Another interesting thing about traveling is seeing places, right before you in person, that you’ve heard about, either in books or on the news. Today, we went to the Roman-era ruin of Umm Qais/Gerada. The ruins themselves are not particularly compelling relative to other sites in the region and unlikely to impress, but the hill in Jordan on which they are located has a good view of Golan Heights, rising over the Sea of Galilee.
The Sea of Galilee (of biblical fame) is located entirely in Israel, but the Golan Heights rising above it on the east is technically a part of Syria, although it was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1981, it was formally annexed by Israel, and the disputed territory would be a key point in any peace negotiations between Israel and Syria. There isn’t much in the Golan Heights, but Israel considers them a high ground over its own territory that is important to its security. [We recall having a conversation with a Chinese woman who argued that Tibet was essential to China for the same reason–topography still matters.]
2 replies on “Golan Heights”
I would further add that in addition to topography, water resources in Golan hights are of great importance for both countries. Israel agreed in 2000 for almost a complete return for much of the land in Golan except a little strip that would deprive Syria from access to the main lake there, and the talks collapsed..
Hi,
A few remarks:
1) Israel is not extreme Orthodox as the US is not Hamish or Australia is not Aboriginal.
The vast majority is 'normative' people just like you who try to run normal life, go to work every day and raise their children as peacefully as possible.
2)The security wall is there not to make the lives of the Palestinian miserable, but to protect the lives of these citizens who don't want to live in fear of suicide bombing (reduced by 99% since the fence was built).
3) Building a fence 5km from your home to stop hostility is not more extreme measure than evaporating 130,000 people 7,000km across the Pacific.
4) Settling and defending the settlers in a land that was the land of your ancestors for 1500 years and currently has no legal owner, is not more colonialist than declaring ownership of a few small islands 10,000km away from your capital across the Atlantic and sending your navy and air force to fight over them.