If words could move borders, the State of Israel would extend from the river of Egypt as far as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. On April 17, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, standing on the Golan Heights, declared, “Golan was an integral part of the Land of Israel in ancient times [and therefore it is] an integral part of the Land of Israel in the modern era.” What proves that the Golan Heights belonged, and still belongs, to the State of Israel? “The dozens of ancient synagogues around us attest to this,” said the prime minister. Thus, Netanyahu added, “It’s time, after 50 years, that the international community finally recognizes the fact that the Golan will remain under Israeli sovereignty permanently.”

The world, as it proved rather quickly, does not recognize ancient synagogues as border markers and is not impressed by highly publicized meetings that the Israeli government conducts on foreign soil. Not only did Israel’s two best friends, the United States and Germany, not “finally” recognize the unilateral 1981 Israeli implementation of its law on the Golan Heights, their foreign ministries were quick to condemn Netanyahu’s declaration and to make clear that their position was and remains that the Golan annexation law and the establishment of settlements in the area constitute a violation of international law. The European Union’s November 2015 decision instructing member states to label settlement products also applies to products made on the Golan Heights. The same holds for the recent UN Human Rights Commission resolution calling for the compilation of a black list of companies operating in Israeli-occupied territories.

Netanyahu did not really expect the festive declaration from the heights of the rocky plateau on his government's first anniversary to change the position of the international community on sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The choice of time and place for his declaration was linked to US and Russian efforts that same week to reach a diplomatic agreement on ending the bloodshed in Syria. At the negotiations in Geneva, the representatives of the Bashar al-Assad regime demanded that the arrangement include a return of the Golan Heights to Syria. At the “festive Cabinet meeting,” Netanyahu reported that he had told US Secretary of State John Kerry that Israel “will not oppose a diplomatic settlement in Syria, on condition that it will not come at the expense of the security of the State of Israel.”

Just as Israeli opposition did not thwart the nuclear deal with Iran, Netanyahu’s stance on Syria will not hinder reaching an agreement to end the fighting in the neighboring country. The grand production on the Golan Heights was reminiscent of Netanyahu’s March 2015 speech of horrors to the two houses of Congress arranged behind the back of President Barack Obama. The prime minister’s use of security arguments for territorial, ideological and political needs has greatly eroded their credibility. For example, in a 2001 conversation with a bereaved Israeli family, Netanyahu boasted that during his first term in office, from 1996 to 1999, he had undermined the Oslo Accord by declaring the entire Jordan Valley to be part of the “security sites” that the two sides had agreed would remain in Israeli hands.