By RAPHAEL AHREN, Times of Israel—
The Golan Heights will forever remain part of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Sunday during the first-ever cabinet meeting held on the Golan.
Speaking in the Israeli town of Ma’aleh Gamla, next to an archaeological site where Jewish rebels stood off against Roman soldiers nearly 2,000 years ago, Netanyahu said he told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday that Israel does not oppose current efforts to reach a political agreement to end the Syrian civil war, but that Israel’s boundary line with the country will not change.
“I convened this celebratory meeting in the Golan Heights to send a clear message: The Golan will always remain in Israel’s hands. Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights,” he declared.
Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War from Syria and annexed it in 1981. Read On…