The Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights: Their Political, Geographic, and Security Value, and Cruciality to Israeli Security
The Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights: Their Political, Geographic, and Security Value, and Cruciality to Israeli Security

Summary/Abstract: The Sinai Peninsula remains a vital security, strategic, and political focus of Israel. In addition to the Palestinian population residing there is Hamas, an Iran-backed militant group that actively commits acts of terror. Since 1979 and the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, peace returned to the peninsula after decades of conflict between the two nations over this territory; and since 2015, Israel has conducted air strikes in conjunction with Egypt against elements of the Islamic State in the Sinai. The Golan Heights remains of contemporary relevance for Israeli security, strategy, and politics. Seized by Israel from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War, the territory is an important buffer zone against the terrorist group Hezbollah. Additionally, its relevance is daily displayed in the direction and consequences of the ongoing Syrian civil war, and recognition of the Golan Heights as under Israeli sovereignty by the Trump Administration in March 2019. The following paper is a case study of these two geographic areas and how both hold political, security and geographic value for Israel, offering justification for Israeli strategic and security actions within each.

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