The Israeli entity occupied Arab lands, and after the Arabs lost hope of regaining them, a series of peace negotiations began according to the principle of land for peace, as if the Arabs said to Israel, “Return to us our land that was occupied after 1967, and we will give you peace.” Therefore, the Arab parties continued to demand that Israel adhere to UN Resolutions 242 and 338, considering Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza as occupied territories. The Israelis remained in their stance of procrastination and unfulfilled promises, gradually moving towards owning the land by force and imposing the status quo with domestic, official, and later American support, with Trump’s recent recognition that the Golan Heights is Israeli land!
The official Israeli refusal to return land for peace coincided with the general Israeli public sentiment, which was confirmed by a series of opinion polls over decades concerning the Golan Heights, for example. In January 1979, 80% of Israeli Jews were not willing to return any part of the Golan Heights to Syria. During the period from August to October 1994, the Peace Index survey was conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, which included a question about “the respondents’ willingness to return the Golan Heights to Syria if such an action was linked to a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and Syria, including diplomatic relations, disarmament, and international security guarantees.” Between 43% and 45% of Israeli Jews also opposed returning any part of the Golan Heights. In the second phase of the Peace Index conducted between December 1999 and January 2000, the sample was asked about “the Israelis’ willingness to return the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty.” About 54% of Israeli Jews also opposed it, and this percentage rose in 2011. When the question was repeated again in 2012, following some political changes in the region, most notably the Syrian crisis and the emergence of the ISIS organization, the rejection rate increased when asked the same question, rising to 77% at that time. In 2016, with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s declaration that Israel would never give up the Golan Heights, a question was asked about “how necessary it was to return the Golan to Syria due to Syria’s future after the ongoing war,” in which 47% of Israelis said it was necessary. Recently, in 2019, with American statements that the Golan belongs to Israel, a survey was conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, and a question was posed about whether “the U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty was beneficial or harmful to Israel’s interests,” with most responses supporting those statements and seeing them as beneficial to the State of Israel.
It is evident to the observer of these results that the insistence on not returning the Golan for peace within Israeli public opinion has increased over the past four decades, reinforced by the will of an extremist Prime Minister and a reckless American President, representing a stage of imposing the status quo by force without regard for any agreements or covenants, “and let the Arabs’ dreams go to hell.”
Dr. Samir Abu Rumman
