The myth is quite different from the realities at the time. General Dayan talked about the "threat" from Syria and the provocations that lead up to the Six Day war. They didn't take the Golan for security.. they took it for farming. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/11/w...-a-new-light-on-the-golan.html?pagewanted=all JERUSALEM, May 9 It is an article of faith among Israelis that the Golan Heights were seized in the 1967 Middle East war to stop Syria from shelling the Israeli settlements down below. The future of the Golan Heights is central to the search for peace in the Middle East, and much of the case against giving the Golan Heights back to Syria rests on the fear of reviving that threat. But like many another of Israel's founding legends, this one has come under question lately, and from a most surprising quarter: Moshe Dayan, the celebrated commander who, as Defense Minister in 1967, gave the order to conquer the Golan. General Dayan died in 1981. But in conversations with a young reporter five years earlier, he said he regretted not having stuck to his initial opposition to storming the Golan Heights. There really was no pressing reason to do so, he said, because many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland. General Dayan did not mean the conversations as an interview, and the reporter, Rami Tal, kept his notes secret for 21 years -- until he was persuaded by a friend to make them public. They were authenticated by historians and by General Dayan's daughter Yael Dayan, a member of Parliament, and published two weeks ago in the weekend magazine of the newspaper Yediot Ahronot. Historians have already begun to debate whether General Dayan was giving an accurate account of the situation in 1967 or whether his version of what happened was colored by his disgrace after the 1973 Middle East war, when he was forced to resign as Defense Minister over the failure to anticipate the Arab attack. But on a more immediate level, the general's 21-year-old comments play directly into the current dispute over whether the Golan Heights should be returned to Syria in exchange for peace. The Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly opposed to returning the Golan, contending that the high ground is vital for Israel's security. ''Look, it's possible to talk in terms of 'the Syrians are bastards, you have to get them, and this is the right time,' and other such talk, but that is not policy,'' General Dayan told Mr. Tal in 1976. ''You don't strike at the enemy because he is a bastard, but because he threatens you. And the Syrians, on the fourth day of the war, were not a threat to us.'' According to the published notes, Mr. Tal began to remonstrate, ''But they were sitting on the Golan Heights, and . . . '' General Dayan interrupted: ''Never mind that. After all, I know how at least 80 percent of the clashes there started. In my opinion, more than 80 percent, but let's talk about 80 percent. It went this way: We would send a tractor to plow some area where it wasn't possible to do anything, in the demilitarized area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance farther, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that's how it was.'' General Dayan's resistance to storming the Golan Heights in the first days of the 1967 war is established history, as is his abrupt change of mind on June 9, the fourth day of the war, when he called the northern commander directly -- bypassing the Chief of Staff, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol -- and ordered him to go to war against Syria. The common wisdom is that General Dayan was wary of stretching military resources until the wars with Egypt and Jordan were settled and that he feared provoking the Soviet Union by an attack on its main client-state, and that the uncertain offensive would cost many lives. The swift victories over Egypt and Jordan then changed his mind. But in the conversations with Mr. Tal, General Dayan raised another consideration. ''What he told me, what is quoted in the conversation, is that he understood even in time of war that we would be compelled to return most of the territories that we won if we wanted peace with the Arabs,'' Mr. Tal said. In the Golan Heights, General Dayan anticipated that Israeli farmers would waste no time settling on the fertile land, making it difficult to withdraw. General Dayan said in his conversations with Mr. Tal that the kibbutz leaders who had urgently demanded that Israel take the Golan Heights had done so largely for the land. ''The kibbutzim there saw land that was good for agriculture,'' he said. ''And you must remember, this was a time in which agricultural land was considered the most important and valuable thing.'' Mr. Tal asked, ''So all the kibbutzim wanted was land?'' And General Dayan answered: ''I'm not saying that. Of course they wanted the Syrians to get out of their face. They suffered a lot because of the Syrians. Look, as I said before, they were sitting in the kibbutzim and they worked the land and had kids and lived there and wanted to live there. The Syrians across from them were soldiers who fired at them, and of course they didn't like it. ''But I can tell you with absolute confidence, the delegation that came to persuade Eshkol to take the heights was not thinking of these things. They were thinking about the heights' land. Listen, I'm a farmer, too. After all, I'm from Nahalal, not from Tel Aviv, and I know about it. I saw them, and I spoke to them. They didn't even try to hide their greed for that land.'' That contention was hotly denied by Muky Tsur, a longtime leader of the United Kibbutz Movement. ''For sure there were discussions about going up the Golan Heights or not going up the Golan Heights, but the discussions were about security for the kibbutzim in Galilee,'' he said. ''I think that Dayan himself didn't want to go to the Golan Heights. This is something we've known for many years. But no kibbutz got any land from conquering the Golan Heights. People who went there went on their own. It's cynicism to say the kibbutzim wanted land.'' Inevitably, the doubts General Dayan expressed were seized on by advocates of making peace with Syria. Historians took a cautious approach, noting that the conversations had not been a formal interview. Mr. Tal, who was then a reporter on a short-lived paper of which General Dayan was editor, said in a telephone interview that they held several conversations at the time, and it was his impression that General Dayan had been testing ideas for his memoirs, which were never completed. ''He didn't intend to give a full, rounded interview,'' said Shabtai Teveth, a biographer of Dayan. ''Here he singles out the kibbutzim, which is not a very balanced picture. Israel was very attentive to Soviet reactions at the time, and he was one of the wisest Israelis in politics, so he must have taken that into consideration. Second, Dayan by 1967 was very cognizant that some Israeli conquests would be nullified by the U.N., and therefore wondered whether it was really worthwhile, since it might be costly in blood.'' Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, a senior researcher at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies in Tel Aviv, said he was troubled that the published conversations could overshadow other factors in the decision to strike Syria. ''I'm concerned that this will become the whole story, that people will lose sight of how the '67 war broke out, how Syria was the catalyst, how it was seeking a rise in tensions, seeking to goad Egypt into action,'' Mr. Maddy-Weitzman said. ''There is a lot of toying with founding myths. Revisionism is one thing, but when we throw out the context in which things were occurring, we are sapping ourselves unjustifiably.'' Photos: In 1976, Moshe Dayan had a conversation with a reporter about reasons for the decision to take the Golan Heights in 1967. His comments have now been published for the first time. General Dayan, right, died in 1981. (United Press International); Newly published comments suggest that Israel took the Golan Heights not for security purposes but for the farmland. In 1968, a sentry kept watch on Syrian territory atop a bunker in the Israeli settlement Nahal Golan. (David Rubinger for The New York Times) Map of Israel showing the location of Golan Heights.
That's why it was taken. Good thing they took it "for farming" or for the real reason - defensive depth and denial of high ground to a powerful enemy because if they didn't, Israel may not exist in the here and now as it does today and for that matter, the rest of the ME as it possibly could have gone nuclear.
Not at all. Are you calling him the absolute source for truth about everything? Send a pm if you wish to get personal please. Now, deal with the facts and they are that taking the Golan denied Syria the ability to destroy Israeli towns and cities so, it was a legitimate military target and reason enough.
It was not Israel's idea <for taking it in a war of attrition> but liberate it... The real truth is that the Golan was <part and Parcel> of the British Mandate... and the Brits gave it away to the 'Mandatory Powers of the Levant' since the French were eyeing Mosul during that time because of the oil and the Brits had already designated Mosul as part of Iraq. Sooooooooooo Is the GOLAN Syrian now? I do not believe that it does make any difference if Bashar is a villain. Israel should assert itself and stand firm ... (a)Not to share the Golan with Syria since Israel is the victorious party in a war of attrition (see 1967) (b)The Golan was part of the Mandate for Palestine. (c)Syria knows that it will be annihilated if ever it will initiate war again. I suggest Syria follow the past Peace overtures of Egypt and Jordan and sign a Peace agreement with Israel without any further preconditions. By joining the peaceful past initiatives of these two Arab countries, it would only serve to benefit all inhabitants in this Middle East Arena. '
Netanyahu Declares: Golan Heights Ours From Biblical to Modern Times By JNS April 17, 2016 , 10:30 am “And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with the open land about it, the city of refuge for the manslayer; and Beeshterah with the open land about it; two cities.” Joshua 21:27 (The Israel Bible™ image: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen during a security and defense tour in the Golan Heights, near the Northern Israeli border with Syria. April 11, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO) The Israeli cabinet held its first-ever meeting in the Golan Heights on Sunday amid reports that the territory is being discussed as part of Syrian civil war peace talks. “I convened this celebratory meeting in the Golan Heights to send a clear message: The Golan will always remain in Israel’s hands. Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the council. “It is time that the international community recognized reality,” Netanyahu continued. “Whatever happens on the other side of the border, the border itself will not move. Secondly, after 50 years it is time that the international community realized that the Golan will remain under Israeli sovereignty.” He pointed out that the Golan is Israel’s ancient heritage, calling it an “integral part of the Land of Israel in ancient times.” “That is documented by dozens of ancient synagogues around us,” he said, referring to the remains of Jewish settlements dating back thousands of years. “And the Golan is an integral part of the State of Israel in the present time.” According to recent reports, Netanyahu is upset over indications that a negotiated deal on the Syrian civil war that is being worked on by world powers would declare the Golan Heights as Syrian territory. He stated categorically that no such deal was acceptable to Israel. image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/w...375-Store_HandmadeBibicalCeramics-600WIDE.jpg Get your handmade Biblical ceramics from Naomi Persky. Buy now! Israel’s Channel 10 reported that Netanyahu phoned US Secretary of State John Kerry over the issue, and that he will also discuss the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their upcoming meeting. The Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu will “act to ensure” that any language declaring that the territory belongs to Syria is unacceptable. “I told the Secretary of State that we would not oppose a political resolution in Syria [to the civil war] so long as it does not come at our expense,” Netanyahu said at the meeting. “That is to say, at the end of the day Iranian forces, ISIS, and Hezbollah need to be removed from Syrian territory.” In Biblical times, the area now called the Golan Heights was known as Bashan; its name is derived from the Biblical city of “Golan in Bashan”. Originally the land was assigned to the tribe of Mannaseh. During the times of the First Temple, the northern Jewish kingdom of Judea fought with the Aramean kingdom for control of the Golan; Israel’s king defeated the Aramean king near the current site of Kibbutz Afik. Israel gained control of the strategically important Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War. After Israel briefly lost territory during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel and Syria established a United Nations-monitored ceasefire line in the region, with Israel taking the western two-thirds of the territory. Amid the ongoing Syrian civil war, the territory continues to play a strategic role for Israel. Iran, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State terror group all have a presence in Syrian territory near the Israeli border. With additional reporting by Abra Forman Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/6...er-meeting-golan-heights/#isVW432QOTHmqbK6.99
Netanyahu appeals to Putin to influence Iran... Iranian-Backed Militia in Syria Vows to ‘Liberate’ Golan Heights March 10, 2017 – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sought Moscow’s understanding Thursday to prevent a malevolent future role for Iran in Syria – one day after an Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia fighting there announced the formation of a special “brigade to liberate the Golan Heights.” See also: Analysts: Iran Has Been Put ‘On Notice’; Time to Show U.S. Means Business March 10, 2017 – Iran’s provocations in the Persian Gulf and fresh ballistic missile tests indicate that the regime is testing the Trump administration and watching carefully to see whether and how it responds, policy analysts say.
