That's true, but I was thinking you'd hand the territory to the UN security council to defend.
This would be the UN that didn't defend the nascent Palestinian Homeland in 1948 when it was invaded and occupied by Jordan and Egypt? The UN that created the UN administered International City of Jerusalem in 1948, and then let Jordan obliterate, gut, raze, and destroy the entire Jewish presence in the city - a presence that predated Jesus by a 1000 years? A presence that had survived the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, Mohammed's Muslims, and the Ottomans? The UN the stepped aside and let the Arab Nation armies pour across the Golan Heights in and the Egyptian army across the Suez in 1973? That UN? The 10,000 UN force in Lebanon that has not been able to stop multiple Hezbollah rocket attacks every year, including the one last month that killed a couple of soldiers?
Oh please, its the oldest negotiation stance in the book. Everyone always says things are non-negotiable that turn out to be negotiable in the end.
When the Palestinians use it, it's the oldest trick. When Israel uses it people say "Because at least [Palestinian] leadership entertains direct talks, which is better than the Israelis manage." Sounds like a double standard.
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...But the Golan Heights is much bigger than that.
What you'd agree would be that the UN security council would be required to defend it, and then if the Arabs attacked (which they wouldn't) you'd have dead Americans, dead Russian and dead Chinese which would undoubtably be taken rather seriously by those countries.
I don't want to get distracted by the Golan Heights. It's not that big a roadblock to peace because Israel and Syria have had talks about the return of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, similar to the deals with Egypt and Jordan. Israel has been more willing to talk - initially it was Assad who insisted that he wouldn't even talk to Israel until Israeli totally withdraw from the Golan. Not a good way to start negotiations. Unless it's an old trick? Where I come from the dealership doesn't usually let me take the car home before we start negotiating the price. Anyway, the last talks were nearly completed in 2010 when they got derailed by the Arab Spring, and Assad got distracted by his civil war.
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I've just gone and read the Wikipedia article about the war, and Israel won decisively against the Arabs in that conflict. The idea that they were "nearly destroyed" is a complete fairytale.
In the end Israel may have won that war, but it certainly didn't win decisively. Israel certainly saw it as a loss, and a lot of military and intelligence services big-wigs were fired in disgrace. May I suggest a couple more articles?
Valley of Tears is a good place to start. The short version is that on the 3rd day only a handful of Israeli tanks, some with only a shell or two left to fire, were all that stood between a mauled but still very large Syrian force and Israel's northern cities about 50 kilometres away. The fact that there were still any Israeli tanks there at all is due solely to "Force Zvika". His story is worth reading regardless of the context of this conversation. Zvika was on leave when the war broke out. He hitch-hiked to the Golan front, helped with injured soldiers until a battle damaged Israeli tank was repaired and became available whereupon he roared into battle. He had 6 tanks shot out from under him, at one point badly burning Zvika. He would just go and find another tank that was waiting for a crew from the reserves to arrive ... or one that was simply less damaged than the one he had to abandon. He fought for 20 straight hours despite his burns. If it wasn't for Force Zvika the Syrian tanks would have been in Israel's northern heartland is in about 45 minutes.
He engaged the enemy, taking advantage of the darkness and moving constantly to fool the Syrians into thinking the opposition was stronger than it was. [Zvika] Greengold destroyed or damaged ten enemy armoured vehicles before the confused Syrians withdrew, believing they were facing a sizable force. Even Greengold's superiors were deceived; as the fighting wore on, he did not dare report how weak he actually was over the radio for fear it would be intercepted; at best he could only hint "the situation isn't good". At a time when Force Zvika consisted of only one tank, Colonel Yitzhak Ben-Shoham, the brigade commander, assumed it to be "of at least company strength". Though he claimed 'only' 20 Syrian tanks destroyed, he is usually credited with 40 tanks.
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"By the afternoon of October 9, only six of the brigade's tanks remained in action, defending a clear path into northern Israel."
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The Arabs don't have normalised relations with Israel and I doubt they trade much with Israel. So Israel still has a lot to gain from normalised relations.
Yes, you are right. Both sides - and the world - have a lot to gain. Israel has repeatedly declared that it will sign a peace treaty with any of the Arab Nations still at war with it in exchange for peace. If Israel has occupied some territory, it will negotiate a return of that territory. It had shown it will do so with Jordan and Egypt (in the case of Jordan they swapped some land simply because it was better for each them around Eilat, Taba, Aqaba. Syria and Israel were well on the way to the return of the Golan before Assad got distracted in 2010.
Which of course leaves only the Palestinian territories. The problem with Gaza it appears that the world really doesn't care about the Palestinians, except when the Israeli's can be made to look like the villains. The world could simply announce that they were going to sealift massive amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza despite Israeli objections. For example, if the EU announced that they would monitor all goods being loaded onto EU flagged ships and guarantee that no weapons were included, there is nothing Israel could do except bluster and complain. The UN could install the security force you envision on the Golan into Gaza instead to guarantee Israeli's security from rocket attacks and to ensure unhindered shipments of goods into and out of Gaza. Nothing Israel could do about that either, except bluster and complain.
In reality - the world can't even live up to its monetary obligations to Gaza. After last summer's war the world pledged $5.4 Billion to rebuild Gaza. So far only about 5% of the promised aid has actually been received. The biggest non-payers are, not surprisingly, the Arab nations.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/gaza-donations-fall-short-pledges-150218060136423.html
That is what frustrates me the most. The world only seems to care when there's flashy headlines to be had vilifying Israel. But when the real hard work of actually helping the Palestinians comes around, the world disappears and leaves the mess to Israel to clean up.
Here are some other ways that Israel mistreats Palestinians.
The official PA daily reported on a visit by the PA Minister of Health, Hani Abdeen, to Israel's Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The daily noted that 30% of the child patients in Hadassah are Palestinians and that the Israeli hospital is training "60 Palestinian medical interns and specialist physicians who will be returning to the [Palestinian] Authority areas to carry out their work." The hospital has a special program to train Palestinian doctors to treat cancer among children, reported the PA daily.
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While Hamas terrorists continued to hurl rockets and missiles at Israel, including the city of Haifa, Rambam Medical Center is now treating 20 Palestinians, including eight children from Gaza.
The largest hospital in Haifa said on Thursday that it provides medical care to Palestinians year round. The latest group to come were 11 from the Palestinian Authority area and nine more from Gaza who needed outpatient care. Most of them are children suffering from cancer or kidney disease who cannot get adequate care near their homes. They were accompanied by family members. Some children are also hospitalized at Rambam over the long term.
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The IDF has opened a temporary hospital for Palestinians on the Israeli side of the Erez Crossing. Even as terrorists fire rockets at Israel, the hospital is treating wounded civilians in cooperation with the Red Crescent. Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules Gaza, has prevented Palestinians from entering Israel in order to reach the hospital.
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1 Mar 2012
According to the Civil Administration, over 100,000 Palestinians received medical care in Israel - a 13% increase; over 100 Palestinian doctors interning at Israeli hospitals.
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