Submitted by Gerry, Oct 3, 2007 06:26

A half hours research on Google will illuminate the real situation of the Golan, or at least something close to it. The information presented above is testament to how the Golan has been given a new history by its occupying power. Before you switch off and discount my view as merely pro-arab take the word of the Israeli defence minister during the capture of the Golan - Moshe Dayan- who categorically stated in his biography that the Israeli broke the 1948 armistice agreement and provoked the Syrians by entering the demilitarised zones. He spoke of the hunger for land manifested by the farmers of the Galilee and Hula. The pretext of protecting Israeli civilians was further undermined when settlements were established in the Golan along its new 'border' with Syria just one month after hostilities ceased. More recently only Israel has been invading Syrian air space. Another question relates to the above authors glaring omission about the 125,000 (UN figures from 1967) Syrian civilians of the Golan, what happened to them and where are their villages and towns today? One only has to read the definition of ethnic cleansing to understand what has happened. Over 120 bulldozed villages pockmark the territory only 4 remain with their inhabitants, isolated from their homeland and isolated in their new occupation (many have passed before). What needs to be understood is that Israel is misinforming us about history and has not presented the whole truth. This continues today, echoing Churchill's acknowledgment that the first thing to die in war is truth. Always scratch below the surface and in the present case we will see Israel is creating another false pretext for war against a much weaker neighbour. One without an effective paramilitary group to humiliate them on the world stage.

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