The Heights for survival.

"The United States will now recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel -- a massive change in American foreign policy that will likely benefit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," wrote A Ward. "Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day war." The raised plateau enables Israel to monitor Syrian territory, thus preventing a surprise attack. "The area provides a third of Israel's water supply" and has the only ski resort in Israel. In 2017, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and in 2018 the US moved its embassy to the city. The status of Jerusalem was the main sticking point in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians who want the city to be the capital of an independent Palestine. Guatemala recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel followed by Australia in 2018. The Golan Heights have become even more important now that Bashar al-Assad has won the civil war with the help of Russia and Israel's sworn enemy Iran and its ally Hezbollah. In January, the deputy head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Big Gen Hossain Salami said, "Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map." "The Israelis will not have even a cemetery in Palestine to bury their own corpses." In January Israeli planes bombed Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, after rockets were fired towards the Golan Heights. In December, Israel hit Hezbollah commanders as they were about to board a flight to Iran and also bombed Iranian munition stores. Israelis are excavating tunnels dug by the Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel. In 2006, Israel attacked Hezbollah forces in Lebanon after it ambushed two Isreali Humvees, killed three Israeli soldiers, injured two and abducted two others. Ghassan Eid, a Christian, proudly said, "The villages were riddled with tunnels. Hezbollah emerged from under the earth and attacked Israeli tanks, pushing them out of our country." At the time of the Lebanon war Hezbollah possessed 15,000 rockets, of which it fired 4,000 into Israel. "Hezbollah has since expanded its rocket force, today estimated at 130,000 rounds." In 2016, Iran test fired two ballistic missiles with the words "Israel must be wiped out" written on their sides. "The 2,000-kilometer range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime," said Brig Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Iranian success in Syria and its increasing arsenal of missiles is pushing Israel and Saudi Arabia to increase friendly contacts between each other, wrote Prof M Ayoob. With Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah fighter right on its borders Israel can never give up its control of the Golan Heights. Trump just recognized that.