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Reaching for the Heights: What the Return of the Golan Heights r

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The Golan Heights. To most people, this piece of geography is nothing more than a passing footnote in the newspaper. However, there is tremendous significance of this piece of property to both the Syrians and Israelis. Some background is necessary in order to understand the role that this land plays in the relations in the region.

The Golan Heights is a series of mountains and plateaus that reach upwards from the Sea of Galilee towards Damascus. It is a small parcel of land, but should tanks or artillery be placed upon its volcanic soil, it could reach deep into Israeli territory. In fact, prior to 1967 when the Israelis captured the Heights from the Syrians, the Syrians utilized the Heights to do just that. The Golan provides a tremendous strategic advantage to the country that possesses it since there are very few passes through the mountains making it easy to defend but very difficult to attack.

When the Israelis captured the Golan Heights along with the Sinai and West Bank, it represented perhaps the single greatest military achievement of all time. Those two parcels of land were captured in six days, more than doubling the territory under control of Israel. While the Sinai protected the southern part of Israel (which is mostly uninhabited), the Golan protected the northern half of Israel where many of the Israeli settlements are located.

Therefore when the Camp David Accords created the framework of land for peace, many people worried that it meant the eventual end of the buffer that the Heights provided. Returning the Sinai peninsula to Egypt was not as damaging to Israeli security since the peace framework created a series of buffer zones and listening posts manned by the United Nations which would warn of attacks. This may work in dealing with the Sinai Peninsula which is several hundred miles wide and relatively flat, but the Golan is not very wide and any attack would be quickly within Israel.

There is strong sentiment among Labor and Likud, (the two main Israeli political parties), that the Golan should not be returned any time soon. Syria has long been a sticking point in the peace process and has supported terrorist activities based in Lebanon. Syrian forces clashed numerous times over the years with Israeli troops in Lebanon and this has led to widespread mistrust between Israelis and Syrians. In order for there to be a resolution of this sticky issue, both sides will need to overcome these feelings and problems.