”
Only days after a UN resolution calling Israel’s sovereignty over
Jerusalem illegal, former US secretary of state James Baker calls for
Israel to leave the Golan Heights. It appears the Iraq Study Group (ISG)
has an idea to use the Golan inducement for Syrian cooperative behavior
in Iraq.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk a-Shara expressed willingness to negotiate
with Israel, stipulating that Damascus is only willing to discuss an
agreement with Israel providing the Golan
Heights are returned to Syria
to the last centimeter. This is the first part of such an agreement; what
the other ‘parts’ are, were not yet mentioned, if that is the first, then
additional parts are obviously expected. For Israel, such a move is
tactical disaster and strategic suicide. .
Geostrategic Status of the Golan Heights
The Golan Heights is designated by law as part of the State of Israel.
This is not merely an issue of a few tens of thousands of Golan
residents, even those living there now for three generations, but a
question of
national life and death. This must be and is cause for
serious concern; and not just for Israel. To better comprehend this
issue, one must first understand what the Golan is, and what it means to
Israel's survival.
The Golan would be strategically critical to Israel even if Syria did not
have a history of using it for constant shelling and harassment when
occupied. Legally, this use of the area made its capture in the Six-Day
War not only strategically incumbent upon Israel, but also a legal right
by international law. Additionally, the Golan was part of the League of
Nations Mandate and was subtracted from Israel illegally.
The Golan heights: Israel's strategic Bulwark
The Golan Heights is a defensive wall protecting Israel's north. It
should be emphasized that all of Northern Israel is within direct
artillery strike of the Golan, and Syria used this ability constantly
until 1967 – including several major incursions under artillery cover
with the objective of occupying territory. When international
‘negotiators’ discuss the 4 June 1967 armistice lines, they refer to
territory illegally occupied by Syria in cross-border attacks.
Imagine a Syrian repeat performance of the 1973 surprise attack, this
time with 4,000 tanks, 700 Scud ballistic missiles (some with chemical
warheads), and tens of thousands Katyusha rockets fired upon Haifa and
Tel Aviv within a 2-hour span, sowing widespread civilian panic and
seriously disrupting Israel's reserve mobilization. Remember the billions
of dollars damage done by Hezbollah’s 4,000 rockets in the summer? That
was as nothing compared to Syrian Scuds, plus thousands of Katyusha’s
from Syria with an additional several thousand from Lebanon, in a
coordinated attack.
Other strategic issues and considerations
The Golan is one of three sources of Israel's fresh-water needs—the
largest and most plentiful of the three—thus it is the source for the
majority of Israel’s water. It comprises the headwaters of the Jordan
River and the mountain streams that flow into the Kinneret. With
widespread contamination of the coastal plain's aquifers, resulting from
the Oslo Accords giving over control of the aquifers and rain-flow runoff
from Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority, the Kinneret becomes
Israel's main, almost sole, natural, fresh-water source. This
water flows
freely into the Kinneret and then, via massive pumps using 5% of Israel's
electric power, the National Water Carrier supplies this water to the
rest of Israel, down to the Dead Sea.
The Baker ‘Option’
The idea of Israel depriving itself of its most important strategic
hard-asset, for a mere piece of paper, signed by a sider, would
be a catastrophic mistake. This entails serious short-term and long-term
consequences. In reality, Syria's national interests are not focused only
on the Golan Heights, which represent an insignificant territorial
addition. Syria's long-term strategic aims are to exert its hegemony over
the entire Lebanon, Israel's northern territory and most of Jordan, which
it considers part of "Greater Syria".
One of the options proposed by the ISG-report is placing US forces to
monitor a Syrian-Israeli peace deal over the Golan Heights, following
Israel's withdrawal. This includes US experts taking charge of the IDF
monitoring stations on Mount Hermon and the border hills. Real-time
intelligence is imperative for early warning in modern warfare.
Relinquishing these highly strategic assets, even were they to remain
under friendly monitoring, could become a crucial matter of national
survival. For example, US intelligence on Iraqi Scud launch zones in
western Iraq during Operation Desert Storm was denied Israel; despite
Saddam's missiles impacting on Tel-Aviv.
Conclusion
The Golan Heights represents a vital strategic asset for Israel's
security, safety and even survival, particularly in lieu of current
political configurations in the region. The Golan not only safeguards
Israel's north, but deters, by the IDF long-range reach into the Damascus
basin, any offensive options which Bashar Assad may consider under an
Iranian umbrella.
The Golan is part of Israel and should not be negotiable.
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