President Trump has signed an executive order recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, 52 years after the Jewish state seized the region from Syria.
”The State of Israel took control of the Golan Heights in 1967 to safeguard its security from external threats,” Trump said Monday, standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House Diplomatic Room. “Today, aggressive action by Iran and terrorist groups in southern Syria, including Hezbollah, continue to make the Golan Heights a potential launching ground for attacks against Israel, very violent attacks.”
Vice President Mike Pence announced the administration’s decision earlier in the day at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference in Washington.
“For 20 years after Israel’s rebirth, Syria held the Golan Heights, and with its massive artillery it held Israel hostage,” Pence said. “This crucial region changed hands only after Israel won a war that was forced upon her.”
Trump’s decision is a major diplomatic victory for Israel, which took the 500 square miles of the Golan during the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed it in 1981. It could strengthen Netanyahu’s hold on power as Israeli voters head to the polls April 9. The embattled prime minister is facing the political fight of his life amid corruption allegations leveled by Israel’s attorney general. Netanyahu arrived in Washington yesterday and was slated to speak at AIPAC tomorrow, but he’ll instead head back to Israel this evening, after a rocket attack launched from the Gaza Strip injured seven Israeli civilians.
“Israel has never had a better friend than you. You have showed this time and again,” Netanyahu told Trump after the president’s announcement Monday.
Trump previewed the diplomatic shift last week when he tweeted that “it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights.” The move reverses decades of U.S. policy and is a break with Western allies, who regard the strategically important high ground between northern Israel and southern Syria as illegally occupied territory. A 1981 United Nations Security Council resolution declared Israel’s annexation null and void.
“The U.K. views the Golan Heights as territory occupied by Israel. Annexation of territory by force is prohibited under international law, including the U.N. Charter,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said Thursday. “We did not recognize Israel’s annexation in 1981 and have no plans to change our position.”
Russia claimed the decision would “considerably destabilize” the region and suggested the Trump administration was hypocritical in recognizing Israel’s claim but sanctioning Moscow after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said accepting Israeli sovereignty over the Golan would “recognize the reality on the ground.” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sunday, “We understood everything and we will correct our information strategy. Thank you, Mr. Pompeo.”
Trump on Monday rebuffed the suggestion that his decision could undermine the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is spearheading. The administration plans to unveil the plan after the Israeli elections.
“Any possible future peace agreement must account for Israel’s need to defend itself from Syria, Iran, and other regional threats,” he said.
