Don't give up the Golan Heights

Surrendering it to Syria could imperil Israel and the US.

from the May 21, 2008 edition

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Syria has missiles that could place all of Israel within easy range of WMD warheads. Any Israeli abandonment of the Golan would enhance this enemy capability. Golan surrender would also enlarge the prospect of war on the Lebanese front, and the influence of terrorist factions still based in Damascus.

The Golan dominates the Jordan Valley as well as the Bashan Plateau. Here there are only two natural terrain bottlenecks. These choke points are presently defensible. With this plateau in Syrian hands, however, enemy tanks, backed up by missiles and aircraft, could penetrate other parts of Israel. This penetration capability would remain real even if the area were "demilitarized."

Damascus has no serious agenda for a Golan peace. President Assad does not speak of the international border, but only about the June 4, 1967, line.

This is because during the British Mandate, all of the Sea of Galilee was within the international border. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had once wrongly agreed with the contrived Syrian position, but, later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu corrected this error. Subsequently, the US officially recognized this correction. Today, Olmert should acknowledge that Rabin's earlier acceptance of the Syrian line is no longer valid.

Back in September, Israel was prudent enough to act upon anticipatory self-defense to prevent a nuclear Syria. It should not now undo this prudence by surrendering the Golan.

"Land for nothing" makes no sense. Israel has nothing to gain from it. Nor does the United States.

A comprehensive peace for the region is certainly a proper goal; nothing could please Israel more. But the path to such peace can never be based on one-sided territorial surrender.

In the particular matter of the Golan Heights, peace will have to be based upon an authentic Syrian willingness to coexist with a Jewish state. For peace, Syria must first value such coexistence more highly than it does its present ties to both Iran and terrorism.

• Louis René Beres, a professor of international law at Purdue University, lectures and publishes widely on Israeli security matters. Zalman Shoval twice served as Israel's ambassador to the United States and is president of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce.

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