Home > Olives & Thorns > Archives > 2008 > May > 29 > Entry
Olmert and the Golan … and politics.
As American businessman Morris Talansky was testifying in a corruption probe that threatens to end the political career of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the Jewish settlers on the Golan were smiling.
Israeli cynics, of which there are many, say Olmert’s public pursuit of peace with Syria — which is widely assumed to hinge on giving back the Golan Heights, land Israel seized in 1967 — is a desperate ploy to detract attention from his political woes. (Olmert has professed his innocence, as well as his earnest interest in peace with Syria, as well as the Palestinians.)
In a public opinion poll conducted a week ago by Israeli Channel 2, 70 percent of Israelis oppose giving up the Golan in a peace agreement.
“Nobody here believes it’s actually going to happen,” Astrid Hasday, 46, a spokeswoman for the Golan Residents Committee, told a group of foreign journalists. “The local population doesn’t take it seriously. We keep building and keep investing.”
Damascus is a lot closer than Jerusalem when you’re standing on Ben Tal mountain, an Israeli military observation point, and that’s just the point to critics of a land-for-peace deal with Syria.
They point to the Golan’s strategic importance as an elevated buffer between Syria and Israel’s population centers. Plus, few people here seem to trust Syria as a peace partner. Instead, talk was of the potentialities of war.
“This is the place the battle will take place and both sides know it and are preparing themselves,” said retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Zvika Fogel, pointing toward a valley where the jagged demilitarized zone divides the Golan Heights and Syria.
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