Donald Trump's Controversial Golan Heights Gamble

Hunter DeRensis

Security, Middle East

The Golan is one of the most important strategic locations in the region that borders Israel and Syria.

In the most recent policy announcement from the White House (read: afternoon tweet), President Donald Trump said the United States would recognize Israeli sovereignty over previously occupied Syrian territory. Trump stated in a tweet: “After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” The Golan Heights is a plateau in the Levant, rising high above the surrounding area. From the top you can almost see the Mediterranean, and it’s only a taxi ride away from the Syrian capital of Damascus. Combined with its abundant natural resources like water, the Golan is one of the most important strategic locations in the area.

A sizable portion of the local population, mostly Syrian Druze, were expelled after the 1967 war and in the decades since have been replaced by Jewish settlements. The Golan Heights was officially annexed by Israel in 1981, an action that was repudiated by the international community. “[T]he Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect,” said United Nations Security Council Resolution 497, which sought to reaffirm “that the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions.”

“This is a long overdue statement by a U.S. president,” said Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Schanzer has been favoring U.S. recognition of the Isreali annexation for several years. “It is impossible to imagine the Israelis handing over this territory to Syria, especially now, with Syria in utter disarray, and after years of Assad regime atrocities.”