After Golan recognition, is Area C next for Trump?
Photo: AFP/ IMAGEBANK
P
resident Trump’s official recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights gladdened many in Israel, and not only on the political right. There is almost wall-to-wall consensus in Israel that the Golan must remain under Israeli control and is likely never to be returned. That’s why politicians from the Labor Party to Jewish Home welcomed the move.
The Golan announcement was also a welcome departure from the political rhetoric that has dominated discourse on the Middle East for the last several decades: “Two states for two peoples,” “the one-state solution,” and so on. And if you listened closely enough, you could sense in the announcement something more than just a bold move from the White House, but a change in the entire narrative of peacemaking.
On that score, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu dropped several hints on his visit to Washington, clues that the recognition of the Golan Heights is just the first course, the appetizer, ahead of the main meal. “A senior diplomatic source” aboard the prime minister’s plane told political writers who accompanied him that the White House’s recognition of the Golan establishes the principle that “land captured during a defensive war is our land.”
That is a dramatic statement. International law distinguishes between a defensive war and an offensive war, and Israel has long claimed that the Six Day War, when it captured the Golan and the West Bank, was defensive: Arab armies planned to invade Israel, and the IDF launched a preemptive strike to spoil their plans. Therefore, when a senior Israeli official says a principle has been established regarding a defensive war, he means not only the Golan Heights, but also, and perhaps primarily, Area C.
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