Now in his mid-50s, Golan still looks like he's capable of taking an entire unit and leading it into an urban part of Gaza, because that is the only way of confronting the Hamas problem. There are four areas in which he is harshly critical of Israel: the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the way the IDF is handling the Hamas threat; the bureaucracy's betrayal of Israel's citizens; and what is taking place in the historical-national sphere.

Recently, Golan joined the Jerusalem Institute of Strategy and Security and took part in writing a document formulating a diplomatic-defense outlook that was presented to Netanyahu. But he is not limiting himself to statements; this week, it appeared that he would soon make a final decision to enter politics. He also sat down with Israel Hayom to discuss his views on politics and defense, and where they intersect.

Q: You told TV interviewer Ilana Dayan that you're interested in public life. Is that happening?

"I'm jumping in, and I'm talking with a lot of people. I still haven't made up my mind how I'll do it, and what the right way to do it is."

Q: And when you see the political mess in real time - does that whet your appetite?

"Yes. It only makes me 'hungrier.' I'm serious."

Q: Your colleague, former GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Tal Russo [who joined the Labor Party], is projecting a sense of complete confusion. He said he was learning about it.

"That's Tal. He's cautious. What is there to understand? There was an election, and in a functioning world, If things were normal [here], the two big parties would have set up a coalition that nothing could bring down. 70 MKs, a solid majority that would also represent the people of Israel. The ideological differences between the Likud and Blue and White are slim to none. In a functioning world, a centrist coalition would have been formed, neither Right nor Left, which would do things that most of the Israeli people want. Without the diversions from the haredim or the extreme Right.

"All that needed to happen was for the elected prime minister, still Benjamin Netanyahu, to say, 'People, if I'm indicted, I promise to resign. Then we would have had a great coalition."

Golan acknowledges: "I'm a rookie when it comes to political commentary. We talk about democracy, about the will of the people. The government should express that will, at least that's how I see it. A bloc comprising of the Likud and Blue and White would number 70 [seats] is the best expression of the will of the people … I can guess what that sector wants and needs, and I can say with certainty that we can think about it together."

"We could take the good people in the Likud, and there are good people there, and the good people in Blue and White – and there are those too – and establish a great government. Because there would be only two big parties, there would probably be fewer ministers, and we'd save a lot of money that will probably be wasted in the next government. Everyone in that bloc understands that we won't make peace with the Palestinians by tomorrow. But they're sober folks who won't say, 'Let's attack Iran.' Take it slow. That bloc could formulate economic, social, and educational policy."

When asked to characterize the politics of today, Golan says, "politics has never been nice" and that "Bibi didn't invent dirty tricks."

Still, he says, Netanyahu's political tactics are his primary complaint about the prime minister.

"He is establishing a politics of identity, which radicalizes itself. This is a type of politics that kills any ability to carry on a dialogue. This is a type of politics that deals less with content and more with images and labels. Netanyahu is to a large extent responsible for these past politics."

Q: With the difference being under Netanyahu, Israel's situation is better than it has ever been.

"If you look at Netanyahu's decisions over his years in office, you won't find too many bad ones. All in all, he's a cautious man … His decisions are reasonable. But he is responsible for identity politics, which is eating at us all. Don't brush it off as a global trend. There was an economic crisis in 2008, and we were smart enough then not to be part of the global trend. Why when it comes to politics shouldn't we say to ourselves – let's not be like the rest of the world?"

Three years ago, Golan addressed another major concern of his in a speech he gave on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day: the deteriorating relations between Netanyahu and the defense establishment after the affair of Elor Azaria, a former IDF soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting an immobilized Palestinian terrorist in Hebron.

Q: It seems that after Avigdor Lieberman was appointed defense minister, the clashes between the defense establishment and the prime minister reached their peak. It was as if there was a need to topple Netanyahu.

"That didn't happen."

Q: You were speaking from the heart, without any outside calculations?

"There were no political considerations."

Q: That was a disappointment - it was clear after the speech that you could not be appointed IDF chief of staff.

"What can I say? I ask myself, what did I say that awakened so much public discourse? It wasn't the comparison to the Holocaust. I didn't make the comparison. I cast doubt on the country's leadership. I said that leaders must show responsibility. The IDF has seen cases of violation of [the principle of] purity of arms that were much worse than what Elor Azaria did. I remember myself as a youth, in 1978 – the Pinto affair. How can the two be compared?"

The Pinto affair Golan is referring to took place during Operation Litani, when Lt. Daniel Pinto murdered a few Lebanese prisoners and threw their bodies into a well. The defense establishment embraced him, and his marriage to a major general's daughter helped matters. He was tried for his actions, and Judge Meir Shamgar assigned him a reduced sentence. One of the paratroop commanders, Yoav Hirsch, who reported the murders, was deemed a snitch by his comrades and became an outcast.

"When it comes to Elor Azaria, I'm talking about the national aspect of the case," Golan explains. "It was clear that a wrongful action was carried out. With Mr. Pinto, who was the best of the best and an outstanding officer and good-looking, he did what he did and there was never a question about whether or not the IDF would investigate. It was obvious. But what happened with Azaria? Did we lose our minds? Why were all these politicians flocking to defend him? Netanyahu should have stood up and said, people, stop. Something happened, a soldier is suspected of acting illegally, and I'm asking you – drop it and let the IDF handle it in an orderly manner. What was he [Netanyahu] doing, calling Azaria's father?"

Q: He also told Azaria's father the IDF would handle the matter.

"There is a longing for Israel to return to normal. To stop with the righteousness on one hand and not be violent or condescending on the other."

Golan says Azaria was given a fair trial. "By the way, he got the punishment he was expected to receive because ultimately, there's no such charge as 'intent to commit murder. He found himself in a situation, and there was a storm of emotion. He didn't get up in the morning and say, today I'm going to kill someone," Golan says.

"The way I see it, in the Azaria affair – like in others – the leadership did not conduct itself responsibly. An attack on morality is an attack on the justness of the path. When we go into areas under dispute, and it doesn't matter if it's in Lebanon or Nablus or Jabaliya, I want to know that when all the political debate is over, I'm doing the right thing, that there is a government that makes the decisions, which are based on an idea, which is moral and well-intentioned.

"Then I can ask things of a soldier who comes from a left-wing or right-wing or religious background. Here, there are no 'backgrounds.' Here, we represent the government. But the moment the army becomes 'left-wing and defeatist,' the courts become 'destroyers of Israel' and the chief justice of the Supreme Court is 'not a Zionist' – the day isn't far off when a soldier will say he cannot serve here."

"Identity politics is destroying good governance. It's the most dangerous politics of all. Our politicians are playing with fire. We don't live in surroundings in which we won't encounter the toughest, most bitter issues sooner or later."

Q: Are you saying that we'll find ourselves in an all-out war and there will be rifts that we cannot overcome?

"It doesn't need to be a full-scale war. A new outbreak of violence in Judea and Samaria is enough to require a lot of people to be sent in. If the polarization continues, the attitude of 'not our problem,' then I'm warning you..."

In the end, people are judged by their actions, and there are very few commanders who have operated with Golan's level of efficiency to ensure the security of settlers in Judea and Samaria and against terrorism in general. His combat past has left a hole in his elbow, and two or three more in his other arm, below the shoulder. But the extreme Right has a tendency not to forget or learn, and the provocations against Golan when he was being considered for chief of staff apparently stem from an old grudge against him for having served as commander of the Judea and Samaria Brigade during the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in northern Samaria, as well as the evacuation of the Amona outpost in 2006.

"Public life is a life of defects. The policies I fought for my whole life and risked my life for weren't always the most just or most correct," Golan says.

"Let's say that we could have left South Lebanon five years earlier. Until 1988, Iran wasn't bothering anyone and was busy fighting an existential war against Iraq. After that, it got back on its feet, and the Taif Agreement [ending the civil war in Lebanon] was signed in 1989. Obviously, Israel's withdrawal from the security zone in southern Lebanon was a huge victory for Hezbollah, which influenced [PLO leader Yasser] Arafat. Arafat's spurning Ehud Barak's peace proposal at Camp David was absolutely related to the sense that Israeli society was very weak. He believed the nonsense that [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah was telling him. I think that if we were still in the security zone, Hezbollah would be stronger and would have graduated to missiles."

According to Golan, the "turning point" came in 2003, when the Iranians realized that the Americans had crushed their main enemy, the Iraqis, and had no further reason to fear what was happening on their border.

"Then Iran started wondering about acquiring influence in Iraq after it already had Lebanon and [Syrian President Bashar] Assad," who Golan says "admires" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Nasrallah.

Golan claims that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was a trigger for the Iranians to enter Syria.

"By the end of 2012, Iran had instructed Hezbollah to stop messing with the Jews. 'The Shebaa Farms, Mount Dov – stop that nonsense and don't open a new front against Israel. There is one goal – save Assad.' That wasn't related to the nuclear deal. Nasrallah didn't want to go into Syria; he was really taking orders from the Iranians."

Q: There was a view among top defense officials that Israel should make peace with Syria by offering them the Golan Heights, thereby removing them from the 'axis of evil.' Based on what you're saying, that was never realistic.

"That's nonsense, evil-spirited nonsense. I object to any compromise on the Golan Heights with every fiber of my being, not even an inch of it. Don't confuse yourself with deals. The only thing we should be worried about is having to control a foreign population. There is no foreign population on the Golan, so Israel should stay there, full stop. The fact that Katzrin, in the last 15 years, has only reached a population of 7,700 is a historic missed opportunity."

This week, Golan received a phone call from Labor party leader Avi Gabbay, inviting him to run for head of Labor.

"Personally, it's a good fit for me," Golan says, adding that he sees the mandatory three-year wait period for senior IDF commanders before they are allowed to enter politics as "corruption."

"Why can a person take a senior position in the Treasury immediately after retiring from a Chinese firm, with no limitations, but army officers have to recuse themselves for three years? I think a year is fine. But three? Am I a criminal?"

Q: How do you explain that the law allows a prime minister to continue serving if under trial or indictment?

"There are norms. We already had a prime minister who went to prison. When he was indicted, he was no longer prime minister. He went home."

Q: He went home because the political system didn't want him to stay in power.

"It's Bibi who said that a prime minister who is indicted should leave office, not me."

Q: What rank did you hold when the Oslo Accords were signed?

"In 1993 I was the head of operations for the division. [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin would come to approve plans."

Q: Did you have political opinions, or as an officer did you think you had to carry out orders as a professional? 

"There were terrorist attacks. We asked why the peace process wasn't being stopped. We didn't understand. You'd say, why am I giving up Bethlehem when I see that in Nablus Arafat is arresting people and then letting them go two days later? It didn't make sense. I was a lieutenant colonel at the time, and it was a time of vision – we were going to bring peace, so we had to say goodbye. Clear borders. From an emotional standpoint, it failed. When it comes to the exit from Gaza, while this might not be a popular opinion, it strengthened Israel's security."

When asked if at an earlier stage of his military career he ever imagined that the Palestinians in Gaza would be capable of firing rockets at most of Israel, Golan replied: "I think that the [2005] disengagement from Gaza was very bad in the way we implemented it. But do I miss accompanying convoys carrying bombs to Gush Katif? Does anyone miss chasing rock-throwers at al-Shati [refugee camp]? In Jabaliya? In the first five years of the Second Intifada, 147 Israelis were killed in Gaza. Since 2005, 121 Israelis have been killed there, including all the soldiers who died in all military operations."

Q: Like in the Yom Kippur War, people dismissed the Arabs' engineering capabilities, and never thought they would be able to manufacture and shoot rockets. Do you see that as an existential threat?

"An existential threat – certainly not. There's no need to exaggerate. The fact that we are fighting in Gaza badly and not doing what needs to be done is a different story. We had three opportunities to bring it to order, and we gave up. We're afraid."

Q: Of casualties? How many soldiers' lives would an operation like that cost? 500?

"We're afraid to fight. We're afraid of casualties. It wouldn't be 500 dead. We give the enemy too much credit. Fighting in Gaza doesn't come without a cost – fighting in an urban setting is fighting on the ground. It needs to be done, because it's what we need to do."

Q: And what would follow a ground incursion?

"The equation is imaginary. There is a public aspect – the assumption is that if we go into Gaza, we'll be bogged down there for years, is wrong."

Q: So we could launch an incursion that would take X time, and then withdraw.

"Right. And I don't understand what's happening. The same thing happened before Operation Defensive Shield [in 2002] – we didn't leave those Palestinian cities just so we could go back. But there are terrorists in those cities that led to terrorists blowing themselves up in our own cities, so we had to go back. We went in, and came back out. Today, they are the Palestinians' responsibility."

Q: What is happening to the IDF's ground fighting abilities?

"First of all, incursions into Palestinian cities took place only after Israel endured an insufferable number of casualties [from terrorist attacks] and the event that changed everything was the Park Hotel bombing. Something else was that during the ongoing fighting, we gained a lot of experience. Villages, towns, after that, in cities and refugee camps. I took the Nour al-Shams camp in Tulkarem before Defensive Shield. Bit by bit, we built up our capabilities … when we fought correctly, we knew how to deliver painful blows to Hezbollah, as well. And these weren't the IDF's elite units. We are presenting ourselves with a threat. We're glorifying the enemy."

Q: Who is responsible for that? The IDF?                     

"The army is wrong. The professional responsibility rests with the IDF. If in Operation Protective Edge the chief of staff had said, we need to go into Gaza, I would have known how to do it. I think the government would have approved an incursion. It's like going to the doctor –you don't tell him what to do, because he's the one who understands. The government can't tell the army, 'This is what you need to do.' Because the army is the one that knows.

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Speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu addressed a nation rattled by the prospect of an unprecedented second election campaign after the newly re-elected Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition.

In a bid to play down the political chaos and focus public attention on his foreign policy prowess – in particular, his close friendship with Trump – Netanyahu whipped out Kushner's map, on which President Trump had scribbled, "Nice." Trump also signed the map.

Israel captured the parts of the Golan Heights in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

The White House upended decades of policy when it recognized Israeli sovereignty over the area several months ago, citing its vital importance to Israel's security.

During his speech Netanyahu attacked Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman for sabotaging the coalition talks Netanyahu had held over the past 42 days, which resulted in the Knesset dissolving itself and calling a new election.

Netanyahu pushed for the dissolution after realizing that Lieberman was not going to compromise in his demands for entering Netanyahu's fifth government, thus denying the prime minister with a governing coalition in the Knesset.

Had Netanyahu not moved to dissolve the Knesset, President Reuven Rivlin would have likely assigned another MK with the task of forming a new government.

Netanyahu said that Lieberman's demands, including his request to pass legislation that would impose mandatory quotas on the conscription of haredim to the Israel Defense Forces, would have been addressed had he negotiated in good faith.

"He is a serial saboteur of right-wing governments," Netanyahu said on Lieberman. Netanyahu said Lieberman's real goal was to deny Netanyahu a government.

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In addition to the eight killed, two more survived and were being treated for poisoning. One fox and two jackals were also found dead.

"This is a very sad event," the authority said in a statement.

In the past, farmers have used poison against "nuisance" species that harm their livestock or crops, including foxes and jackals.

Israel was once home to several breeding vulture species, though their populations have experienced a sharp and consistent decline since the 1980s, with several near or already having reached extinction.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.

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"After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and regional stability!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for the Golan Heights gesture. "You've made history," Netanyahu told Trump in a phone call after the announcement, according to Netanyahu's office.

"At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Thank you President Trump! @realDonaldTrump," Netanyahu wrote in a tweet.

Netanyahu has been pressing for the United States to recognize Israel's claim to sovereignty over the Golan Heights and raised that possibility in his first White House meeting with Trump in February 2017.

Israel captured the area from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. It gave back a small sliver of the land as part of a 1974 separation of forces agreement and annexed it in 1981.

The prime minister had been expected to raise the issue again with Trump during his visit to Washington, an Israeli official said.

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Additionally, the report's section on the West Bank and Gaza did not label those areas as being "occupied" or under "occupation."

The current U.S. policy on who controls the West Bank and Gaza is that the final status is to be decided in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. But the description changes from Israel occupying the aforementioned areas to controlling them demonstrates a significant shift in semantics by U.S. officials.

However, Michael Kozak, head of the State Department's Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Bureau, noted that the language in the report does not reflect any policy changes.

"The policy on the status of the territories has not changed," he told reporters last week.

Nevertheless, the Middle East Forum's Gregg Roman told JNS that "the U.S. omission of the term 'occupied' from both the West Bank and Golan Heights reflects regional reality on the ground. The U.S. recognizes Israel maintaining a hold on the Golan Heights, and the argument over the West Bank should be treated as disputed territories, not occupied."

B'nai B'rith International CEO Dan Mariaschin echoed Roman's reaction, saying "the State Department's shift in language is a welcome response to the current reality in the region."

"The term 'occupation' has long been used as a weapon against Israel in spite of the fact that Israel acquired these lands in a defensive war, and has repeatedly offered its neighbors peace and diplomacy," he told JNS.

"The simple reference to these lands by their geographic names removes a biased political moniker that serves no purpose other than to vilify Israel and prejudge the outcome of future negotiations."

Endowment for Middle East Truth founder and president Sarah Stern told JNS that the change "shows that the State Department has crossed a Rubicon."

"It is extremely significant that the State Department, for the first time, has dropped the term 'occupied' when referring to the Golan Heights, the West Bank (i.e., Judea and Samaria), and Gaza," she said.

"This seems to acknowledge that these lands were acquired through wars of self-defense and not through some sort of expansionist quest for territorial acquisition."

The softening of the language comes as the Trump administration has taken a harder line against the Palestinians, largely cutting off aid due to the Palestinian Authority's refusal to negotiate with the United States, as well as its financial support for terrorists and their families.

At the same time, the administration is preparing to release its proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reports indicate that the Trump administration will likely release its Mideast peace plan following Israel's elections on April 9.

'Continued obstinacy is not an option'

Washington-based geopolitical strategist and diplomacy consultant John Sitilides told JNS that the designation change reflects a bigger picture.

"The Trump administration has been clear in its frustration with the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic failures of prior decades," he said. Beginning with the U.S. Embassy consolidation move to Jerusalem, the White House has sought to refresh strategic thinking regarding the region's future."

"Recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is a red line to not be crossed, a dangerous precedent in resolving problems worldwide," he continued. "The new term 'Israeli-controlled' [works to] advance Israel's security interests and warns Iran to pull back its cross-Syria ambitions, directly and through its proxies."

Moreover, Sitilides said that "it also reassures Moscow that Syria's borders will only be redrawn through a grand framework. The new language regarding the West Bank and Gaza is a warning shot to the Fatah leadership that continued obstinacy is not an option. It also signals Palestinians that they must re-engage the diplomatic process, or their future will be written for them by their adversaries."

While the Zionist Organization of America applauded the language changes instituted by the State Department, it expressed disappointment over other areas of the report.

"The report repeatedly mentions allegations from anti-Israel [George] Soros- and EU-funded NGOs," ZOA national president Mort Klein told JNS.

"These NGOs are notorious for defending and promoting terrorists, and inventing and propagating anti-Israel falsehoods, and should never be relied on in an official U.S. publication."

Examples of such NGOs include B'Tselem and the New Israel Fund, which both have received funding from Soros' Open Society Foundation.

"During the year Israeli forces killed Palestinians in the West Bank who were attempting or allegedly attempting to attack Israelis, according to B'Tselem and media reports," states the report.

"According to media reports and B'Tselem, some of those killed did not pose a lethal threat to the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) or civilians at the time they were killed."

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon has said that "B'Tselem has proven time and again that it collaborates with Israel's enemies."

However, the report includes organizations such as Im Tirtzu that are ideologically opposite to groups such as B'Tselem.

Klein added that "the State Department report also repeatedly uses the inaccurate term 'protestors' to downplay the violent rioters and attempted mass infiltration of Israel from the Gaza border."

"B'Tselem stated that 149 of the Palestinian protesters who were killed did not take part in hostilities," according to the report. "The government stated that many of the victims were operatives of Hamas or encouraged by Hamas to protest near the border."

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Dore Gold told JNS that the description changes reflect that "recent events have crystallized what the real alternatives are for the Golan Heights" such as Iran and its proxies in Syria taking control of it.

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The Golan Heights form a buffer between Israel and Syria of about 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles). Israel seized most of the Golan in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the territory in 1981, a move that has not been recognized internationally.

The United States has abstained in previous years on the annual "Occupied Syrian Golan" resolution, which declares Israel's decision to impose its jurisdiction in the area "null and void", but Washington's U.N. envoy Nikki Haley said it would vote against the resolution in Friday's vote.

"The United States will no longer abstain when the United Nations engages in its useless annual vote on the Golan Heights," she said in a statement on Thursday.

"The resolution is plainly biased against Israel. Further, the atrocities the Syrian regime continues to commit prove its lack of fitness to govern anyone."

Her comments came after U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said in September that he expected Israel to keep the Golan Heights in perpetuity, in an apparent nod towards its claim of sovereignty over the territory.

Since early in Donald Trump's presidency, Israel has lobbied for formal U.S. endorsement of its control of the Golan. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, breaking with other world powers, though U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said in August a similar Golan move was not under discussion.

Israeli officials praised the U.S. move.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called it was "extremely important," Tweeting, "No sane person can believe that it [the Golan] should be given to Assad and Iran."

Tehran has supported Assad during the civil war and Israel has been warning against Iranian military entrenchment in Syria.

Israel has closely monitored the fighting in Syria, where just across the Golan frontier battles have raged in clear view.

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Israeli police cleared a path for would-be voters outside the balloting center in Majdal Shams. As protesters continued to prevent people from entering, police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. No one was hurt or arrested.

The town is the largest Druze community in the area.

"The Golan's identity is Arab and Syrian," chanted the protesters as they put a banner on the entrance reading: "No to elections."

Inside the building, election officials sat in mostly empty rooms with blue ballot boxes bearing Israeli insignia.

Some voters made it past the prowwww.

"It's my right to vote. I'm free to choose the right person," said one man as he emerged from the polling station carrying a child. Glancing at the crowd, he refused to give his name.

The Druze are a fiercely independent Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam. Around 22,000 Druze live on the Golan Heights.

Israel, seeking to further integrate them, has offered citizenship but most Druze rejected it. Many regard themselves as Syrian, even after more than half a century of life under Israeli rule.

After an election eve town center meeting and march featuring dozens of rainbow Druze flags, the community's elders issued a prohibition against candidates standing and people voting, threatening to make outcasts of anyone who took part.

"Candidates and those who come to vote will have a religious and social prohibition put upon them," said Sheikh Khamis Khanjar. "What bigger punishment is there than this?"

Many Druze have enjoyed economic prosperity on the other side of the front line from their brethren in war-torn Syria.

"When you are in a state that is giving you all your rights, why wouldn't you vote?" asked Sahar Said Ahmed as she watched the election eve protest in a town square dominated by the statue of a Druze leader who fought French forces during the colonial era.

Outside the polling station, Druze religious elders wearing their distinctive maroon and white caps urged youths not to confront the police. One concern was that the issue of taking part in Israeli elections was dividing the community.

"For more than 50 years, Israel has been trying to sow disputes by divide and rule and it is happy at the differences that are surfacing," said Moenis Abdullah.

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Dressed in traditional black garb and white hats, the small crowd chanted and shouted into megaphones, pledging loyalty to Assad. Syrian soldiers stationed across the security fence and on the opposite side of a valley hundreds of meters away yelled back in support of the Druze.

The Druze are an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam and whose adherents in Syria have long been loyal to the ruling Assad family.

Emil Masoud, 38, who lives in the village of Masade, said the Israeli Druze gathered to "celebrate the final stages of the war ... and to celebrate with our people in Syria the final stage of victory."

Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of Syria's seven-year civil war.

The border itself has been mostly calm, with occasional stray fire from Syria or brief exchanges, though heavy fighting could be easily heard and seen in the distance.

Israeli Druze, some of whom have influence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the military, have at times urged Israel to intervene across the frontier, where hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and millions driven from their homes during the civil war.

The Golan Heights was part of Syria until Israel captured it in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the territory in 1981.

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