so productive and brought us peace and prosperity! thank god assad was idiot enough NOT to agree on anything WE WERE ready to offer...by chance only and his stupidity we were all saved from giving golan away.

family and the Golan does N O T belong to Syria either...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The GOLAN = ISRAEL.....only a retard will not be able to understand this...

All negotiations are going with some families. And, as they said in Sicily, you must be carefull when dealing with families like assad, Sharon, Saud, or Soros.

that refused to extract from its Charter the call to wipe Israel off the face of earth; that refuses to accept Israel's right to be, to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people on ANY parcel of land between the River and the Sea; and whose leaders continue to call schools, city squares and main roads after mass murderers of Jews by way of honoring them. Wake up those who truly seek peace, to reality. Cease calculating your affairs based on wishful thinking and that which is trendy in certain circles whose interest is largely the demise of Israel and the elimination of all traces of Jewish existence from our homeland of 4,000 years.

focus on the last paragraph, it's the Joke compendium : ))

One aspect that has not been addressed adequately by the left wing elites is that the next month after the 'peace' deal would have been signed, Teheran's Tanks would have been now staring across from us from the Kinneret. And with Hitzbullah in Lebanon, life would have become unbearable.

I'm not so sure. I don't think that Israel ever seriously considered giving up any part of the Golan. For one thing, there is the matter of it being a key fresh water source in a part of the world that does not have very many. Secondly, the whole of northern Israel would be vulnerable to a very unpredictable regime (Israel is well aware that the Alawites are a tiny minority in Syria, and an increasingly unpopular one at that). But by far and away the most important thing is that Israel formally annexed the Golan in 1982. Of the territories acquired in 1967, Israel has only formally annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan. Giving up the Sinai and Gaza was one thing -- Israel never annexed either. I think most Israeli leaders have recognized all along that giving up territory that has been formally annexed would set a terrible precedent, and might come back to haunt Israel with respect to our hegemony over East Jerusalem and environs. The greater the instability in the nations that border Israel, the more inevitable the fact that Israel will have to annex Judea and Samaria as well -- that's coming; much sooner than people realize -- and the noisome and unpleasant Arabs who reside there will be repatriated to Jordan, country of their citizenship. To have annexed the Golan (if you remember back when it happened, there was an enormous hue and outcry from the international community, and condemnations galore) only to return it, in whole or in part, would simply send a message to the world that annexationbs of territory -- at least when it comes to Israel -- need not be forever. The Golan Heights was not considered to be non-sovereign territory -- the West Bank and Gaza are; the world got over the annexation of the Golan in 1982, just as they will the annexation to come of Judea and Samaria, and the repatriation of its Jordanian citizens to Jordan.

Jews have lived in Gamla and elsewhere on the Golan for over 2000 years. Syria has no legitimate historical claim to territory

They never fail in providing excellent comic relief.

"Peace-camp"/ Shimon & assorted "experts" on the Arabs put together. Pity I don't run the show !! Keep it simple & keep it real and you can't go wrong.....

For one thing the Alawite's are Arabs, which makes them a sectarian group and not an ethnic group. That's like calling Satmar Hasid's an ethnic group; you might not like them but they're Jewish. If Guy Bechor wasn't anything but a sop to the Israeli government maybe he'd pay attention to such important facts before dribbling over his keyboard to create something for publication.

The author is on target, except for the last paragraph. Concluding a "peace deal" with Syria would cost Israel everything without yielding a single benefit. We've had decades of peace with Syria, with no end in sight, and it's because we have the Golan. As a practical rule, anything that comes from the Israeli left can be dismissed as a myth. Can anyone think of any exceptions. The author errs in the last paragraphs. Israel has everything to lose and nothing to gain by concluding "peace deals' with Arab countries. As recent events show, Israel's deal with Egypt is blowing sky high. Israel would be far better off with the Sinai than the worthless piece of paper. True peace is based on strength. Not agreements.

The writer seems to say Israel occupied Arab lands to make the Arab people become democratic .This is must as one of the funniest political statements ever made.Iran will undermine you gradually. Keep dreaming .

Israel has step-by-step shut down Iran's arms shipments to its terrorist proxies (Hamas and Hezbollah) and the deployment of Iron Dome has rendered obsolete the majority of Hamas' weapons stockpile and, more importantly, Hezbollah's as well. Israel has already defeated Iran in the singularly most important arena -- Iran's nuclear dreams have been shuttered as thoroughly as Israel shuttered Iraq's when it destroyed the Osirac reactor. Bushehr and Natanz are not on line; the rods have been removed from Bushehr and the Russian scientists have refused to reinstall them, citing the instability of the reactor and the fact that all attempts to scrub Stuxnet from the operational computers have only made things worse. The centrifuge cascades at Natanz will not stop spinning wildly out of control, and the entire facility has been shut down (six months ago) for what Teheran called "minor technical enhancements." Yeah, right! You are the one who is dreaming. Actually, it is a nightmore, but you lack the acumen to recognize the depths of Iran's problems.

Oh, you'll be laughing alright. From Amman. Slaughtering the sleeping Fogel family; deliberately firing upon an Israeli school bus .... what is wrong with you people?

These so-called "Arab lands" came into Israel's possession as a result of wars of annihilation launched against it by...THE ARABS. Your country, Iraq, was a key participant in the pan-Arab invasion of Israel in 1948. In the opening hours of the 1967 war, when Israel was only fighting on the Egyptian front, the air forces of Iraq, Jordan, and Syria launched air raids against Israel. What was that all about? In 1973, Iraq sent 100's of tanks to join the Syrians in fighting the Israelis on the Golan. Excuse Israel for winning. And you are wrong. Israel is not excited about "Arab democracy" at all. Look how "democratic" Iraq has evolved from being the last bulwark against the Iranian mullah regime expansion, during Saddam, to a de-facto Iranian satellite today.

Op-ed: Latest developments in Syria prove that talk of peace with Assad family was baseless Guy Bechor The Assads are a brutal family of dictators that comes from an isolated ethnic minority that lacks legitimacy AS THE SHIA - ISLAMIST THEY ARE, THEY WILL NEVER GIVE UPP POWER, BUT WILL FIGHT TO THE WERY DEATH. BEVERE FOR SYRIA - THEY WILL COME FOR YOU AS A LAST RESORT. Orao.Srbia.

Once again,an excellent article full of true facts.

...the day after Turkey gives them back occupied Iskenderoon.

Girly, everything u say is very true-except for 1 thing. I dont know if u were here when the whole discussion started about Golan-and none of us really will ever know how serious it actually was, BUT: the feeling, the vibe, the overall mood in the country was-bloody hell, it is happening! We went to demonstrations, we yelled from the rooftops and wrote letters, stickers were everywhere from our cars to our foreheads-thats what most of israelis felt. And then take expulsion from gush-till the ppl were actually put on the busses and saw buldozrs ripping their lives apart--MOST of us(sadly me among them) DIDNT believe it was gona happen... So believe me when i tell u--after girush-all of us dont know what to believe any longer untill it smacks up upside the head...

This article and the reality of what is happening in Egypt and throughout the Middle East proves that we cannot sign peace treaties with dictators. We can only sign with democracies who have a vested interest in peace. Until then, we don't need "Peace". We only need quiet like we have had with Syria in the Golan since 1973. Just don't attack us and we'll get along well enough. It appears, with Arab neighbors, peace will have to await the Messiah.

The Golan never truly belonged to Syria. Syria's claim is non existent and is based solely on the shady territorial dealings of the ex-colonial powers that created modern day middle eastern borders according to their whims and to reward corrupt arab rulers. Britain ceded the Golan Heights from Palestine to French-run Syria in 1923. The archaeology tells the real story confirming ancient Jewish settlements including a synagogue 1500 thousands years old. I hope the Israeli people will see through the delusional ramblings of politicians and others trying to peddle the dream of 'peace' with syria regardless of which government comes after Assad.

This article explains perfectly why it will be a foolish and irreversible decision to do so.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Israeli retreat fits the bill perfectly. Every single Israeli retreat is a total disaster. There is not a single solitary exception. Israel's retreat from Sinai is no exception. The answer is simple. End Israeli retreat and concessions forever.

Dear Chaim. I have no intention to bore you. I understand your feelings. But, listen again: Israel can not act purely through military superiority. Today, the world's juridic conscience does not accept it. Of course, her frontiers must be more secure than they were before June, 1967. Of course, she must react against any form of aggression. But you can not disregard International Law. On the contrary, the great ideals that inspirated the Jewish State's creation in 1947 will be broken. I am, and I will be forever, a friend of your country. And because of it, I dare to repeat my position. I hope you give me an answer. I salute you and your family.

Salma, if you want a good laugh, read the Arafat Manifesto where it actually refers to you all as a nation. I'm sure Cannanites would object.