Trump's gift to Israel at someone else's expense
US President Donald Trump gives Israel gift after gift, one more luxurious than the other, and all at someone else’s expense. At the beginning of December 2017
the magnificent Donny, ignoring all previous agreements and prevailing circumstances, declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and ordered the US Embassy to be moved to this city from Tel Aviv.
This decision, made bypassing the UN Security Council and without taking into account the opinion of the Palestinians, for whom East Jerusalem is part of the autonomy, provoked massive clashes between the conflicting parties, which almost turned into a new intifada.
On March 22, 2019, Trump stunned the international community by tweeting his intention to recognize Israel's Golan Heights, which it occupied in 1967 during the Six-Day War. Again, not giving a damn about the opinion of Syria, the UN Security Council and the world community, who do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over these territories.
For several days, experts around the world were wondering whether Trump would really decide to violate the status of the Golan that had developed over the past 50 years, or whether he was stirring things up for the purpose of yet another self-promotion, but on March 25, everything became clear: the US President, in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, signed a document recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory. .
As soon as this news spread across news agencies around the world, it became clear that no one in the whole world was going to recognize #OurGolan, with the exception of the United States and Israel. Expectedly sharp protests came from Syria, which considers the Golan Heights to be its ancestral territory, and from the League of Arab States. It also turned out that even his closest allies, including Canada, which usually blindly and obediently follows in the wake of American foreign policy, are not going to support Trump’s decision.
Literally everything causes bewilderment: why the Golan? Why now? Why so demonstratively disregarding?
It turns out, as Trump tweeted, “After 52 years, it is time for the US to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which are of strategic and defense importance to Israel and regional stability.”
Why does Israel need the Golan Heights?
For such a small country, acquiring an amount of land with an area the size of Moscow is not a weak acquisition. And this is not some meaningless piece of waterless desert without oil and gas, but a territory with fertile lands, developed agriculture and a stable influx of tourists. Over the course of half a century, Israel managed to colonize the occupied territory, deporting the Syrians and leaving behind a few loyal Druze. Without exaggeration, the Golan Heights for Israel are a center of prosperity and stability.
The strategic and defense significance of the Golan for Israel is not a topic of debate. On five high-rise buildings, just 60 km from Damascus, the IDF installed electronic surveillance and reconnaissance stations, and built a separation wall and a network of minefields along the contact line.
From the Golan Heights, it is very convenient for the Israelis to monitor the movement of Syrian troops and, especially, the combat units of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group, which Israel considers terrorist. Give up such a strategic advantage? You're kidding!
According to the Israeli military, the return of the Golan Heights will allow the enemy to shoot through Israel almost to the entire depth of the territory. In addition, Tel Aviv simply does not have enough money in its budget to get out of the occupied lands. Israel will not be able to bear the costs of relocating colonists and increasing the military contingent along the border with Syria to compensate for leaving the Golan Heights.
There is another important aspect that forces Israel to cling to the Golan with its hands, feet and teeth. Given the shortage of fresh water, the loss of 30% of drinking water sources from the springs flowing through the heights would bring the Jewish state to the brink of disaster. In any case, in an extremely difficult situation. They also claim that large reserves of oil have been discovered in the Golan Heights region, which is not even traceable in the Israeli desert...
Why now?
The answer appears to lie in the fact that Syria is currently severely weakened by eight years of civil war and an onslaught of international terrorists. Israel and Washington are aware that Syria no longer faces the threat of complete capture by ISIS, and the country is slowly being revived, collecting lost territories. In the foreseeable future, the question of returning the Golan Heights will again arise. Syria has long proposed to resolve the problem peacefully and return the Golan in exchange for a peace treaty. But, as you can see, Israel is not interested in a peace treaty with Syria in the foreseeable future.
In 1981, the Israeli Knesset incorporated the Golan into the territory of the Jewish state, but this unilateral decision was worth little without international support. Therefore, Trump, by signing a document recognizing the heights and surrounding lands as Israel, strengthened Tel Aviv’s claims to the occupied territories, although he created a new international precedent.
After such a decision, it will be difficult for the US State Department to moralize about the “annexation” of Crimea.
Finally, other motives, including family ones, are clearly visible in Trump’s decision.
For example, the document signed by Trump recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is a huge gift for Prime Minister Netanyahu on the eve of the April elections. As you know, Donny and Bibi have a warm and trusting relationship, but Bibi, on the eve of the elections, managed to get into a scandal with official charges of corruption, fraud and breach of trust. Apparently, Trump believes that the document recognizing the Golan for Israel will help his sidekick wash away the accusations and be re-elected as prime minister on April 9...
Experts also believe that Trump’s new squiggle is directly related to the so-called “deal of the century on Palestine.”
We are talking about a new plan for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement that the United States is trying to promote in the region. His main idea is to enlist the support of Arab countries, which could convince the parties to the conflict to compromise. The Jewish state has recently begun rapprochement with a number of Arab countries against the backdrop of a general negative attitude towards Iran, trying to radically change the situation in its favor. US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is a powerful trump card, which, as planned, should help in the implementation of the plan.
So, Jared Kushner, married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, is promoting the “deal of the century.” Well, how not to help your beloved son-in-law at the beginning of his diplomatic career?
It is obvious that the United States, bypassing the UN Security Council and the opinions of the world community, is pursuing exclusively its own goals: to enlist additional support for its only ally in the region, create additional problems for Iran and humiliate Syria, destroyed by civil war and terrorist intervention.
The rest of the world is well aware that such a practice threatens a new swing of the region, where war can always break out even from a small match, and not just from a tar torch thrown into a barrel of gasoline.
The United States, as always, cutting Gordian knots, plans to sit overseas, leaving others to deal with the consequences of their elephant in a china shop policy. And after the collapse of the USSR, unfortunately, there is no one in the world to hit this elephant on the trunk...
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