Photo: Alamy
On March 25, 2019, President Donald Trump officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a landmark decision that designated the U.S. as the first nation to acknowledge the region as the jurisdiction of the Jewish State.
Israel has held jurisdiction of the territory since it was captured from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, claiming that the area was needed for protection against external terrorist groups such as Hezbollah.
The president’s proclamation reversed half a century of U.S. policy in the Middle East while providing Israel the ability to better defend itself against regional threats.
Alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump suggested that the Golan Heights—which lies east between Israel and Syria—would otherwise be used by their adversaries as a launching sight for attacks against Israel.
During the accord’s signing the following day, Netanyahu told President Trump, “Israel has never had a better friend than you,” also commending the president’s withdrawal from former President Obama’s 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital while moving there the U.S. Embassy.
Later in June, Netanyahu announced plans to construct a settlement in the Golan Heights, which would be called “Trump Heights,” to commemorate the president’s previous peace accords and sovereignty proclamation.
While Israel had seemingly little conflict with adversaries during the Trump presidency, the same cannot be said during a tumultuous era under the Biden administration.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, which killed more than 1,100 people, Joe Biden has been hesitant to back the Jewish State in their war against the terrorist group, even sanctioning Israeli settlers along the West Bank.
Biden has repeatedly undermined Israel, possibly in an attempt to appeal to his far-left base, and has called for restraint in Israel’s flight to destroy Hamas.
Biden was previously caught on a hot mic after his State of the Union address earlier this month describing how he had a “come to Jesus” meeting with Netanyahu over getting humanitarian aid to Gaza, and later commended the Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for calling to replace the prime minister.
He also invited Netanyahu’s main rival, Benny Gantz, to the White House earlier this month to meet with Kamala Harris, who told the official to pause fighting—specifically in Rahfah, a Palestinian city located in the southern Gaza Strip, where Hamas is holding hostages.
Republicans, such as Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., slammed Harris for her refusal to support a rescue, where she told ABC’s “This Week” during an interview, which aired on Sunday that—after “studying the maps”—Israel should not move into the city, suggesting that “consequences” were not off the table if such action took place.
“What a disgraceful betrayal of our ally, all to help Biden’s polls with his antisemitic base,” Cotton posted to X.
Regarding the Golan Heights, Biden has not committed either way to maintaining the Trump-era policy. However, Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has expressed his willingness to “look at” the decision sometime in the future.