Hussein Ibish, Columnist

U.S. Shouldn’t Endorse Israel’s Annexation of Golan

There’s no justification for a move that encourages military land grabs.

March 20, 2019 at 5:00 AM UTC

By Hussein Ibish

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

Controlled and occupied.
Photographer: Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images

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President Donald Trump’s White House apparently has yet another terrible idea about the Middle East: recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria on the last day of the 1967 war.

The administration signaled that it is at least thinking in these terms when a State Department human rights report this month described the Golan as “Israeli controlled” instead of the traditional U.S. designation, “Israeli occupied.” The idea is being openly championed by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the few outsiders who appears to have foreign policy sway with Trump.