Why Golan settlers paid no mind to Bibi’s latest comments
With the war in Syria ongoing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent statements about Israel keeping the Golan Heights forever attracted little interest.
In June 1992, Yitzhak Rabin participated in a rally in the village of Katzrin to celebrate 25 years of settlement on the Golan Heights. The event took place just a few days before Rabin would be elected prime minister.
The possibility of negotiations between Israel and Syria first appeared on the agenda following the 1991 Madrid Conference, following the first Gulf War. At the time, Golan settlers feared that Israel might withdraw entirely from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace. It was amid this environment that Rabin delivered a speech at the rally and made one of his more well-known declarations: “It is inconceivable that even in peacetime we should go down from the Golan. Whoever thinks of such a possibility is forsaking the security of Israel.” A short time later, this statement would be used against him.
Rabin's declaration was election sloganeering that lost all meaning when it emerged that as prime minister, he was actually willing to enter into negotiations on the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria. Golan residents who felt deceived, along with some political actors, made a fuss about Rabin’s “fraudulent proclamation.” This about-face was also the pretext for the establishment of the Third Way, a party founded by disgruntled former Laborites.
The Third Way was a centrist party with the goal of averting a withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The party was headed by an Israeli hero, Brig. Gen. Avigdor Kahalani, who had received the Medal of Valor for a fierce defensive battle he led as a young officer to halt Syrian tanks in the Yom Kippur War in October 1973.
