Valerie Sobel
Following President Trump’s executive order to recognize The Golan as part of Israel, the 28-country European Union (EU), as if stung by a wasp, sprung into immediate opposition: how dare Trump side with Israel when we have Islam to appease? Wasn’t the Embassy move to Jerusalem jarring enough?
Ditto for the liberal Canadian Government, famous for repatriating ISIS fighters and awarding millions of dollars to Islamic Taliban terrorists who murder American servicemen in Afghanistan.
G-d forbid we fail to mention United Nations, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Arab League, so quick to strike the same gong. The beacon of political morality, the UN, is a just and unbiased authority when it comes to Israel. Just check out its Olympic record of resolutions against Israel.
Expecting a different reaction from friends playing in the billion-dollar trade sandbox with Iran – would be expecting pigs to fly.
Remember, every one of these EU countries stages annual Holocaust Commemorations with government heads amplifying “Never Again!” through their bullhorns. Easy words to roll off the tongue without ever understanding their provenance. Heck, if the leftist EU cabal ever discovered these haunting poignant words were coined by Jewish Defence League’s founder, Rabbi Meir Kahane (the man they considered a terrorist), they’d cancel their Holocaust dog & pony shows and issue an immediate retraction for each year of usage of the term. Ditto for liberal American Jewry who would proclaim these words racist and unrepresentative of Jewish values they are experts on. We would drown in the sea of official apologies as this lexicon monument to the memory of six million is toppled by the leftist mob.
But let’s not harp on what they don’t know.
Let’s focus on what they do know beyond a shadow of a doubt. And that is that The Golan isn’t Jewish, under no circumstances Israeli, and categorically occupied by the aforementioned apartheid state.
Finding logic in leftist stubborn positions, let alone their cheerleading against Israel, is like looking for a needle in the haystack. But let’s try to parse through their “The Golan doesn’t belong to Israel” outcry.
First: “Annexation of territory by force is prohibited under international law. Any declaration of a unilateral border change goes against the foundation of the rules-based international order”, they tell us.
On the surface this sounds fair and just, but failed miserably to prevent a peaceful real estate grab, a circumventing power move by Putin in Crimea. But keep the words “by force” in mind and let’s see where history leads us.
If Israel isn’t the rightful owner of The Golan now after possession of The Golan Heights for 52 years (1967-2019), then who is?
Why, Syria, of course! Because the mere 21 year (1946-1967) ownership of an accidental gift from the French Mandate, which tired of administrating this part of France, is apparently reason enough.
Oh, wait! The Golan Heights are nowhere near geographical France! Oops, a small hiccup, bien sur the French must be the lawful owners. No doubt some Middle Eastern country magnanimously donated the land to them…!
Here’s a shocker: The Golan was ceded to the French in 1920, under the terms of the Paulet-Newcombe Agreement, by the master colonizers themselves, the British. Unless the world missed a memo or two heralding the force-free transport of United Kingdom’s geographical borders to the Middle East, The Golan seems rather far away from the crown.
Don’t fret, mere details, we’ll get to the bottom of this, yet.
A curious happenstance; looks like it was the Ottomans who rather serenely handed over this strategic, positioned-high-above-sea-level prized Golan to the Brits in one sweeping move of pure benevolence.
…come again?…”These are World War I victory spoils after the militant conquest of the Ottoman Empire”, you whisper? Following the British declaration of war on the Ottomans, which they effectively wiped out?
According to current international edict and its language, then, this property title won’t suffice either. Clearly, it was “by force” The Golan was annexed by the Brits. In fact, this constitutes a militant occupation by the same. And if this is occupation, in no way are the Brits the rightful owner of the 1800 sq. km of land. Moreover, how could they have gifted something they occupied to a third party?
If not the Brits…then who?
The lawful owners, the Ottomans, who ruled over the land since the 16th Century, must be the true landlords. But they’re dead and as it turns out, also don’t qualify under the rules; they conquered the land by brutal force from Umar ibn al-Khattāb Arabs.
Lo and behold, the Umar Arabs are long gone too, and also don’t qualify under the definition; they warred the Jews for this chunk of land bordered by the Sea of Galilee, back in 636 CE.
…were the Jews just mentioned…? Unfathomable! What evidence? Russian Collusion!
Throughout the Old Testament period, the Golan was a hotbed of power struggles between the Kings of Israel and the Aramaeans who were based near modern-day Damascus. But let’s not take the Old Testament’s word for it.
The Golan is closely related to the word “Gamla” (Hebrew: גַּמְלָא, lit. “The Camel”). Gamla was an ancient Jewish city on the Golan Heights. High above sea level, the community was the colloquial camelback. During the Great Revolt (The first Jewish–Roman War of 66–73 CE), it became an important stronghold for Jewish rebels. The city is symbol of heroism for the modern state of Israel and an important historical and archaeological site. Today, under Israel’s sovereignty, Gamla is a nature reserve and a prominent tourist attraction.
It is also a trove of archeological finds for historians who study Jewish life at the end of the Second Temple period. Discoveries in the area prove that the Jews began to settle there at least in the second century BCE. This is shown by the large number of coins unearthed from the period of Hyrcanus’ reign. In addition to ritual objects, household items and jewelry, a large number of weapons were found in Gamla, and even a synagogue from the Second Temple period.
Artifacts from Gamla at the Golan Archaeological Museum include arrowheads, ballista stones, clay oil lamps and coins minted in Gamla during the Roman siege. Based on excavated historical evidence, a scale model and film pictorially describe the conquest and destruction of the Jewish town and all of its inhabitants.
But back to 2019. Irrespective of important evidential history of Jewish life in The Golan, what do our European partners, Canada and the UN propose? In their view the occupied land must be returned, right?
…to whom, exactly?
Syria, the puppet state for Putin and puppet-master Iran? Bashar al-Assad of chemical-gas-against-his-own-people fame? The promised land of ISIS’ Caliphate? The backyard of Iranian mullahs who launch regular attacks on Israel? The decimated war zone where British-French-American alliance fights a common enemy that til this day is taking the lives of our soldiers?
Or does the ever-enlightened European Union propose we simply reward Syria for launching countless unprovoked offensives on Israel from The Golan, since the brutal war of 1967?
Should Israel just hand back the Jewish Gamla of The Golan to the Syrians, who used the old city as a launch pad for the devastating 1973 Yom Kippur war that almost toppled Israel as a country and took thousands of lives?
It isn’t strictly because of fashionable and socially-constructed disdain for the American President EU & company stand erect against Israel. It is by willful ignorance, appeasement of Islam, and proud application of hypocrisy reserved only for a tiny Jewish, singularly democratic State of the Middle East.
After the Six Day War of 1967, with Israel victoriously combating Syria, Egypt and Jordan, these words were spoken:
“Had we lost the war, the eulogies over Israel would have been among the most beautiful of all time. If you want sympathy, that’s the way to do it. This time we figured, let’s live. So we fought and we won and they condemn us for it. We prefer it that way. No more Kaddish. No more sympathy. LET’S LIVE!”
…as with the “Never Again!” slogan, let’s etch these words into our psyche without the proper attribution. He would’ve preferred it this way given continuing anti-Israel positions from those so good at eloquent deliveries during Holocaust commemoration ceremonies.
Valerie Sobel is a Special Contributor of Blitz
