Never mind, for a minute, that the Heights are not Syria's or that Syria's (and Israel's and Lebanon's and Jordan's and ...) current borders all were drawn by France and England for their political convenience.
Let's focus instead on what lies ahead for Israel if Syria - with Hezbollah and Hamas in its bed - takes the high points.
According to most non-Jewish pundits - and a few Jewish as well - Syria will be happy with the arrangement and there will be peace to at least match that between Israel and Egypt and Jordan.
But let us, for a moment, look at an area Israel "gave back" to the "indigenous" population: Aza (Gaza).
Israel acquired Aza from Egypt; Egypt didn't plan it that way, but it happened.
Aza is, basically, a jail for the Arabs living there. Their jailers are - not Israel as the media might lead us to believe - but Hamas; before Hamas, Arafat's PLO.
Israel gave back the Sinai to Egypt in return for a peace agreement; it cost Sadat, a true hero in my book and a terrorist like his Israeli counterpart with whom he visited in Jerusalem, his life at the hands of Arab murderers.
Israel decided to "give back" Aza - forcing Jews out of the area and destroying their homes as part of the agreement, allegedly so the PLO could construct high-rise apartments for the "refuges" whose parents left their homes to make way for the "glorious invading Arab armies."
The IDF - Israel Defense Force - withdrew and the PLO, later Hamas - took over.
And attacks, which the PLO assured the world never would happen, happened.
So Israel built a barrier.
And the world castigated Israel for its "chutzpah."
It would be even more upset by Israel's fence to separate its enemies from its population.
Never mind that the US is building a wall between itself and a non-threatening neighbor, Mexico.
Never mind that Aza has a border with Egypt - which the Egyptians have sealed with a wall recently made famous by Azans who tore it down to get into Egypt - and it has access to the Med (which, with all the millions the world has given the area's political leaders Azans could have built a world-class sea port - but didn't). Likewise, the Arabs in occupied Israel (Judah and Samaria) share a border with Jordan. Look at the maps! Hardly an "island jail." (Click on the title link for a map.)
Since Sharon pulled Israel out of Aza - don't ask about the synagogues the Moslems desecrated - southern Israel has been the target of infiltrators and almost daily rocket attacks.
Now, who is in charge in Aza?
Hamas.
Back to Syria and the Heights.
Syria is in bed with - Hamas.
Syria is aligned with Ahmedinajad who repeatedly calls for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map.
Syria is in bed with Hezbollah, the rapists of Lebanon and, like Hamas and - in Arabic, anyway - the PLO - sworn to Israel's annihilation.
Maybe I am foolish or a warmonger or, well, pick your term, but I can't work up much support for a "return" of the Heights - or anything else - to Syria.
Unlike Sadat, I don't see any Syrian leaders visiting Israel with a peace agreement.
Unlike Hussein, there is no history of toleration.
I do see aggression and continuing threats to Israel's safety from all the parties (including, sad to say, some Israeli politicians).
My immediate family is in Israel - near Haifa, in Rehovot, and in Bet Shean, and the extended family all over the country, including places within range of Hamas' rockets. I lived in Zefat, so I know what it's like to be shelled. I also was in Haifa when the rockets fell on that town a couple of years ago.
Maybe I'm prejudiced. But if that's the case, I would have done something abusive to the Israeli Moslem family sharing a close-to-Haifa beach with some of my family as the rockets were being fired at us from a Hamas-controlled zone. (I found it hard to believe a Moslem woman would walk on an Israeli beach in full garb given the events of the time, but she did and did so confident she was safe. Would, could, a Jew with a colorful kippa stroll a Lebanese or Azan beach with any feeling of security? I would not.)
I honestly have seen nothing in Syria that would suggest that giving Syria the Heights is wise; on the contrary, giving a government with Syria's mentality a position to shell its enemy - Israel - and to murder its people, is stupid.
Why Israel's current - or previous - PM is willing to sacrifice Israelis, both Jews and Moslems since missiles are indiscriminate - is beyond my ken.
Why would Israel invite another Aza?
Yohanon
Yohanon.Glenn @ gmail.com
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