Doves and hawks, left-wingers and right-wingers, Laborites and Likudniks are united on one issue: The Golan Heights are part of Israel and should remain so.
The territory, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and effectively annexed by extending Israeli law there in 1980, is home to about 11,000 Jews in 32 towns and settlements.
Its future status inevitably will come up if peace talks with Syria materialize, as now seems more likely than ever before. And the negotiators are sure to discuss the Golan Heights before they broach the more emotionally charged issue of the final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But regardless of their ideology or political affiliation, the majority of Israelis rank the Golan Heights second only to Jerusalem as the territory they would never bargain away, even if assured of peace in return.
That is the national consensus Golan residents count on when they weigh their future in light of Syria’s unexpected agreement last week to attend a U.S.-orchestrated peace conference with Israel. The consensus seems to be holding.
Political middle-of-the-roaders like Labor Knesset member Mordechai Gur, a former Israel Defense Force chief of staff, warned this week that giving up the Golan would be a security disaster.
Labor Knesset members Micha Goldman, Edna Solodar and Gedalia Gal support a Treasury motion to allocate another $6 million to the administered territories, only because the Golan would get a share.
Likud Knesset member Benny Begin told the Knesset this week that “the Golan Heights are a part of Israel, like the hand is part of the body.”
MORE JEWS MOVING THERE
The emotional content of the issue reflects a certain nervousness. After all, no country recognizes Israel’s virtual annexation of the Golan, not even the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State James Baker assured Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that the Syrians got no covert promise from the United States to support their demand for the territory’s return.
But Israeli-Arab peace talks are supposed to be based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which embody the principle of land for peace. The international community does not accept the Likud government’s contention that Israel fulfilled that requirement when it returned Sinai to Egypt.
Israelis respond to pressure for return of the Golan by creating “facts on the ground.”
More Jews are moving into the territory. Residential building is proceeding at a hectic pace and still cannot keep up with demand.
Katzrin is the largest settlement, with a population of 4,000, which it plans to triple in two years. Its goal is to become a township of 30,000.
“Nobody is talking about evacuation,” says Mayor Sami Bar-Lev. “Katzrin will not be a second Yamit,” he added, referring to a Jewish town in northern Sinai whose population was relocated by the government when the territory was returned to Egypt in 1982.
Bar-Lev puts his faith in Prime Minister Shamir.
But even members of Kibbutz Natur, a settlement of the left-wing Mapam’s Kibbutz Artzi movement, are determined to stay. They declared this week that they would not willingly leave the Golan should the government ever order them to.
Golan residents are not impressed by people who describe the situation as a hard choice between giving up the Golan or going to war again with Syria.
“Syria no longer has the Russian backing,” said Gideon Livneh, chairman of Moshav Bnei Yehuda. Syrian President Hafez Assad “will not go to war now. The border with Syria is more quiet than the borders with Egypt and Jordan,” he said.
“You want peace? Fine. But the Golan Heights are ours,” Livneh said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
