Often times, colleagues will invite me, as an American citizen of Syrian origin, to expatiate my views of the Middle East Peace Process, particularly as it pertains to land disputes between Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic. Of course I reply that nothing could bring me greater pleasure than to bear witness to a resolution […]

Now, 40 years after a successful war, but also after 40 years of occupation and numerous conflicts, your country is at a crossroads. Either you can continue the policy of the last decades, or begin a real serious process to build a lasting peace with the Palestinians and your other neighbours. Despite of the speeches […]

Some of the most popular reasons for opposing peace talks with Syria that I read in the comments section of every Syria related article in my favorite Israeli newspaper, Haaretz: 1) Syria attacked Israel in 1967 and it deserves to pay a price (The Golan) There are numerous reliable sources that explain what really happened […]

I have been asked to write about the reasons why Israel should engage in negotiations with Syria, which would result in the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. In thinking about this subject what came to mind was an article written a few months ago by Giora Eiland for the journal Strategic Assessment that […]

The Golan has been under Israeli occupation for forty long years, during which mistrust between Israel and Syria has increased, but this trend can be reversed. During these forty years many wars took place, and Israel won all of them to varying degrees. Yet peace is no closer today for the people of Israel than […]

Shalom/Salam, I write to you as a Syrian-American, a Muslim, a student, and for full disclosure, a practical idealist. Four years ago, in the ghost town of Quneitra on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, I stood inches away from your country’s side of the border, separated only by barbed wire covered with an […]

Last summer, in the days following the cease-fire of Israel’s latest war on Lebanon, I made it a daily routine to read some of the Israeli newspapers online, and (especially) the readers’ commentary. The subject of the day was the possibility of the war extending to Syria. The tone of many articles and commentary was, […]

The sirens of war sounded and our basement apartment filled with frantic neighbors from the apartments above. The war had officially started and these sirens erased from my mind all the meaningless comparatively mundane, memories that I have acquired in the previous nine years of my existence. The sirens kept on sounding for twenty days […]

The Golan means a lot of things to a lot of people, but here’s what it means to me. First, it’s the home of Majdal Shams, where separated family members talk to each other across the Israeli/Syrian divide by megaphones. If my own husband hadn’t witnessed this and shown me pictures of it, I donâ??t […]

Dear Israel, On May 14, 1948, the last day of the British Mandate of Palestine, the chief secretary of the His Majesty’s British administration, Sir Henry Gurney, called a press conference in his office in Jerusalem. He dazzled reporters with a listing of achievements of His Majesty’s government in Palestine but regretted the “unhappy” circumstances […]

The Golan: Ending Occupation, Establishing Peace Next month the war of June 1967 reaches its fortieth anniversary. The occasion is certain to evoke painful memories but also astonishment that four decades have passed since those fateful days and the embers of that conflict continue to burn and risk becoming more explosive than ever. Of course […]

Forty years have passed since Israel conquered Syria’s Golan Heights. Israel’s arguments for keeping the heights for security reasons have become tenuous. Syria has meticulously adhered by the agreements it signed with Israel and the border has been peaceful and quiet. There is no reason to assume that future agreements will be any different. The […]

Most of the Israelis I have met admitted with some struggle that it’s better to “give up” the Golan in exchange for peace with Syria. I hate to begin with such an aggressive tone. But even this notion is flawed from the get go. Because like it or not the Golan is NOT Israel’s to […]

At the 40th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of the Golan Heights, I would like to ask our Israeli neighbors some pertinent questions: Why do you need to obtain US approval to have talks with Syria if such talks can produce for you greater security, stability and prosperity? Why you are prejudging negotiationsâ?? nature […]

Greetings, Alex, a very intelligent, articulate and highly educated cyber-friend, has suggested, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the loss of the Golan Heights to Israel, that we Syrians should try and put our case to you Israelis, on why your Country/Government/People should hand back the Golan Heights to Syriaâ?¦ This proposal was […]

To my dear Israeli friend: Back in February 2002, in Tigne, France, we ended up in the same group together taking ski lessons. That was when our friendship began. We had all been introduced by our first names, and then off we went with our instructor and five others to ski in the beautiful Alps. […]

To understand the war of 1967 one must understand the personality of its “champion,” President Gamal Abdul-Nasser of Egypt. Contrary to the image that stuck in peopleâ??s mind after 1956 and 1967, the man was not anti-Isareli all the way. Right after coming to power in 1952, he authorized secret talks between an Israeli diplomat […]

The time has come to rain on the love parade. Observing a 40th anniversary not of peace, but of war, reminds us that there is clearly one party which is a big winner and another a big loser, a victor and a victim, an aggressor and an aggressed. A wrong, and a right. A strong […]

Perhaps more than anything else, the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Six Days War has shown a spotlight on the present crisis of leadership in the Middle East. Israel is now being led by a government paralyzed by self-inflicted wounds, a government that lost its compass in the wake of the war with Hezbollah along […]

Why should Israel return the Golan to Syria? The answer is so obvious and simple, that it is confusing to the mind to have that question in the first place! What would be the alternative to the simple answer, i.e. returning the Golan to its rightful owners. I believe it would be a state of […]