Media Response to Trump’s Golan Announcement
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
US-led Western media one-sidedly support Israel. They’re hostile to Palestinian rights, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah – not for any threat they pose.
It’s because they’re obstacles to Israel’s aim for regional dominance, along with Washington’s Middle East presence.
Establishment media pay little heed to international law, notably on issues of war and peace, never explaining that all US post-WW II conflicts were and remain flagrantly illegal – against nations threatening no one.
Following Trump’s Golan announcement, claiming it’s time to recognize Israeli control over Syria’s Golan, ignoring binding Security Council Resolution 497, mandating otherwise, the NYT said the following:
“President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel’s authority over the long disputed Golan Heights, delivering a valuable election-eve gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but jettisoning decades of American policy in the Middle East,” adding:
“The United Nations has rejected Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights since 1967, when Israeli troops seized the 400 square miles of rocky highlands from Syria during the Arab-Israeli war.”
Fact: There’s nothing “disputed” about Syrian control over Golan as part of its sovereign territory.
Whether it’s “a valuable election-eve gift to” Netanyahu will be understood best in hindsight post-election. It may or may not help his reelection chances.
It’s unrelated to indicting him on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, coming post-election following a hearing. If convicted on one or more of the charges, it’ll like end his political career.
Israel illegally occupied Golan since June 1967, the world community doing nothing to hold the Jewish state accountable.
The Times was right saying Trump’s announcement changed nothing on the ground. Golan remains illegally occupied. “There is no negotiation underway on (its) status…”
Another Security Council resolution affirming Res. 497 would be vetoed by the Trump regime. Resolutions change nothing, why world community action is needed. Isolating Israel would be a good start.
The neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post said no previous US president ever recognized Israeli control over Golan, Trump the first, ignoring international law, adding:
“A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to several queries about Trump’s Golan Heights tweet — including whether the decision had gone through an interagency process and why the decision could not have been delayed until after the April 9 Israeli election.”
Trump is more rigidly one-sidedly pro-Israel on virtually all regional issues than any previous US president – at the expense of Palestinians and Muslims from the wrong countries he disdains, along with wars he inherited and escalated.
Wall Street Journal editors called call Trump’s Golan announcement a “recognition of Israeli sovereignty (in) the Middle East as it is,” adding:
“If Israel didn’t control the Golan, the heights might now be dominated by Hezbollah or perhaps Islamic State…(A)nnexing…Golan isn’t controversial in Israel. Arab countries will object, but that will fade as anger did when Mr. Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.”
“Recognizing the Golan sends a message to Russia, Syria’s patron, that the US recognizes that the civil war has changed Syrian reality. There is no returning to a nonexistent status quo ante. It also tells the Palestinians that a return to pre-1967 borders is no longer realistic.”
Fact: Journal editors ignored binding international law on Golan. It’s illegally occupied sovereign Syrian territory.
Fact: Unlike the US and Journal editors, Hezbollah respects the sovereign territory of all nations, seeking dominance nowhere.
Fact: The US created and supports ISIS and likeminded terrorists groups, supported by Israel, sending them arms and munitions, treating their wounded in its field hospitals, supporting them as proxies against Assad.
Fact: There’s nothing “civil” about Obama launched naked aggression in Syria, using jihadists as imperial foot soldiers, supported by terror-bombing, massacring tens of thousands of civilians, destroying vital infrastructure, Israel partnering in Washington’s war.
Fact: Conflict in Syria will continue until its territory is freed from the scourge of the US presence, along with jihadists it supports.
Fact: Palestinians have been struggling for over half a century to be free from Israel’s repressive boot. Its struggle will continue no matter how long it takes to reclaim its sovereign territory.
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