PM set to tell ministers on Golan that ridge won’t be relinquished
Fearing pressure to return strategic heights to Syria, Netanyahu said to be ‘testing the waters’ on whether the Obama administration will recognize Israeli rule over area
The Israeli government was to convene Sunday at the ancient site of Gamla on the Golan Heights — its first ever cabinet meeting there — in an effort to underline Israel’s determination never to relinquish the strategic ridge despite anticipated international pressure to do so.
The meeting was expected to begin with a declaration by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the territory will not be returned to Syrian rule.
Israel is said to have been seeking to establish in recent days whether the US will recognize Israeli rule on the Heights, captured from Syria in 1967. According to Army Radio on Sunday, officials at the Prime Minister’s Office have been “testing the waters” with the Obama Administration on the issue, without a definitive response to date.
According to a Channel 2 report on Friday evening, the first clause of a draft agreement aimed at settling the brutal civil war in Syria, being worked on with the support of the US, Russia and other major world powers, specifies that the Golan Heights is Syrian territory and must be returned to Syria.
The government meeting on the Heights will be the first in almost 50 years since the area was captured in 1967, and is meant to “symbolize” Israel’s determination not to relinquish the area, the TV report said.
Gamla was the site of an unsuccessful stand in 67 CE by Jewish rebels against Roman legionnaires and is considered by modern Israelis as an important historical symbol of Jewish resistance against foreign powers.
Israel extended its law to the Heights in 1981, and Netanyahu is reportedly furious that the international community is deliberating the notion of Israel giving up the area.
Netanyahu discussed the issue in a telephone call with US Secretary of State John Kerry a few days ago, a Channel 10 TV news report said last week. He will also reportedly discuss the matter when he travels to Russia in a few days to meet with President Vladimir Putin.
Netanyahu is said to have made clear to Kerry that any language in an accord on the fate of Syria that specifies that the Israeli-held western two-thirds of the Golan is Syrian land would be unacceptable to Israel, and to have vowed to “act to ensure” any agreement includes no such provision.
Prior to to the eruption of the Syrian civil war, some Israeli security chiefs had encouraged the Israeli political leadership to explore the possibility of reaching a peace treaty with President Bashar Assad, which could also have enabled a treaty with Lebanon and the isolating of Assad’s key ally Iran, in return for relinquishing the Golan. Since Syria descended into civil war chaos and mass slaughter, however, the notion of Israel relinquishing the strategic high ground has become highly improbable.
Netanyahu visited the Golan on Monday. During his tour, he said Israel has carried out dozens of strikes against Hezbollah and associated targets in Syria to prevent the Lebanese group from obtaining advanced weapons. Israeli officials have warned that Hezbollah and Iranian fighters may try to set up a base across the border, on the Syrian-held eastern one-third of the Golan, to launch attacks against Israelis.
