Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds196encroachments into areas farmed by Palestinians. 43 General (Res.)Mattityahu Peled points out that after the Israeli conquest of the GolanHeights in 1967, the Syrian artillery was barely moved. There was nosubsequent shelling because the cease-fire arrangements were clarified.Prior to 1967, Israel followed a “planned strategy” designed to imposeits interpretation of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, includingsettlement in the demilitarized zones which infringed on the rights of thelocal inhabitants, leading to shelling in reprisal. The conquest of theHeights did not change the military situation, but showed thatnegotiated settlement is possible, as had been true before too, heargues. If Israel were truly to accept UN Resolution 242, returning theGolan Heights to Syria, demilitarization of the Heights would cause nosecurity problem, he argues further, as the facts he reviews suggest. 44It is also generally overlooked that Arabs too have reason to fearshelling from the Golan Heights. By 1970, there were already nearly100 casualties in the Jordanian city of Irbid resulting from Israeli airattacks and shelling from the Golan Heights. 45Syrian shelling served as the pretext for the conquest of the Golan in1967 in violation of the cease-fire, and for subsequent actions leading toits virtual annexation by the Begin government in December-January198l-82. 464. After the 1967 ConquestApart from the Syrian border, the years following Israel’s retreat from theSinai were relatively tranquil. The Egyptian border was quiet and theJordanian border, nearly so. Within Israel, vast areas of Arab land wereexpropriated and converted to Jewish settlement, used in part to settleJewish refugees who fled or were expelled from Arab countries in theClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky