[(Continued from p.5)]
shoulders of the Jews.It is a fact that local rule in Kosovo has passed to the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Moslem clandestine army. To many of the KLA fighters, the UN has awarded police authority. However, the KLA has funded itself and its arms from drug trading, especially in heroin. It enjoys close ties to the Albanian underworld, and thus the Albanian Mafia is taking control of the country. All this, with the full knowledge of the American CIA, which acted in a similar fashion in Afghanistan and thus sowed some of the seeds of the murderous Muslim fundamentalism, whose poison fruit is Osama bin Laden, America's current Public Enemy #1.
Kosovo contains one serious natural resource --mines, containing amongst other minerals gold and silver. This huge industrial complex comprising forty mines, foundries and plants, still supports tens of thousands of Serbs. NATO is about to evict the Serbs from this property.
If Israel wishes to survive, it should constantly monitor America's actions in Kosovo. After all, we base all our peace agreements, which are invariably accompanied with serious territorial concessions, on America's friendship and probity and her ability to serve as an honest mediator and a secure guarantor. It is in America's hands that we entrust our security. Sometimes, one is tempted to conclude, that contrary to the traditional image of the "clever Jews", we are actually one of the most naive peoples on earth.
Elyakim Haetzni is a former Member of the Knesset from the Tehiya Party.
With the surrender of the Golan Heights in temporary abeyance (Assad has not yet deigned to take it despite Israel's craven pleas), there is still the opportunity to focus Israel's chances for survival without this territory in the brutally hostile Middle East environment.
Topographically, the Golan Heights is a small mountainous plateau which extends approximately 60 kilometers north/south and Is about 20 kilometers wide, encompassing the Jordan Rift and Lake Kinneret on the west, Syria to the east, the Yarmuk Valley to the south, and Mount Hermon to the north. In the north, Israel's defense is anchored on the high ground from Mount Hermon along a watershed that feeds a number of small rivers, including the Hazbani, the Dan, and the Banias that all eventually empty into the Jordan River; on the south, Israel's defense is anchored on the Rakad Gorge. About a third of Israel's scarce water supply originates on the Golan Heights. From the present defense line, the Golan Heights slopes gently down to the escarpment overlooking the Galilee.
Prior to the Six Day War, Syria had converted the Golan Heights into an effective offensive base from which to harass much of northern Israel. From their elevated firing positions the Syrians kept the farming communities and towns of the Upper Galilee under almost constant bombardment for 19 years. Many brave Israeli soldiers forfeited their lives in the final desperate day of the June 1967 war wresting the Golan Heights from the Syrians. Yet the current leadership of Israel contemplates surrendering the Golan Heights to one of the most despotic rogue regimes in the brutal Middle East. Ironically, the United States still places Syria on her list of nations that sponsor international terrorism.
When Syria attacked on Yom Kippur day 1973, two Israeli armored brigades with 150 tanks were able to repel an all out Syrian attack, backed by massive artillery, 1,500 tanks, and large infantry formations. The last six Chiefs of Staff have all voiced strong support for keeping the Golan Heights as a vital bastion for Israel's defense. However, once they leave the army and enter the political arena, they accept their particular party's line.
If the Israeli government surrenders the Golan Heights, what would this mean in practical terms? Even the most naive would not expect the end of Syrian and Arab intentions to destroy Israel. Therefore, Israel must insist upon some minimum defensive compensation to replace the vital defensive asset that the Golan Heights represents.
As a retired soldier with many years service, going back to World War II, I estimate that the United States would need to furnish Israel with at least $50 billion merely in advanced military hardware. An approximate list of additional military assets that Israel would require, in my opinion, is as follows:
1. Two armored divisions and assorted separate brigade formations including three artillery, an air defense, an airborne, and a mechanized infantry brigade as well as smaller ground support units, plus a corps headquarters. In aggregate, this would be equivalent to a small independent U.S. Army corps--at an
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Outpost - 6 - April 2000