By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
Egyptian former president Hosni Mubarak was reported to have said Israel wanted to normalise relations with Syria and to have diplomatic links with its neighbour in order to returned the occupied Golan Heights.
TV presenter Ahmed Al-Sayed in an interview to Cairo24, said the former president told him: “I have contacted the Israelis to try to recover the Golan Heights, but they demanded the opening of an Israeli embassy in Damascus and a Syrian one on their land as a kind of Syrian recognition of the Israeli state.”
The mountainous plateau was part of Syria until Israel captured it in the 1967 Middle East war, annexing it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
Mubarak added; Hafez Al-Assad, the former Syrian President had rejected the Israeli offer at the time. “That was the result,” referring to the recent US decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
On 25 March, the US President Donald Trump recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The decision was condemned by Arab activists and politicians.
The most important question is: Bashar Al-assad, who had killed, maim, caused displacement and imprisoned many of his own country men be concerned about the Golan Heights? Could they be concerned with ending the occupation of their land when they have done things that are hundreds of times worse to their people than the Israeli occupation did? And, before all of these questions, we must ask: Does Bashar Al-Assad still view Israel as an enemy?
Bashar Al-Assad is like many members of the official Arab system who freed themselves from the constraints of history and geography and hastened to re-establish their relationship with Israel. Some of them have linked themselves to Israel with an unbreakable umbilical cord while others race to build bridges. These individuals consider Donald Trump to be the source of the authorities and protector of the thrones, therefore his orders are followed, and words are law. This is despite some Arab regimes put on a show by expressing condemnation and denunciation.
Bashar Al-Assad, and other attackers of the Arab revolutions, are committed to Trump and Israel’s commandment. They are content with their partnership with Israel and fight under its banner.
In the case of Al-Assad in particular, he does not deny the Israeli role in protecting his throne from the danger of his people’s uprising so how can he confront Donald Trump?
While, begging and romancing the enemies of Allah will bring the Ummah no good, every Muslim must understand that the solution to the Ummah's problem lies not in appealing to the US or UN. Their hatered and animosity to Islam and Muslims is clear as day light. In our unity and following the actual teachings and statemanship of our prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, lies our strength.