Trump: ‘After 52 years it is time’
He wants U.S. to recognize Israel’s claim to territory
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel’s authority over the Golan Heights, one of the world’s most disputed territories, reversing decadeslong U.S. policy and violating a U.N. resolution.
The president’s announcement, in a midday Twitter post, serves to recognize Israeli sovereignty over land that its troops seized in war. It came after repeated pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, which claimed the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and effectively annexed it in 1981. The U.N. Security Council has declared that Israel must withdraw from territory acquired by force.
“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” Trump wrote.
In an interview later Thursday afternoon with the Fox Business Network, Trump said that he had considered recognizing the territory as part of Israel “for a long time” and that his deci-
sion was not meant to boost Netanyahu’s chances in a bitter race for coming parliamentary elections.
“I wouldn’t even know about that,” the president said of the Israeli vote, set for April 9, in the interview with the Fox network’s anchor, Maria Bartiromo.
“Every president has said, ‘Do that,’ ” Trump said of his Golan Heights declaration. “I’m the one that gets it done.”
The White House refused to comment or offer clarification on whether Trump’s statement amounted to actual policy change on the Golan Heights, an area of land in Syria that abuts the borders of Israel, Jordan and Lebanon.
Netanyahu, however, considered it a done deal.
“First he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy here. Then he pulled out of the disastrous Iran deal and reimposed sanctions,”
Netanyahu, standing next to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a news conference in Jerusalem, said of Trump. “But now he did something of equal historic importance — he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.”
Netanyahu called it “a miracle of Purim,” referring to an ancient Jewish holiday being celebrated this week.
He also tweeted a note of thanks to Trump within minutes of the president’s announcement.
“At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu wrote. “Thank you President Trump!”
Trump’s announcement is at odds with international law and decades of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The United Nations and the United States have steadfastly refused to recognize Israel’s seizure of the Golan Heights and the West Bank in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, arguing that the contours of Israel and a new Palestinian state must be negotiated diplomatically.
Since then, Israel has treated the territory as part of its country, and the Jewish population has grown with the expansion of Israeli settlements. Syria has often criticized Israel’s settlement of the territory in international forums.
The shift from Washington also has profound consequences for the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan being drafted by Trump’s son-inlaw and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, since it will confront Arab
leaders with the choice of acquiescing in Israel’s annexation of Arab land.
“What shall tomorrow bring?” Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a veteran Palestinian negotiator, said in a tweet. “Certain destabilisation and bloodshed in our region.”
Analysts expressed outrage at Trump’s statement, saying that it violated the U.N. resolution adopted after the 1967 war and would embolden other leaders who seized territory.
“Putin will use this as a pretext to justify Russia’s annexation of Crimea,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former peace negotiator and U.S. ambassador to Israel. “The Israeli right will use it as a pretext for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. It is a truly gratuitous move by Trump.”
Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Trump in Washington next week and is expected to speak at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group that has wide support among U.S. politicians. Before Trump’s statement, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Hussam el-Din Ala, warned against Israel’s “malicious attempts to exploit the situation and the latest developments in Syria and the region to consolidate the occupation” of the Golan Heights, the Syrian state news agency, SANA, said.
Critics of President Bashar Assad of Syria have noted that for as much as he and his government have talked about “liberating” the Golan Heights, they have taken little action to do so in decades.
Many Israeli conservatives approve of Trump’s policies on Israel. Last year, the Trump administration moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Trump administration has also cut aid to Palestinian refugees, and late last year, the United States voted against a symbolic U.N. resolution that annually condemns Israel’s presence in the Golan Heights — it was the first time the United States voted against the measure.