Israel's newspaper Haaretz recently reported that Prime Minister "Bibi" Netanyahu told a group of Russian-language reporters that Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights, that Israel would remain there to secure a strategic advantage in case of any future military conflict with Syria.
If course, it goes without saying that a peace settlement with Syria will never occur without evacuating Golan.
With Bibi's trip to meet with Obama only ten days away such statements are rather interesting.
More over they jump.
These remarks were apparently not reported in English or Hebrew. They were published on various Russian-language Israeli web sites.
With the US applying pressure on Bibi to negotiate with Syria, and other countries like China agreeing that Golan should be returned, the Golan issue is quickly becoming a hot button. Israel seized the Golan Heights in 1967. The Chinese Foreign Minister also stated that they will pursue efforts "for a just and comprehensive peace based on United Nations resolutions, the principle of exchanging land for peace and the road map..."
Bibi is getting squeezed by many countries. His three-step "economic" peace plan is being greeted with derision and mockery in some quarters. From Biden's headfirst comments on the I-P issue at AIPAC to Obama's comments on the Golan issue it seems that the new American administration is not anywhere nearly as enthralled by right-wing Israeli ideas as the previous administration.
The May 18th meeting between Obama and Bibi will be a pivotal moment. It's going to be interesting to see if Israel can bring its pack of lobbyists to bear down hard enough to get Obama to back down from insisting on negotiations with a timeline towards a two-state solution in favor of Bibi's plans for dragging out the occupation until it is impossible to create two states.
Would a one state solution mean the end of a Jewish-majority Israel? Is the time near that one-state will be the only way to solve the issue? Is the two-state solution even still viable, considering the Wall and the hundreds of settlements and outposts with their matrix of settler-only highways and hundreds of checkpoints controlling Palestinian movement?