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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (25685)	3/10/2004 5:24:32 PM
From: rrufff	Respond to of 25898

This was a weak Nazi post the first time you posted it.

To: Thomas M. who wrote (25685)	3/11/2004 4:39:42 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

Your comment borders on the ridiculous. Oh, I'm sorry, on second thought it is ridiculous.

To: Thomas M. who wrote (25685)	3/11/2004 4:22:37 PM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

SNAP JUDGMENT: From Heights to the depths After nearly two decades here, I recently made my first visit to the Mt. Hermon ski resort at the northern tip of the the Golan Heights. My family and I, along with thousands of other Israelis, spent a near-idyllic day swooshing down the slopes in unseasonably balmy weather. Joining us was my mother visiting from the US, who at day's end pithily exclaimed: "Don't give this back to Syria!" Fortunately, there's no danger of that in the near future. Discussion over returning the Golan is simply not on the agenda nowadays, neither in Israel or even in the international community. The reasons are several. Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has thus far taken an even harder line toward Israel than that of his father. Syria's standing with the US has also deteriorated following Assad's support for Saddam Hussein, and his continued failure to stop anti-American guerrillas from slipping over the border into Iraq. Within Syrian there are growing signs of discontent with the ruling Ba'athist regime – evidenced by a rare anti-government demonstration this week in Damascus – that suggest Jerusalem should prudently bide its time before resuming any negotiations with Syria. All this might not even matter if there was internal pressure within the Golan itself that necessitated Israel divesting itself of the territory. But of course, as any visitor to the area instantly observes, there is none. The 20,000 Druse who live there in peace and quiet seem in no particular hurry to return to the Syrian sovereignty that ended when Israel conquered the Golan in 1967. The region's 17,000 Israeli residents enjoy a degree of security that this denizen of terror-plagued Jerusalem can only envy. And the large number of visitors and vacationers who continually stream to the Golan to enjoy its rich natural beauty testifies to the popularity it enjoys with the Israeli public. Although the Golan is grouped together with the West Bank and Gaza as the "occupied territories" held by Israel since the Six Day War, its character – and fate – should be viewed as distinct from the other two. Lacking a real "occupied" population, the conflicting territorial claims to the area are strictly a political question without any moral dimension. Modern Syria, a nation carved out of the former Ottoman empire following World War I, has no more historical "right" to the Golan than modern Israel. This isn't to say that Israel couldn't – or shouldn't – relinquish the Golan if the benefits were worth the sacrifice. But anything less than a genuine just and lasting peace with a stable and trustworthy Syrian regime wouldn't be worth either the security risk of giving up the high ground overlooking the Galilee, or the loss of this gorgeous area that includes Israel's only viable ski resort. IN CONTRAST, as Henny Youngman might say, take the Gaza Strip – please. Not that Gaza doesn't have its share of natural beauty. As someone who's spent parts of his reserve duty patrolling the area, I can attest that Gaza includes some of the most beautiful beach front in the country. Unfortunately, it also contains over 1,200,000 Palestinians living in squalor and filled with murderous rage toward Israel. Whether Israel, the Arab states or the Palestinians themselves are largely responsible for this situation doesn't affect its reality. Nor does it alter the fact that the IDF must expend an enormous amount of resources, including the lives of its soldiers, in order to maintain control over Gaza and protect the some 5,000 Israelis who live there. I got to know many of those settlers while guarding them, and can attest to their good character and a degree of Zionist motivation sadly lacking in many of their countrymen. Again, though, that has no bearing on the grievous historical mistake previous Israeli governments committed by building Jewish settlements in the very midst of an impoverished, resentful Palestinian population, in an area of no great strategic or historical significance to this country. In the current debate over Prime Minister Sharon's proposed disengagement plan one hears much about whether it will be seen as a "victory" by the terrorist groups operating in Gaza. Maybe it will – although one can question why groups already dedicated to the total destruction of Israel need any encouragement. But those same arguments were heard, from senior IDF commanders as well, over the withdrawal from Lebanon. No one today, though, disputes that life has since improved for residents in the north, to say nothing of the soldiers who once faced almost daily death in the security zone. A withdrawal from Gaza would be a victory – a victory for common sense over a distorted settlement ideology that, if arguably of legitimate value elsewhere and at different times, makes absolutely no sense in current-day Gaza. In the waning days of the first intifada, I spent time guarding the nearly empty Gush Katif resort hotel, a (literal) stone's throw from Palestinian refugee camps. Today that hotel lies completely abandoned except for a few squatters, a monument to the folly of wishful thinking in Israel's former Gaza policy. What a difference from the Mt. Hermon ski resort, which has steadily remained one of the country's most popular tourist attractions. This week I received an invitation from a group called "Friends of the Golan, L.A." to join a five-day hiking trip "from the snow-covered 6,000-foot heights of Mt. Hermon to the Kinneret," in order to "highlight the modern connection of the Golan to Israel." While that's a stroll I'd take anytime, having to put even one foot down in the Gaza Strip again would be, for this Israeli, a step too far. jpost.com