During Shavuot, the narrow roads leading up to the Golan Heights were filled with one long traffic jam.
At the time, it seemed as if all of Israel were coming to bid farewell to the region before the Israeli government handed over the Golan as part of a peace deal with the Syrians.
But last weekend, after Shimon Peres failed to win the race for prime minister, the Golan roads were nearly empty.
The beautiful stretch of Strategic land that overlooks the Hula Valley and the Galiee was once again a remote extension of Israel.
With the victory of Prime Minister-elect Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, who has voiced his staunch opposition to turning over the Golan in a land-for-peace deal with Syria, few believe that the Golan will be under the control of Damascus anytime soon.
While Likud supporters throughout Israel were euphoric about Netanyahu’s razor- edge victory over Peres, however, there was no celebratory atmosphere in the Golan.
Residents here believe that the area’s future will not top the agenda of the incoming government.
But they also feel that the Golan question will not soon evaporate from the national agenda – not as long as there is any hope for peace with Syria.
Some here question how the hard-line stances Netanyahu expressed during his campaign could ever lead to a peace agreement with Syria.
But some, such as Sami Bar-Lev, the Likud mayor for the past 16 years of Katzrin, the largest town on the Golan, believe that Netanyahu will seek a deal with Damascus, but not in the same way that Peres did.
“Of course, Bibi wants to make peace with Syria,” said Bar-Lev, 53. “But we trust that he will follow the line of peace for peace, rather than Labor’s line of peace for land.”
Bar-Lev was echoing statements by Netanyahu aides in the wake of the election that the new prime minister would first seek a series of initial agreements with Syria that would demonstrate Damascus’ willingness to achieve warm ties with Israel before aiming for a full-blown peace accord.
Although the 14,000 Jews who live in 32 settlements on the Golan share the desire to stay there, the region is far from being a Likud stronghold.
Peres led in the Golan with 50.2 percent of the vote. Some 49.7 percent cast their ballots for Netanyahu.
And in the separate race for the incoming Knesset, Labor had the strongest showing of all the parties, with 31.2 percent of the vote.
By comparison, Likud parliamentary hopefuls garnered 16.3 percent. The Third Way, which entered the Israeli political land year to lead the nationwide campaign against any territorial concessions on the Golan, won 17.7 percent.
It was one of the oddities of a surprise-filled election that the Golan residents backed Peres and Labor when they were avowedly ready to give up the Golan to Syrian President Hafez Assad.
“The explanation is simple,” said Yigal Kipnis, 47, a farmer at Ma’aleh Gamla. “People voted here as Israeli citizens, and not as residents of the Golan.
“We had four very good years with the outgoing government, and half of our people – just like in the rest of the country – wanted Peres to proceed with the peace process.”
Kipnis is one of the founders of “The Way to peace,” an organization of Golan residents formed two days after the Nov. 4 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin to back the peace process, even if it led to an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.
Bar-Lev agreed with Kipnis that the fate of the Golan had not shaped the voting patterns of the region’s residents.
This was particularly true, Bar-Lev said, because Labor had promised that any agreement involving giving up the Golan would require a national referendum.
Because of this, he said, even those who were determined to vote in an eventual referendum against giving up the Golan allowed themselves the luxury of voting for Peres and Labor, because they felt ideologically closer to them than than to Netanyahu and Likud.
“The Way to Peace” was not dismantled after Peres lost the election. In fact, it may soon serve to pressure the Netanyahu government to exercise flexibility if and when there is a resumption of negotiations with Syria.
Those talks were suspended in March after Syria failed to condemn the latest series of Hamas suicide bombings carried out in Israel.
While Golan hawks such as Bar-Lev put their trust in the policies of the prime minister-elect, others here are hoping that Assad’s intransigence in the talks with Israel will serve as a guarantee for a continued Israeli presence on the Golan.
As long as Assad remains in power, they feel, there will be little chance of progress on the Golan question.
Bar-Lev believes that after 20 years of staunch anti-Zionism, Assad simply cannot bring himself to make the ideological change of heart that will be needed for a full peace agreement with Israel.
While many Jewish residents here hope that Assad’s inflexibility will give them many more long and happy years on the Golan, some of the area’s 16,000 Druse residents, who are part of a centuries-old offshoot of Islam, are hoping that Netanyahu will prove to be a pragmatic negotiator.
“They say Bibi is tough, but they used to say the same about [former Prime Minister Menahem] Begin,” said Ali Mar’i, of Majdal Shams, the largest Druse village in the Golan.
If the Likud knew how to make peace with Egypt in 1979, he suggested, the party will also find a way for compromise with Syria.
“I have tried both war and peace,” said Mar’i, pointing at his house in the middle of the village. “My house was destroyed in the Yom Kippur War. It took me two days to dig my mother from underneath the ruins.
“I know how important peace is.”
There is one question that Jews and Druse alike were unable to answer: Why did Assad fail to reach an agreement with Peres when it was clear that Peres was willing to give up almost the entire Golan?
“This is a question that one should ask Assad,” said Mar’i. “I don’t know the answer.”
Kipnis felt that it all comes down to a matter of trust.
“I believe that the only problem is mutual suspicion,” said Kipnis. “Assad does not trust Israel any more than Israel trusts him.
“Once that psychological barrier is lifted, nothing will stand in the way of a peace agreement.”
In the meantime, the Golan continues to thrive.
There are no apartments available in Katzrin and more are now being built.
“The prices of flats have doubled in the last year,” said Bar-Lev. “A three- bedroom flat, which cost last year $30,000, is now being offered for $60,000.”
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