The moral case for recognizing Jewish sovereignty on the Golan Heights

By Noam A. Rotem

A snowy Mount Hermon as seen from the summit of Mount Bental in the Golan Heights. (Wikimedia Commons)

Psalm 133 opens with the iconic lyrics:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
הִנֵּ֣ה מַה־טּ֭וֹב וּמַה־נָּעִ֑ים שֶׁ֖בֶת אַחִ֣ים גַּם־יָֽחַד׃

The verse was popularized into one of the most famous Jewish folks song of the 20th century. That same psalm ends with a reference to Mt. Hermon (at the tip of the Golan Heights):

like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

The name Golan appears for the first time in the Bible in the book of Deuteronomy: “And the Golan in Bashan for (the tribe of) Menashe.” “Golan” in this verse refers to a name of a city, in the Bashan region, which was the ancient and biblical name for the Golan Heights region.

The Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus conquered the Golan in the first century BCE, and settled the city of Gamla. During that time, many Jewish settlements were established in the Golan. The remains of one of the earliest synagogues is situated inside the city walls of Gamla. The synagogue is thought to date from the late first century BCE, and is considered among the oldest synagogues in the world.

During the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans, 66–73 CE, a major battle is described in detail by Josephus, between the Romans and the Jews of Gamla, whereupon the city was captured and destroyed by the Romans.

In the days of the Mishna and the Talmud, many Jewish settlements existed in the Golan as evidenced by sources of both Hazal (the Jewish sages of the Mishna and Talmud eras), and backed by archaeological findings.

But from the beginning of Ottoman rule until the middle of the 19th century, the Golan turned into mostly a desolate frontier region, with few permanent residents, and ruled by Bedouin tribes. Druze settlements were established in the northern Golan Heights, and exist there to this day.

At the end of the 19th century, several attempts were made by Jews to resettle in the Golan, including on lands purchased by the Baron Rothschild, as well as in several other locations, along the western slopes of the Golan overlooking the sea of Galilee.

At the height of World War I, a secret pact known as the Sykes-Picot agreement was reached between the British and French governments. The pact carved up the floundering Ottoman Empire into spheres of British and French influence. Borders were drawn on a map, in disregard of any historic, tribal, or ethnic considerations. In its wake, states like Syria and Iraq were created, without any nation-state coherency, setting the ground for the bloody rife and turmoil that has been going on in the region for over a century.

In 1946, Syria gained independence from France and with it control of the Golan Heights. Between 1949 and 1967, the Syrian army used the strategic Heights to shell Israeli civilian settlements along the border. There were many incidents of shooting at fishing boats on the Kinneret. As a result of these shelling, 140 civilians were killed and many more injured. Property was also damaged, and many fields of grain were burned. In the early 1950s, the Syrians did a land grab, and took control of Israel’s territory west of the international border, along the eastern shores of Lake Kinneret.

At the start of the Six Day War, the Syrians shelled the Hula Valley and Rosh Pina settlements, and Syrian tanks tried to advance towards the agricultural settlement of Kibbutz Dan. In the very last days of the war, following pressure from Jewish settlements in northern Israel, the Israeli government decided to conquer the Golan Heights and put an end to the threat of Syrian shelling on the Hula Valley communities.

Following several military coups in Syria, Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. In 1973, Assad launched a surprise attack against Israel, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in an attempt to capture back the Golan Heights. Some of the bravest battles in the annals of modern Israeli military history took place in defending the Golan, and the IDF turned that perilous and near fatal attack into a gallant victory.

In 1982, Assad conducted an infamous massacre in Hama Syria, which left 20,000 Syrian civilians dead, in response to a local uprising against his regime. At the time, it was considered one of the deadliest acts by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East.

His son Bashar al-Assad would outdo him. Following an uprising against his regime in 2011, Bashar ruthlessly bombarded civilian populations en masse. His war crimes included the use of chemical weapons against his own civilian population, and his army conducted widespread ethnic cleansing. Syria spiraled into one of the bloodiest civil wars in modern history, with the overall death toll estimated at 500,000, and with an estimated 7 million internally displaced and 5 million refugees.

Given the long history that Jews have in the Golan Heights, going back 2 and 3 millennia, coupled with the belligerent, brutal and immoral Syrian regimes, Presidents Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty on the Golan Heights is a just one, both historically and morally.

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This Op-Ed was originally published on The Times of Israel Blogs:
The moral case for recognizing Jewish sovereignty on the Golan Heights by Noam A. Rotem

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Is the Swedish Foreign Minister an Anti-Semite?

Examining Natan Sharansky's 3D litmus test for modern anti-Semitism

By Noam A. Rotem

At the annual foreign press meeting, on Jan 14, organized by the Israeli Government Press Office, a foreign press reporter, asked PM Netanyahu, regarding the anti-Semitic accusation, that one of Netanyahu's cabinet ministers made, about the Swedish FM, who singled out Israel, for using so called "extrajudicial killings", in response to the wave of stabbing attacks by Palestinian terrorists, and called for an international investigation. This same reporter, in the same breath, asked the PM a follow-up question, as to how does he answer those who accuse Israel of being above criticism.

Netanyahu answered emphatically and poignantly that Israel is not above criticism, but it should be held to the same standards that everyone else is being held to. The PM went on to say, that the Swedish FM's comments are outrageous, immoral, and unjust. People are defending themselves against assailants wielding knives, who are about to stab them to death, and they shoot the terrorist, and that's extra judicial killings? Netanyahu asked the reporter.

You can view the full exchange in the following video clip:

The Swedish foreign minister's remarks are outrageous, immoral, unjust, wrong, and stupid.==מה שאמרה שרת החוץ השוודית הוא שערורייתי, בלתי מוסרי, בלתי צודק, מוטעה וטיפשי.
Posted by ‎Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו‎ on Thursday, January 14, 2016

The exchange went on, but in the end, PM Netanyahu, correctly refused to be pushed by the reporter, to label the Swedish FM, Margot Wallström, anti-Semitic.

But here is how I'd answer that unanswered question. Natan Sharansky, one of the great human rights activists, and democratic thinkers of our times, devised a widely accepted 3D litmus test for modern anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards and Delegitimization and is a set of criteria intended to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from antisemitism.

It's clear that on the double standard test, the Swedish FM passes with flying colors, especially when one looks around the mideast, at the horrifying levels of rampant murderous violence and persecutions going on, not to mention medieval judicial systems that execute punishments by heinous means of beheadings, stonings and amputations. By not mentioning these, and singling out Israel, the Swedish FM's accusation also serves to demonize the State of Israel. So labels aside, the facts are she fulfills at lease 50% of this 3D criteria. That being the case, the Swedish FM needs to seriously check her blatantly biased statements, if she sincerely wants to avoid aligning herself with anti-Semites.

Moreover, since this biased statement of hers against Israel, two horrifying Palestinian terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli civilians took place. In one, a 38-year-old mother of six was murdered in a stabbing attack, at the entrance to her house, as her 17-year-old daughter, who heard her screams, ran to her aid, only to see the terrorist stab her mother again and again. In the second, a pregnant Israeli woman in her 30s, was seriously wounded in her lung after being stabbed in clothing store, thank god in this case, both mother and fetus are doing well.

The Swedish FM's silence about these heinous attacks on innocent Israeli civilian women, in contrast to her deriding criticism of Israel responding in self-defense to murderous terrorists attacks, demonstrates prejudice and bias against the Jewish state of Israel.

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This article was also published on the Op-Ed page of Arutz Sheva:
Op-Ed: Is the Swedish foreign minister an anti-Semite?

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The Fallacy of Moderate Mideast Muslim Countries

And The Misguided Tenets Of The Israeli Left, Center-Left and Mainstream Media

By Noam A. Rotem

Yitzhak (Isaac) Herzog, chairman of the Israeli Labour party (aka The Zionist Union), came out with a statement on Saturday, that the latest wave of terror needs to be stopped by security or diplomatic measures, and that this is the time for negotiations with the Palestinians, and with moderate Muslim elements in the region, including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

Throughout this most recent wave of savage Palestinian stabbing attacks, against Israelis, the Israeli left and center-left, with the backing of mainstream media, have consistently insinuated that the source of this latest wave of terrorism, is somehow related to a lack of diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, rather than the Nazi style incitement and propaganda that the Arab masses are fed each day, by both official Hamas and PA media, as well as online social media. They also often fail to talk about the virulent antisemitic religious hatred, preached in mosques, and taught in schools. And lastly, they make little mention of the veneration, and massive funding, in millions of dollars, that Palestinian terrorists are granted, by the PA. In the same breath, this Troika (of the Israeli left, center-left and mainstream media), suggests, that there's some historic, almost cosmic, last opportunity, for cooperation with so called "moderate" regional Sunni regimes, like those mentioned in Herzog's statement.

Here are the facts. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocracy and one of the most repressive regimes on the face of the earth. Religious minorities do not have the right to practice their religion and conversion from Islam to another religion is punishable by death. It practices gender apartheid against women, and capital punishment without western due-process, that is carried out by beheading with a sword, stoning, or firing squad. Just last week the Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in two decades. Last year, liberal Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam". Other forms of punishment in the kingdom, include amputations of hands and feet for robbery, and flogging for crimes such as "sexual deviance" and adultery.

A Pew Research Center study published in 2013 of the world's Muslims, found widespread support for Sharia law, in Egypt 74%, Jordan 71%, and in the PA 89%. And among those, a very high percent supporting the death penalty for apostasy (those who leave or convert out of Islam), in Egypt 86%, Jordan 82%, and the PA 66%.

In Egypt, 92% of married women aged 15 to 49 have been subjected to female genital mutilation, according to an official Egyptian government report from 2014. And Jordanian law criminalizes speech deemed critical of the king, government officials, institutions, and Islam.

Last but not least all of these so called "moderate" Arab countries, in one form or another, continue to actively support the BDS, uphold rampant lies about the Jewish state, consistently vote and operate against Israel in the UN, and antisemitic teachings and hatred of Israel, is widespread in all these countries. The Israeli Troika refrains to point all of this out, about their "moderate" Sunni Arab partners, as their entire political belief system would collapse should they do so.

Moreover the Israeli left, center-left, and mainstream media, fail to realize, that true peace cannot be achieved in the mideast, until real democratic reform comes to the Arab and Muslim world, and it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon. True peace, is one between nations with shared democratic values, and not just between governments, and certainly not dictatorships. Sadly the Israeli Troika, fails to grasp this most basic foundation to what makes a real and lasting peace.

Having said that, Israel by all means should be pursuing tactical and strategic alliances with Mideast regimes who are sincerely interested in joining forces, to combat terrorists and state sponsored terrorism. Moreover, Israel's moral and existential imperative, must be to seek out and build bridges to true moderates, and democratic reformers, that do exist in the Mideast, and work together with them, to be agents of true democratic change and coexistence. Often these reformers are pro-Israel, believe in cooperation with the Jewish state, yet are sadly ignored by the Israeli Troika. One such example is Greek Orthodox Israeli priest, Gabriel Naddaf, who is a proponent of integrating Arabic-speaking Christians into Israeli society, and to serving in the Israeli Army. Like him, there are Christian, Muslim, and democratic reformers of other faiths and ethnicities, around the Mideast and in exile beyond, who see Israel as a beacon of democracy in this troubled region.

Arab nation states are crumbling before our eyes, and deteriorating into barbaric, bloody and violent chaos. This is hardly the time to be pursuing peace agreements, based on concessions, to authoritarian, anti-Israel and immoral regimes, that may not be around tomorrow. Let us not forget the cry of the center-left, to quickly pursue a 'peace' agreement with Syria, while Assad was still in power, in exchange for the Golan Heights, before it is too late...

The refrain "when will they ever learn", from the 1960's political folk classic "Where have all the flowers gone?" feels likes a curiously appropriate question for the Israeli Troika.

Map of the Arab Spring

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This article was also published on the Op-Ed page of Arutz Sheva:
Op-Ed: The fallacy of moderate mideast Muslim countries

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הסכסוך הוא על עצם קיומינו בארץ מולדתנו ההיסטורית

מאת נעם רותם   By Noam A. Rotem

בראיון לאולפן שישי, בערוץ 2 (ב-02/10), שרת המשפטים איילת שקד, נשאלה ע״י אודי סגל מה לגביי מהלך מדיני (הקליקו כאן לראות). היא ענתה יפה ונכון, שכשברק הלך למהלך קאמפ-דיוויד, בשנת 2000, קיבלנו אינתיפאדה שנייה, עם יותר מאלף ישראלים הרוגים, ובעקבות המהלך בעזה קיבלנו טרור של טילים.

המדיה, המרכז-שמאל, והשמאל, נאחזים בטענה שלא מחזיקה מים, שכאילו הגורם לטרור הפלסטיני האיסלאמיסטי וברברי, הוא העדר תהליך מדיני -- זוהי תפיסה, שלא מסוגלת לראות נכוחה את המציאות. וע״כ הייתי מוסיף לתשובה שלמעלה, ומזכיר למדיה ולצופים:

שגם הרשות הפלסטינית וגם החמאס, מחנכים להסתה, שנאת יהודים, וחיסול מדינת ישראל. הסכסוך הוא על עצם קיומינו בארץ מולדתנו ההיסטורית, וכל מי שמנסה לרמוז אחרת פשוט חוטא למציאות, לאמת, ומוליך את הציבור שולל. 
אין פרטנרים בצד השני נקודה.

וגם לא בעולם הערבי, שעדיין ממשיך לפעול ללא הרף נגד מדינת ישראל כמעט בכל זירה בינלאומית, החל מחרמות ועד הצבעות נגד ישראל, בכל ארגוני ומוסדות האו״ם. מכל מקום שלא נסוגנו, קיבלנו טרור, המקושר או לאיראן, או לג׳יהד העולמי, או לשניהם גם יחד.

העולם הערבי, רובה ככולה, רדיקלית, ואיסלאמיסטית, ועד שלא יתחולל בה רפורמה דמוקרטית אמיתית, אין סיכוי לשלום אמיתי ⁽¹⁾. וזה המכשול היחידי שמונע את האפשרות לכל מהלך מדיני רציני. אפילו עם מצריים וירדן אין לנו שלום אמת, אלא רק הסכמי אי-לוחמה, ושיתוף פעולה על תנאי. ברגע שקיצונים איסלאמיסטים ישתלטו שמה, ייגמר גם השלום, כי אין כאן שלום בין עמים, וכל עוד שבכל העולם הערבי ומוסלמי, ממשיכים לחנך לשנאת ישראל ויהודים, גם לא יהיה שלום אמת. תקשורת המיינסטרים, השמאל, והמרכז-שמאל, מעלימים עין מהעובדות האלו, ובכך מרמים את עצמם ואת הציבור. 

מדינות ערב מתפוררות לנגד עינינו, ומתדרדרת לכאוס אלים, ברברי, ושותת דם. לא נכון לעשות הסכמים או חס וחלילה וויתורים, למשטרים רודניים, ולא מוסריים, שלא יהיו כאן מחר. בל נשכח את זעקת המרכז-שמאל, בגיבוי התקשרות, להסכם ״שלום״ עם סוריה, תמורת ויתור על רמת הגולן.

צריך על כן לעמוד איתן, על הצרכים הביטחוניים שלנו, זכותנו ההיסטורית, והערכים הדמוקרטים שלנו. כי רק עמידה על עקרונות אלו, יביא בסופו של דבר (וזה ייקח זמן), לביטחון ושלום אמת.


הכתבה גם פורסמה ב-News1 (חדשות מחלקה ראשונה): הסכסוך הוא על עצם קיומנו

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(1) מומלץ לקרוא:

Natan Sharansky: Peace Will Only Come after Freedom and Democracy, The Middle East Forum, Winter 2005

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Frontpage Mag: Palestine is Terroristine

This is what it has always meant. It stands for the murder of Jews. That is its only real objective and goal. 

Palestinian Authority Celebrated UN Bid w/Murder of Rabbi in Front of his Children | Frontpage Mag

By Daniel Greenfield

After Abbas disavowed negotiations with Israel and the Oslo Accords at the UN, after the UN flew the flag of Terroristine over New York, the killers of the Palestinian Authority celebrated the only way they knew how. By murdering more Jews.

Read full article at Frontpage Mag

Also from Frontpage Mag: Time To Deport The PLO From Israel

The Utter Hypocrisy About The Boycott Against Israel

Short intro and commentary to Yair Lapid's article by Noam A. Rotem
Yair Lapid did a great job of putting the Israeli Palestinian conflict into its correct proportions, and no less importantly, its correct moral proportions where he writes:

12,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in this conflict. A large proportion of those were terrorists, suicide bombers, terror tunnel diggers from various global jihadist organizations...  in 67 years less innocent Palestinians were killed than in one week (!) in Syria. In fact, in that same period around 12 million people were killed in the Arab world. A simple calculation shows that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict caused 0.01% of the numbers killed in conflicts in the Islamic world.

He poignantly ends the article with:

Hamas has no intention of creating a Palestinian democracy but a dark theocracy in which homosexuals are hanged from telephone poles, women aren’t allowed to leave their homes and Christians and Jews are murdered for being Christians and Jews. Are those values acceptable to the Reykjavik City Council? If not then that’s strange, because they voted in favor of them. 

My only small criticism, would be that missing from the article, is a little more info about the violent Jihadist and virulent anti-Semitic indoctrination that Palestinians are subjected to massively and systematically, not just by Hamas, but also by the Palestinian Authority. Their intention, is the liquidation of the Jewish State, and in the case of Hamas, also includes a call to obliterate Israel and murder of all its Jews.

Also worth pointing out, the heinous persecutions, and human rights violations across the rest of the Arab Muslim world. From rampant suicide bombings of civilians, mass rape and enslavement of women in the Islamic State, persecutions of Christians and other minorities, corporal punishment and execution of LGBTs, as well as gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia, and the wide spread practice of FGM in Egypt, is but a partial list of countries with terrible human rights, yet aren't being boycotted by Reykjavik, Iceland or the EU.

One last thought, given this, how can Lapid seriously be against the Likud and Netanyahu on this matter, who are saying very similar things. Moreover, how can he seriously be for the so called two state solution, given the above, and given the Palestinian's relentless hate preaching and delegitimizing of Jews and Israel.

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The Hypocrisy of Boycott

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By Yair Lapid 

Originally appeared in Fréttabladid (Iceland) on September 18, 2015 and as a Post on Yair Lapid's Facebook Page

As you know by now, the Reykjavik City Council decided this week to boycott products from Israel. All products. From all of Israel.

I have a few questions:

Does the boycott include products made by Israel’s Arab minority which is 20% of the population? Does the boycott include the 14 Arab Israeli parliamentarians who sit beside me in Israel’s parliament?

Does the boycott include Israeli factories which employ tens of thousands of Palestinians for whom this is the only opportunity to provide for their children?
Does the boycott include Israeli hospitals at which tens of thousands of Palestinians are treated every year?

Does the boycott include produce made by the 71% of Israeli’s who, according to the latest survey, support a two state solution and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel?

Wait, don’t go yet, I’ve got a few more:

Among the products being boycotted is Copaxone, for MS sufferers, included?
Does the boycott include “Tulip” wine which is made by people with special needs and those who suffer from autism?

And what about the books of Israeli Nobel Prize Laureate in literature, Shai Agnon?
Does the boycott include Microsoft Office, cellphone cameras, Google – all of which contain elements invented or produced in Israel?

If the answer to all these questions is “yes” then I’ll move aside and wish you all an enjoyable life until the sadly unavoidable heart attack (sorry but pacemakers are also an Israeli invention). The other option is that someone at Reykjavik City Council didn’t think the issue through.

If they had then why stop at Israel? One of the best kept secrets about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is one of the smallest conflicts in the Middle East. In fact, there is no correlation between its actual size and the media coverage it receives.

Since the end of Israel’s War of Independence, 67 years ago, around 12,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in this conflict. A large proportion of those were terrorists, suicide bombers, terror tunnel diggers from various global jihadist organizations.

With that we can’t ignore the fact that in those years there were a few thousand innocents who lost their lives. I believe that’s terrible. It keeps me awake at night, like most Israelis. With that the simple fact is – and it’s easy to check – that in 67 years less innocent Palestinians were killed than in one week (!) in Syria. In fact, in that same period around 12 million people were killed in the Arab world. A simple calculation shows that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict caused 0.01% of the numbers killed in conflicts in the Islamic world.

An interesting question then is what is the position of Reykjavik City Council about the Islamic world? Do they boycott it also? All of it?

But of course this isn’t a discussion about statistics, it is about morals. Israel is a vibrant democracy fighting for its existence in tough circumstances. Our major sin, in the eyes of the world and the Reykjavik City Council, is that we are winning that war.

Yes, in this conflict more Palestinians are killed than Israelis. Why? Because we have a better army and we have the Iron Dome system which protects our cities from rockets. If our military lays down its weapons and we disarm Iron Dome, we’d be murdered within 24 hours.

So Israel will continue to defend itself, and will continue doing all it can to avoid civilian casualties.

At the same time, we will continue to search for the path to peace with the Palestinians. Twice, in the year 2000 and in the year 2008, Israel offered them over 90% of the land so they could build a state for themselves. Both times they refused.

The boycott industry is not new. It is a vast industry of media and public relations organized by Islamist groups funded by Qatar and Iran. Their purpose is not the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but a Palestinian state on the ashes of Israel.

They know that message won’t be acceptable to liberal Europe. So they decided – as has been exposed time and again – to sell the naïve Europeans humanitarian values of freedom and solidarity which they don’t believe for even one second.

Hamas has no intention of creating a Palestinian democracy but a dark theocracy in which homosexuals are hanged from telephone poles, women aren’t allowed to leave their homes and Christians and Jews are murdered for being Christians and Jews. Are those values acceptable to the Reykjavik City Council? If not then that’s strange, because they voted in favor of them.