Bashar al-Assad was never capable of taking a different path.

A not-unprecedented trip to the Golan and a stop at a legal settlement.

It could have belonged to the mysterious Geshurites.

There’s still no stability in the Syrian Golan.

The mysterious civilization centuries before Abraham.

In the Golan Heights, evidence of a transition from study hall to prayer hall.

“King David might have walked on these very cobblestones.”

How Amos Ben-Gal held the line.

And contradict every legal claim made on behalf of the Palestinians.

It never secured for its population either freedom or prosperity.

Recognition of Israeli sovereignty upholds the international order.

Perhaps peace should be the reward for peace.

Justified politically, strategically, historically, and morally.

What Monday’s shelling in the Golan portends.