Baker and Hamilton
Photo: Reuters
_a.jpg "צילום: שמעון תמיר")
Golan Heights
Photo: Shimon Tamir
Golan snubs Baker report
Northern residents not too disturbed by American report recommending Israel return Golan Heights; ‘Such reports come and go,’ northern residents tells Ynet
Golan Heights residents disregarded on Thursday the Baker-Hamilton report calling on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights. The report, drafted by the Baker-Hamilton committee and submitted to US President George Bush and touching on a range of current diplomatic issues, caused a political uproar in Israel and worldwide.
In the North, however, residents weren’t rushing to dust off their protest signs, left over from their struggle against the campaign to give up the Golan Heights during Ehud Barak’s administration.
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The American report, which primarily dealt with the situation in Iraq, also addressed the Israeli-Arab conflict and demanded that in the framework of a full peace agreement, Israel return the Golan Heights, and the US would guarantee Israeli security with an international force along the border, composed of mostly American soldiers if both sides so specified.
Residents of the contended region, however, snubbed the report’s recommendations, explaining that such reports generally serve to advance politicians’ personal agendas and pose no material threat.
“We’ll maintain our momentum to develop - these comments come and go,” one veteran Golan resident told Ynet.
Both of the Golan Heights’ regional councils – Katzrin and Golan – prefer in the meantime not to “respond with fire” to the report’s contents, leaving that up to the Israeli government.
Golan residents got a boost this week from Interior Minister Ron Bar-On when he toured Katzrin. “Talk of giving up the Golan Heights damages the protective wall that Israel and
the international community have built against the axis of evil, which passes through Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas.”
“The Golan Heights are an unchangeable Israeli reality. We must develop and strengthen settlement in the Golan,” Bar-On said.
Today roughly 19,000 people live in 33 communities in the areas of the Golan and Katzrin regional councils.
