T. Belman. Israel was legally entitled to annex the land way back in 1982 and the US is entitled to recognize Israel sovereignty over it, despite what the Arabs/Muslims say. Israel was attacked by the Arabs on three fronts in 1967 and spent considerable blood and treasure in defending themselves and becoming victorious. International law recognizes Israel’s right of self defense and keeping the Golan must be seen as an act of self defense. Res 242 confirmed Israel’s natural right to keep some, if not all the lands, won in a defensive war.
By annexing the land, Israel proclaimed to the world that if it wanted Israel to give it back, it would have to wage war to get it. Nothing has cffhanged except that the US now has Israel’s back.
Syria’s state-run media published photos of citizens marching in the streets on Tuesday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The Syrian regime’s patrons in Iran denounced the decision, while the increasingly Islamist government of Turkey vowed to fight the U.S. and Israel at the United Nations.
According to Syrian media, large demonstrations took place in several cities on Tuesday morning. The demonstrators waved Syrian and Palestinian flags and carried banners proclaiming, “Golan is Syrian.”
An official with the Syrian Foreign Ministry described the American proclamation as “a blatant attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and a disregard for all international reactions denouncing this decision.”
The Syrian official denounced the United States as “the main enemy of the Arabs” and said Trump’s support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is a “disgraceful slap to the international community.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday described Trump’s action as an imperialist outrage “unprecedented in the current century.”
“No one could imagine that a person in America comes and gives the land of a nation to another occupying country, against international laws and conventions,” Rouhani said.
Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) joined Iran and estranged GCC member Qatar in objecting to President Trump’s proclamation, albeit in less histrionic terms. The Saudi state news agency predicted the Golan declaration “will have significant negative effects on the peace process in the Middle East and the security and stability of the region.”
Jordan, generally a reliable U.S. ally but interested in restoring relations with the Assad regime in Syria, also refused on Monday to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
The most heated denunciations of the Golan proclamation arguably came from Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is angling for a position as champion of the Islamic world. Turkey has long disliked the Assad regime in Syria, but Turkish officials seemed angrier on Monday and Tuesday than their Syrian counterparts over the disposition of the Golan Heights.
“Attempts by the U.S. to legitimize Israel’s actions against international law will only lead to more violence and pain in the region,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu predicted.
Cavusoglu declared Turkish support for Syria’s “territorial integrity,” presumably with the exception of whatever Syrian soil Turkish forces must roll across on their way to attacking the Syrian Kurds.
Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed over the weekend to challenge the U.S. and Israel at the United Nations.
“The U.N. has the final verdict on this,” Erdogan said. “It is not possible for the U.N. General Assembly to approve the issue.”
Erdogan and Cavusoglu both contemptuously dismissed Trump’s signature on the Golan proclamation as a pre-election gift to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Trump wants to present the Golan Heights to Netanyahu as a present on a gold platter,” Erdogan said.
@ David melech:
You are so right….it IS spelt wrongly…and also the host WAS Shapiro, who moved his lips so damned fast it was not easy to understand what he was saying. He speaks like the descriptions in novels of prisoners in cells speaking to one another ….
The more I listened to Harper the more I missed him as PM. I just DO NOT KNOW how the hell that cretin became PM against Harper. People- I mean voters- are so damned stupid .
@ Edgar G.:
Try Ben shapero , shapero might be spelt wrong
Come pick cherries at top of the golan, eat all you want as you pick. Then drive down to a Druze village for coffee and pastry.
@ Ted Belman:
Before I had computer trouble today in which I had to delete and download again windows 10 I saw an interview on youtube with Stephen Harper. It lasted about 45 minutes and the host introduced the topic which was the crashing of Liberalism in Canada and rise of Populism etc. Harper totally agreed and they discussed it. They seemed to think that Trudeau was on his way out permanently. That both Quebec and Ontario were seeing the election of Conservative (or at least not Liberal) Parties.
Because of my computer I would not be able to find the video. Youtube now has nothing I like and is full of trash that I can’t delete with the usual “X”. So anyone interested must find it without me.
@ Ted Belman:
Canada isn’t just standing against Israel, which of itself is something of little consequence (after all, it is merely siding with EVERY country in the world outside of the US and Israel). More importantly, PM Trudeau is speaking out against not Israel, which has owned the Golan Heights for the past 52 years, but against the US.
Many here have noted that the US should re-evaluate its relationship with Turkey, for its anti-American actions and rhetoric. We need to re-evaluate our relationships with ALL our allies, starting with our closest, like Canada, the UK and Australia. They cannot demand that we shirk on our support of our ally Israel from one side ot their mouths, then expect us to stick with THEM out the other. If we are to abandon Israel, then we should also abandon Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Korea, etc. We do not NEED any of them for their pusillanimous military strength: what we need from them is faithfulness — towards us, and toward our other allies such as Israel. If they can’t supply that, they are useless.
Canada issued a statement that it “does not recognize permanent Israeli control over the Golan Heights,” thus siding with the anti-Israel U.N. and abandoning Israel. In so doing, it is tacitly supporting jihadi interests while hiding behind its self-proclaimed adherence to “international law” as its justification for doing so.
“The most heated denunciations of the Golan proclamation arguably came from Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is angling for a position as champion of the Islamic world. Turkey has long disliked the Assad regime in Syria, but Turkish officials seemed angrier on Monday and Tuesday than their Syrian counterparts over the disposition of the Golan Heights.”
That’s noteworthy. Of course, Erdogan is mostly bluster; but it’s clear that he desires to restore the Sultanate.
Syria owned the Golan for 19 years. During those 19 years it shot at Israeli farmers near the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), mined roads in the Golan. It also used it to try and cut off water that runs from the Golan into the Kinneret.
The Golan is essential to the Security and well being of Israel. It has now been part of modern Israel for 52 years. It was also part of ancient Israel.
Clearly anyone who cares about Israel and knows the land and history of it will understand why Israel applied its sovereignty in 1981. There is a vast consensus in Israel across the whole
Zionist Political Spectrum in integral and permanent nature of the Golan Heights with the rest of Israel.