US Congress discusses recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights

A US Congress subcommittee chaired by Ron DeSantis held a hearing to discuss the pros and cons of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Israeli part of the Golan Heights. 

By: World Israel News Staff

A subcommittee in the US Congress discussed on Tuesday the possibility that America would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The hearing took place in the House Subcommittee on National Security, chaired by US Congressman Ron DeSantis, an advocate of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Israeli part of the Golan Heights.

DeSantis, a Florida Republican, was a leading congressional supporter of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

“A new horizon in US-Israel relations: From an American embassy in Jerusalem to potential recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” was the title of Tuesday’s hearing.

The purpose of the hearing, according to an announcement put out by the Subcommittee on National Security, was “to discuss the potential for American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in furtherance of US national security interests.”

Former Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, who heads the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, testified in favor, as did Eugene Kontorovich from Northwestern University’s law school.

Former US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, who is now a professor at Princeton, presented a more skeptical position.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the US to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area in February 2017.

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid has been actively lobbying for international recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

The US administration, however, has given no indication that it supports this move.

Friedman blasts Israelis’ ‘ingratitude’

According to a Hebrew-language report from the Kan public broadcaster in June, US Ambassador David Friedman met recently with a number of MKs and admonished them over the public call for a change in US policy vis-a-vis the Golan Heights.

The report quoted him as saying that Israelis do not understand that the US has global interests unrelated to the Jewish state, while Israeli politicians have only a domestic agenda.

In private conversations, Friedman allegedly told the politicians that instead of being grateful after the US recognized Jerusalem and made the momentous move of its embassy to the city, the Israelis immediately asked for more, displaying what he termed “ingratitude.”

David FriedmanGolan HeightsRon DeSantisUS-Israel relations