Behind Trump’s Decision on the Golan Heights

On 25 March 2019, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the United States recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan, in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described the move as "historic". Unlike the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the occupying power, recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan was not achieved through US legislation. Rather, it came from the US government as a "gift" from Trump to his "friend" Netanyahu, who faces stiff competition in the Knesset elections on 9 April 2019.

The Build-up to Trump’s Decision

Clearly, American bias towards Israel has turned a page in the Trump era, which has beckoned full US subservience to the Israeli right regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian question.

Motives and Context of the Declaration

Trump focused on Israeli security considerations in his attempt to justify his recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory and his break with more than 50 years of US policy. These motives and calculations spread across three levels. The first level relates to attempts to support Netanyahu in the coming Israeli Knesset elections, his chances of winning which have been compromised by indictments of bribery and corruption. The second level relates to Trump’s own electoral considerations. The third level relates to Trump's vision of the nature, conditions and form of a future solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

1. Supporting Netanyahu

2. Trump’s Own Electoral Considerations

3. Attempt to Impose a New Framework for Resolving the Conflict

Perhaps the most important motive behind Trump's decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is his administration's approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict and more specifically, the Palestinian issue. It is clear that the Trump administration is trying to redraw the features of the conflict and set new parameters by adopting the ideas of the Israeli right at the expense of the Palestinians and Arabs. In this endeavor, the US administration uses the reality of the inter-Palestinian, intra-Arab rupture, and the focus of the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi axis, specifically, on the conflict with Iran and the perception of Israel as an ally in this context. Iran, along with its allies, has also played a role in bringing the region to a state of weakness and division because of its regional ambitions and sectarian policies and thus reaching that conclusion. The Syrian regime bears the brunt of responsibility for paving the way for the Trump and Israel to steal the occupied Golan as a result of policies that led to the destruction of Syria and its fragmentation into spheres of influence and control among external forces.

Generally, the Trump administration’s approach, as with Jerusalem and the cessation of aid to the UNRWA, in September 2018, is trying to neutralize what it sees as "obstacles" to the "resolution" of the conflict Arab conflict with Israel — not by solving the Palestinian issue but by exterminating it, and not by meeting the just Arab demands to withdraw from the occupied Arab territories, but by bypassing them. Trump had previously interpreted his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the US embassy to it as "a good thing”, because he removed Jerusalem from the negotiating table, claiming “if there’s ever going to be peace—remember I said it—with the Palestinians it was a good thing to have done because we took it off the table because every time there were peace talks, they never got past Jerusalem becoming their capital, so I said let’s take it off the table”.[10] In the same logic, the issue of the "right of return" was another "obstacle" in the path of "peace", which must be removed from the negotiating table by stopping UNRWA funding and thus "facilitating" an agreement between Palestinians and Israelis. Today, Trump uses this strategy for a third time on the issue of the Golan, in the sense of removing it from the table to "facilitate" a peace agreement between Syria and Israel, betraying a midwestern logic that reflects the lack of consideration for any power other than American power in international politics.

Trump's approach to what he calls the "Deal of the Century" is simply forcing the Arabs to recognize the fait accompli imposed by Israel and stripping Palestinian and Arab rights away from core and central issues, on the pretext that it is difficult to reach a consensus on the solution.