We’ve already twisted Israel’s arm into first giving up the Sinai, then Gaza and the West Bank.
So, if we just coerce them into parting with the Golan (to the honorable and trustworthy likes of Assad), then that will be the end of the final “hold-up” with “Middle East peace.”
Isn’t that supposed to be the outcome of the current “talks?”
Why are there even “peace talks” going on? This was supposed to have been resolved after the Gulf War.
Currently there is peace in the Middle East, anyway. There hasn’t been a major Israeli war in over 25 years–since the Yom Kippur War. (It’s amazing how bad guys want to negotiate when faced with superior weaponry.) There is a Cold War of sorts, but no one is currently engaged in a “hot” one.
Or is the Golan even relevant anymore, since the Israelis possess nukes?
Any thoughts???
Excuse me while I laugh. Hard. In fact, I may strain a muscle. You think that there’s a solution whereby everyone in the Middle East is made happy? Hahahahahahaha. Again, I laugh.
Sorry, but what I mean to say is that you’re talking about two highly religous societies that have been at odds for quite some time. The only reason there hasn’t been a war is because we’ve been pressing down over there as hard as we can. They don’t need a reason for war over there, just an excuse, we’re doing all we can to keep them from getting one.
Still, no one will ever be happy. The Palestinians want all of that land, the Israelis want all of that land, no compromise will be satisfactory. I wonder what would happen if we nuked the entire area? You know, made the Holy Land into a pile of radioactive glass. It would piss off a lot of people, sure, but it would stop that damn conflict.
I define “peace in the Middle East” as the cessation of all hostilities between Israel and the Arabic nations.
That will happen when Israel has been extirpated as a geopolitical entity.
Assad has already gobbled up Lebanon, and (according to a news broadcast some years ago) he considers Haifa a “Syrian” port.
So he has dreams of a “Greater Syria.”
But as long as Israel has the capability of planting “mushrooms” in their back yards, I don’t see that happening.
So, really to rephrase the rather verbose OP, “Does anyone really expect any ‘peace’ to come out of turning Golan back over to Syria?”