OAN:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday recognized Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights in an election boost for visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, prompting a sharp response from Syria, which once held the strategic land.
With Netanyahu looking over his shoulder at the White House, Trump signed a proclamation officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory – a dramatic shift from decades of U.S. policy.
The move, which Trump announced in a tweet last Thursday, appeared to be the most overt gesture by the Republican president to help Netanyahu, who had been pressing Trump for the move since February 2017.
Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
Netanyahu, who faces an election on April 9, earlier on Monday said he was cutting short his U.S. visit after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, blamed on Hamas, wounded seven people near Tel Aviv. Israel launched retaliatory air strikes in Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister arrived in Washington on Sunday, originally for a four-day trip.
His chief rival for the premiership, Benny Gantz, also visited the U.S. capital, telling a major pro-Israel lobbying organization that he was the better alternative to lead the country.
In signing the proclamation, Trump said “This was a long time in the making.”
He handed the pen that he used for his signature to Netanyahu, and said: “Give this to the people of Israel.”
The prime minister welcomed Trump’s action and said Israel had never had a better friend. He harked back to two previous Middle Eastern wars in justifying Israel’s need to hang on to the Golan.
“Just as Israel stood tall in 1967, just as it stood tall in 1973, Israel stands tall today. We hold the high ground and we should never give it up,” he said.
Is Syria still effectively a country or just a collection of warring 3rd world tribes?
So let us review. Syria attacked Israel using the Golan Heights as an artillery base. Syria loses and Isrel keeps it to prevent further attacks. Phuck Syria. They started the war, they lost it so it is no longer theirs.
Take a good look at the Golan Heights and how it is situated.
It’s strategically critical to the defense of Israel to occupy it since it provides a highly valuable position to conduct attacks on Israel by it’s enemies.
I had the great pleasure to visit there 3 years ago and it is a beautiful area. When you stand on top of the highest hills the military significance is immediately obvious. The Syrians built numerous bunkers in the hills when they occupied the land.
A great story we heard was that an Israeli spy infiltrated the Syrian military command. When soldiers in the Golan complained about the heat, he suggested they plant fast-growing shade trees near the bunkers. He then informed the Israelis to look for those trees and bomb them, thus destroying the bunkers.
correct you are Bubba
“don’t start no sh*t, won’t be no sh*t” ~ Charles Terry
What if all those missing Hillary Rodham Clinton emails about those yoga lessons and wedding plans were captured and collected by the Israelis? It’s an established fact that the emails were intercepted by several other countries’ intelligence agencies. The Israelis had a great deal of interest in what the Omohammad Administration was up to during the period when Secretary of State Clinton was helping the Arab League destroy the Middle East during the so-called Arab Spring. Might they suddenly find their way into the public domain in exchange for a deal on the Golan Heights? Of course, this would be Israeli Collusion, and it would be new grounds for Impeachment.
The first tiime Israel on the Golan Heights was about 1400BC under the ieadership of Joshua. Yeshua in Aramaic. Syria formed in mid 20th century.