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Israel-Palestine
Israelis float Golan split for peace deal with Syria
2004-12-11
Top Israeli strategists have drawn up a proposal to return parts of the occupied Golan Heights to Syria under a peace deal and will put it to a key policy conference next week, organisers said on Thursday. Since Syria has always made it a point of principle to insist on the return of the entire Golan, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, the proposal appeared to have little obvious appeal for Damascus.
Other than that they're bankrupt and surrounded on all sides by superior military forces.
Israeli officials said the initiative did not reflect government thinking, but the Herzliya Conference has often served to float ideas that later became policy — including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to quit occupied Gaza. The proposal, which would also involve Jordan and Lebanon, comes against a backdrop of renewed overtures from Damascus. "Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon is fully aware of what is on the agenda," a conference organiser said.
Posted by:Steve White

#19  Bryan---Pulling out of Gaza and walling the place in makes strategic sense, as long as an army does not replace the Paleos that will start a missile attack against Israel and hide amongst the Paleos.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-12-11 9:43:48 PM  

#18  AP #15 - What concerns me is that the current leadership is almost crazy enough to do something like that. After all, Sharon is planning to pull out of Gaza without a single reciprocal concession by the Paleos.
Posted by: Bryan   2004-12-11 9:30:25 PM  

#17  When are France, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic going to return the land they stole from Germany after it attacked them?

Heck, when are the Moslems going to return North Africa, Persia, Syria, Anatolia, Bosnia, Sudan, ... they stole from Christian or Zoroastrian peoples?
Posted by: jackal   2004-12-11 9:23:32 PM  

#16  er, STRATEGIC, sorry.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-12-11 9:06:42 PM  

#15  Israel is just floating the idea to see how Syria and everyone reacts. You do not give up the stragegic high ground without some other REAL guarantee of security.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-12-11 9:06:12 PM  

#14  I don't think that Israel will give the Golan heights back. From there you can see for miles around
Posted by: SwissTex   2004-12-11 9:00:51 PM  

#13  This baffles me. Why would a victorious state that was surprise-attacked (on a religous holiday no less) ever give back anything? That little twit in Damascus ought to just be thankful they haven't rammed an H-bomb up his rear end yet. His day is coming.
Posted by: Tom   2004-12-11 5:16:14 PM  

#12  So Israel steals Syrian land and then offers to give back half of it for peace.

Apparently, the fact that constant Syrian shellings of Israeli territory originated from the Golan Heights before the Israelis captured it isn't all that important...
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-12-11 5:15:32 PM  

#11  The Golan is a cheeeeep. The IDF can go around the Golan now without stopping to breath.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-12-11 4:05:49 PM  

#10  How do you give back half the Golan Heights? But more importantly why would you do this unless you've lost all sense of strategic perspective.

Ditto on the above comments if you start a war, lose that war, then you lose land.

Duh!?!
Posted by: Douglas De Bono   2004-12-11 3:51:24 PM  

#9  I've been reading about remote viewing (a sceptic needs to be sceptical about his own scepticism) and how people claim to be able to see future events. I swear whenever I see a picture of Assad, it morphs into him with a bullethole to the head lying in some grotty courtyard. Make of it what you will.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-12-11 3:43:28 PM  

#8  Ah yes! Syria a made up country where a small ethnic minority run a nasty police state that has 'stolen the land' of 90% of the population. But the UN says they are the legitimate government, so everything is fine and right with the world and of course no suggestion that people are asked what they want.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-12-11 3:34:45 PM  

#7  Frank,
"He's probably Arab. When was the last one they won?"

They win wars everyday. It's called Operation Insecurity

They go to war against their women: beating, raping , mutilating, honor killing, etc....
Posted by: Poison Reverse   2004-12-11 3:25:44 PM  

#6  My apologies, Frank. Constantinople/Byzantium was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, not the Arabs. Persia, perhaps? Somewhere along the north coast of Africa?
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-12-11 3:06:13 PM  

#5  Conquest of Constantinople, I think. TH1664's English reads comfortable with American vernacular (if not spelling), though, Frank, so if he is Arab, he came over pretty young. I had him pegged as a semi-educated blowhard, myself. Probably still at school, where the teachers push the party line pretty hard, and hasn't yet started ot think for himself.
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-12-11 3:03:49 PM  

#4  I don't think Thraing Hupolurong1664 understands what winning a war means. He's probably Arab. When was the last one they won?
Posted by: Frank G   2004-12-11 2:45:45 PM  

#3  To expand on Raj's statement: You start a war, then lose it, you've no business complaining about the result.

In this case, the various Arab-Israeli wars are technically battles in what we at the moment might call The 50+ Years War. Except for Egypt and Jordan(?), the rest of the Arab world has never accepted Israel's right to exist, and have never signed a peace treaty ending the hostilities they formally declared on the date of Israel's establishment in May, 1948.

In the periods when they haven't been actively attempting to overrun Israeli territory, all the countries in the region have supported terrorist organizations, via funds, training, materiel and information: first the Fedayeen, then groups such as the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, and all their even more radical offshoots. The only reason Israel's borders don't extend from the Nile to the Euphrates is because every time the Arab belligerents start to lose, the world intervenes to force a ceasefire on Israel.

You embarrass yourself, Thraing Hupolurong1664, by conclusively demonstrating your ignorance and bigotry. The Little Green Footballs website has a thorough history of the region, with links to source materials. Go educate yourself, and come back when you have something worthwhile to say.
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-12-11 2:41:29 PM  

#2  I guess in this day and age you can steal peoples homes by force

AKA warfare. You lose a war, you lose land. Simple concept, actually.
Posted by: Raj   2004-12-11 2:01:43 PM  

#1  So Israel steals Syrian land and then offers to give back half of it for peace. Gee, what a generious offer. What next - 5% of the West Bank for peace? I guess in this day and age you can steal peoples homes by force and then demand that they allow you to keep part of it just so you don't get hit.
Posted by: Thraing Hupolurong1664   2004-12-11 1:28:59 PM  

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