by Ariel Kahana and Israel Hayom Staff
Republican senators who proposed the bill, which would recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, are reportedly vexed by the Israeli request to shelve it for the time being
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with IDF officers overlooks the Golan Heights
Archives: Kobi Gideon / GPO
Israeli
defense officials stationed in the United States have conveyed messages
to American senator expressing reservations over proposed legislation
to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
The bill was introduced last week by U.S.
Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and is also
supported by senior Democrats.
Despite the bipartisan support, Israel
Hayom has learned that representatives of Israel's defense establishment
have told senior senators that passing the bill into law, at least at
the present time, was not ideal.
According to the Israeli position, as
presented in internal Senate discussions on the matter, Israel's
presence on the Golan Heights was regardless an undeniable fact on the
ground, and that pursuing legislation would only spark debate on the
matter.
The Israeli position vexed the American lawmakers, who believed such a law would be in Israel's interest.
The bill emphasizes the strategic
importance of Israeli control over the Golan Heights, which the Jewish
state captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, in protecting civilians against
threats from Iran in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel annexed the region in 1981, a move that has not been recognized by the international community.
It also states that "it is unrealistic to
expect that the outcome of a peace agreement between Israel and Syria
will be an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights."
The bill adds that "it is in the United
States' national security interest to ensure that Israel retains control
of the Golan Heights [and that] the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad faces
diplomatic and geopolitical consequences for its killing of civilians,
the ethnic cleansing of Arab Sunnis, and the use of weapons of mass
destruction."
The senators who proposed the bill,
meanwhile, were also disappointed at the lack of attention their
proposal garnered in Israel. Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations
Danny Danon was the only senior Israel official who commented on the
bill last week.
Attorney Zvi Hauser, chairman of the
Coalition for the Israeli Golan and a Knesset candidate on the Blue and
White party list in the upcoming general election, told Israel Hayom in
response that "American recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan
Heights is a strategic and diplomatic necessity alike, particularly in
light of the withdrawal of American forces from Syria."
Hauser added: "The Israeli government
shouldn't be satisfied with waiting for the American position to change
but should change its own policy, starting with changing the reality on
the ground and multiplying the number of people living [on the Golan]."
The Prime Minister's Office said: "Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken on many occasions with U.S.
President Donald Trump, including recently, about the need to recognize
Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights. After investigating the
matter, no representative of the Israeli defense establishment has
conveyed the [opposite] message or anything in that vein."
Netanyahu raised the issue of the Golan
Heights during a meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton
in January. Although the United States does not recognize Israeli
control over the Golan Heights, it voted for the first time in November
against an annual U.N. resolution condemning the Israeli position.
The measure is also sponsored by Senators
Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) and Lindsey
Graham (R-South Carolina), and Representatives Brian Mast (R-Florida),
Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado), Jim Banks (R-Indiana), Elise Stefanik (R-New
York), Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina), Bill
Johnson (R-Ohio), Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), Roger Marshall
(R-Kansas), Mark Green (R-Tennessee), Lee Zeldin (R-New York), Ted Budd
(R-North Carolina) and Jody Hice (R-Georgia).
Ariel Kahana and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2019/03/03/israeli-defense-officials-oppose-us-golan-heights-bill/
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