The Golan

Last weekend members of my kibbutz spent two days "on tour". The occasion was the Dovie Dvir memorial trip, an annual event commemorated for the past 38 years. Dovie, a young member of Ein Harod was killed in battle on the Golan Heights in 1973. He was a part-time tour guide and nature preservation enthusiast, so his family and friends chose to commemorate the anniversary of his death in an appropriate way, namely by visiting the places he loved. This year we toured the Golan Heights visiting places where since time immemorial man has left his mark.                                                                                                              Main routes linking the ancient civilisations of the Near East crossed the flat plain that makes up most of the Golan, at times referred to as Houran and Bashan. Even earlier, the same routes were paths used by nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.  From the fifth to the third millennium B.C  Chalcolithic tribes  lived there. The ruins of 25 small Chalcolithic  villages have been identified. Their occupants disappeared suddenly leaving behind them   stone and copper tools, simple pottery and pagan effigies. Nearby at Rajm Hiri, an impressive ceremonial monolithic structure inspired legends about a race of ancient giants that inhabited the Golan. In some places the remains of a Roman road are still visible as are the ruins  of 34 Jewish villages from that time and later on. The synagogue at Um al Kanatir, destroyed by an earthquake in 749 A.D is being reconstructed by a team headed by an engineer and an archeologist. An innovative method is being used in the reconstruction work. It employs digital computer software and embedded integrated circuit chips inserted in more than 2,000 stones from the synagogue.. A specially designed crane was brought to the site for the purpose of moving and replacing the heavy basalt stones. Now that a large part of the synagogue has been rebuilt the result is very impressive. It seems that the villagers used the water from a nearby spring in a flax  bleaching process for the manufacture of linen. Olive oil production and the lucrative bleaching enterprise enabled them to commission the building of a grander than usual synagogue.

Further north by the Wasset junction there is a small sculpture park alongside the "Emir's palace." Emir Mahmud Faour was the head of the powerful Arav al-Fadel Bedouin tribe. Two hundred  years ago one of Mahmud Faour’s ancestors led the Arav al-Fadel from Saudi Arabia to the Golan. Before long the tribe’s “assertiveness” gained it status and   land. With the passage of time Emir Faour acquired land both in the Golan Heights and the Hula Valley.  The Ottoman Caliphate  had difficulty policing this remote region so in the 1860s and 70s  it  settled Circassian refugees displaced by war in the Caucasus region to counter the local Bedouin banditry.

The ruins of the Emir's palace await restoration. The Bedouins and Circassians   fled during the Six Day War. Part of the Druze population moved to Syria, but the residents of six villages chose to remain. It's difficult to determine how many Golan residents left of their own volition and how many were "encouraged" to leave.                                                      The Syrians claim that prior to the Six Day War the Golan was home to 130,000 Syrian citizens. Today more than 20,000 Jews live in 32 settlements and one town. A similar number of Druze live in six villages.  Official Israeli sources and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants  claims that 100,000 Golan residents fled as a result of the war, whereas the Syrian government maintains that most of the population was expelled.

Some justification for Israel’s alleged scorched earth policy in the Golan Heights after the Six Day War is mentioned in a BBC survey entitled “Golan Heights Profile” published last year. The author of the survey wrote, “Syrian artillery regularly shelled the whole of northern Israel from 1948 to 1967 when Syria controlled the Heights.”

So far all attempts to return the Golan Heights to Syria under the terms of a peace treaty have failed. The present state of civil war in Syria has further distanced any possibility of that happening.

The Golan Heights give us an excellent vantage point for monitoring Syrian movements. The topography provides a natural buffer against any military thrust from Syria.    In recent years advances in  ballistic technology have increased the importance of keeping control of this strategic high ground and maintaining geographic depth.              Rainwater from the Golan's catchment feeds into the Jordan River supplying a third of Israel's water supply. About 40 percent of our beef, 30 percent of the fruit we produce and 38 percent of Israeli wine exports come from the Golan.  Public opinion polls indicate that most Israelis oppose returning the Golan Heights to Syria.  Every time pressure is brought to bear on Israel to negotiate a “land for peace” formula regarding the Golan Heights the “Golan is Israel”  lobby rolls out its placards and bumper stickers.  In their campaign the lobbyists point out that the Golan Heights is roughly the size of the borough of Queens in New York and comprises less than one percent of the area of Syria. Clearly inferring that the Syrians wouldn't miss the Golan. However, since Anwar Sadat fixed his land for peace rule  demanding   withdrawal" to the last grain of sand" Syria has to follow suit.

At the present time there's not the slightest likelihood that Israel will initiate  peace negotiations with   Syria and the Palestinian Entity.  Notwithstanding this pessimistic outlook, Palestinian Chairman/President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his claim that in 2008, prior to Ehud Olmert’s resignation, he and  Olmert  had almost concluded a peace agreement.  Lately Kadima party politicians have been busy trying to convince Olmert to return to politics and  lead the party in the forthcoming elections. Obviously Abbas would prefer Olmert to Netanyahu. So far it's only wishful thinking on his part. 

"Does the Israeli right have a permanent majority?" asked Dan Ephron   in an article he wrote for   Newsweek The Daily Beast under the heading "Unbeatable Bibi." Ephron discerned a change in Israeli voting trends.   "For decades Israeli elections were often cliffhangers, a reflection of the balance between those who wanted to cede land to the Palestinians and those who wanted to seize more territory. So close in size were the two camps that balloting often resulted in wafer-thin majorities—or awkward power-sharing arrangements between them. But the trend seems to have receded in recent years." Ephron quoted political analyst Noam Shizaf’s prediction that next January’s elections will herald the total collapse of the centre-left, both as a political power and as an ideologically coherent idea.                                                                                                                       Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote a “Guide for the Perplexed” on the Knesset elections, mainly a primer for foreign lookers on. .”Not long ago the main issue in every Israeli election was the future of the territories and the peace process with the Palestinians and Israel's neighbours,” wrote Pfeffer. “During this campaign, with the peace process in a deep freeze, the dominance of the Iranian issue and the instability of the region, as well as Labour's focus on social issues, it will remain largely in the background. The parties on the left will try to remind voters of the ticking time bomb in the West Bank and Gaza while the far-right parties will rally the faithful by saying they are the only ones who resolutely defend each and every settlement and outpost.” Pfeffer believes  Netanyahu will win the elections. He said, “ Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, currently the great white hope of the centre, will almost certainly be prevented from contending by his corruption trials. Even if he is able to run, he will prove a liability rather than an asset to the opposition.”  Surveying the undecided voters he claims they exist in all sectors of the population.  “The rapidly shifting political sands have left few ‘tribal’ voters who stick with the same party election after election. The great majority are "floating voters," deciding each campaign afresh. These are mainly generic voters with a number of parties to choose from. They are Israel's diverse tribes - ideological right-wingers, ultra-Orthodox, national-religious, Israeli-Arabs, leftists, and the secular middle-class. This last group is the only one that can shift the balance between the main blocs and potentially change the ultimate outcome. Middle-of-the-road Israelis, who comprise a quarter or perhaps even a third of the electorate, have regularly moved back and forth in recent years between Likud, Labour, Kadima and the now extinct Pensioners, Centre Party and Shinui. The fluctuating fortunes of each of these parties prove just how flexible these voters are. (In 2009, Likud more than doubled its vote after plummeting in 2006 to just 12 MKs.) Half a dozen parties will be competing for their votes and while Netanyahu has a clear edge for now, that could change. If not in January,  then next time around. Other political analysts are less inclined to make sweeping predictions. Let's wait till the fat lady sings.

Have a good weekend.

Beni                                                    18^th of October, 2012.