High on Golan

Looking north to Lebanon (left) and Syria (right)

Occupied and annexed by Israel after the 1967 war with Syria, the Golan Heights rise like a table of volcanic rock at the top of the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee. Yesterday, I drove up here with photographer Ilan Mizhrahi, in part because I appreciate visiting those parts of Israel that I've seen from the other side of the border where I live in Lebanon and Syria.

But we're also here because the Golan Heights are one of the major stumbling blocks to peace in the Middle East. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad this week repeated his call for the return of the Golan as a main condition of peace between Syria and Israel. But Israelis are as wary as ever about trading land for peace -- Gaza after the Israeli pullout has become a haven for chaos -- and doubtful that Syria will stop supporting Palestinian and Lebanese militants even after signing a peace treaty.

Still, the Syrians living in the Golan Heights -- most of whom are Druze Muslims -- have accommodated fairly well to Israeli occupation. Unlike the West Bank and Gaza, which have large Arab populations, there are just four Arab towns in the Golan. The inhabitants speak Arabic and Hebrew, run seemingly prosperous businesses, and mingle easily on the streets with Israeli soldiers. "I've got many Israeli friends," said Yahyah Abu Shaheen, a 51 year-old contractor whom we met in the town of Bukata. "We've grown up together and we're human beings." But while many Golanese Druze have Israeli ID cards, most refuse to become Israeli citizens, either out of loyalty to Syria, or out of concern that they might be seen as traitors if the territory returns to Syria.

And Yahah and his neighbors chafe under the restrictions that the closed border imposes upon them, cutting them off from their friends, family, and country. There's just one United Nations crossing point between Syria and the occupied Golan, and almost the only people allowed to pass are those Golanese leaving their homes (perhaps forever) to marry someone on the other side. One of Yahyah's daughters married a Syrian cousin and moved back to the motherland earlier this year; while Yahyah's son also married a Syrian cousin (in the photo below) who's homesick for Damascus.

With military technology that's vastly superior to Syria's, Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights is no longer the strategic concern it once was. Still, it's a major staging ground of military operations, especially in these tense times as both sides are cautiously preparing for another war.

At the end of the day we bumped into a mechanized unit wrapping up exercises by loading their battle tanks on tractor trailers and leaving their Vietnam-era personnel carriers parked by the side of the road. "Mind if we take one for spin?" I called out the departing troops. "We're leaving our guard dog," said one of the soldiers as he pointed to a stray. "And he's a real beast."

--Andrew Lee Butters/Golan Heights