Last week, President Trump and Secretary Pompeo took the bold step to affirm Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights region. I support this administration and our longtime friend and ally, Israel, in this fight to protect their homeland.
I’ve stood on the mountains in the Golan where Abraham and his nephew Lot parted ways some 4,000 years ago. I could hear the cannons, missiles and tanks just miles away in war-stricken Syria. We learned how in a matter of hours, during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Syrian forces overran the Golan, jeopardizing both Israeli and American security. But Syria’s attempt to reclaim the territory failed.
This small range of mountains, less than 125 miles from Jerusalem, serves as a buffer between Israel and its many foes who desire nothing more than to wipe them off the face of the earth. There is nothing, militarily speaking, to stop any force from overrunning Israel once the Golan Heights are lost. This is especially important since Israel is America’s eyes and ears in the Middle East. America cannot stand by idly and allow Israel’s enemies to seize this important land.
From the 3rd millennium B.C.E., the occupants of the Golan Heights have included the Amorites, Arameans, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great, four centuries of no-name nomads and the Roman Empire. In the later centuries, Christians crusaded, Mongols ruled and the Ottomans conquered the land.
Starting in 1885, Jewish families bought and lived on land in the Golan Heights and stayed there until 1920 when riots drove them out. From 1920-1949, the boundaries of this area were defined by the French and the British, who debated who controlled what. At the center of this controversy? Water rights issues — something Kansans are quite familiar with.
In the 1940s, the French Mandate ended, and the Golan Heights became part of the newly independent state of Syria. The Golan Heights were then demilitarized by the Israel-Syria Armistice Agreement, which was great in theory, but it made the land dangerous, and the constant site of raids and loss of life for decades.
The Golan Heights were given to France’s Syrian colony by the British in 1923. Syria then attacked Israel in 1967 and lost the territory. Israel’s liberation of the Golan Heights has lasted over 50 years. Now you must consider who truly does have the longest historic, and most vital strategic attachment to the land?
This is where most leftist naysayers will begin their history, and their faulty revisions matter to America for a variety of reasons.
I thank the president and Secretary Pompeo for their bold action and will continue to assure them that Kansans stand with them.
Rep. Roger Marshall represents the 1st district of the state of Kansas, which encompasses Western Kansas, in Congress. He visited with members of the Kansas delegation attending the AIPAC Policy Conference on Tuesday, March 26.
