Stop Condoleezza the Appeezza From Screwing Up Shebaa Farms

The US has always supported Israel's position that Shebaa Farms was part of Syria until recently when Condoleezza the Appeezza showed up in Lebanaon.Rice pleased her Hezbollah hosts by announcing U.S. backing for a new diplomatic push to resolve Syria's land dispute with Israel that Hezbollah has claimed for itself so it can use as a pretense to attack Israel.

"The time has come to deal with the Sheba Farms issue," Rice said, referring to the patch of land where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.

The long-disputed farms were not returned to Lebanon during the 2000 pullout after Israel insisted the farms were claimed by Syria (it took the farms During the Six Day War) Israel then said that only as part of a peace deal with Syria, which would potentially include returning part or all of the Golan Heights, would it consider returning the Sheba Farms to Syria.

The confusion regarding the ownership of the farms dates back to the partition of the French mandate territory during the period between the two world wars that shaped the borders of SyriaLebanon. and

The interesting part of this is that until Barak endangered Israel with the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, Sheba farms was always part of Syria. Even afterward when Israel was trying to negotiate a peace deal with Syria---> one of the reasons it fell apart was the issue of who gets how much of Sheba farms. Over the past six plus years Sheba has gone from Syrian territory to a Hezbollah excuse to maintain its campaign of terrorism against Israel. And Rice has done nothing but exasperate the situation.

Now the ZOA is Urging People to Contact Congress.

Urge Members of Congress To Sign On To The Knollenberg-Scott Letter Seeking Clarification Of U.S. Policy On Shebaa Farms/Har Dov.

July 28, 2008
ZOA Action Alert

Action Alert:

Contact your Representative now to express your support for the Knollenberg-Scott letter seeking clarification of U.S. Policy on the Shebaa Farms/Har Dov issue and urge them to sign on to the letter.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) supports the Knollenberg-Scott letter seeking clarification from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice of actual U.S. policy on the Shebaa farms/Har Dov issue. The ZOA applauds Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI, 9^th District) and Rep. David Scott (D-GA, 13^th District) for stepping across party lines to come together on this issue, and calls upon their colleagues in the House of Representatives to sign onto this letter as soon as possible. The full text of the letter can be viewed as a pdf here: [link to PDF to be inserted here]. The deadline for signing on to this letter is Friday, August 1^st.

As the Knollenberg-Scott letter states: “United States and international policy has consistently stated the Shebaa farms are not occupied Lebanese territory.”

Shebaa Farms/Har Dov is an area captured by Israel from Syria in the Arab war against Israel in 1967 and is not part of Lebanon. Indeed, the Israeli-Lebanese border was fully demarcated in 2000 by the United Nations, which found that Israel had completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory. Forcing Israel to relinquish this area to Lebanon is a stated objective of Hizballah, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s proxy army in the region. So any call to re-open the issue is a reward for Hizballah, and thus a further reward to Iran.

Yet last month U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told reporters after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that “the United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue...in accordance with [U.N. Security Council Resolution] 1701.”

The Knollenberg-Scott letter clearly points out just how troubling this seeming reversal of United States Policy is, explains and highlights the facts and history of the issue, and respectfully asks Secretary Rice to clarify the current position of the Bush administration regarding the Shebaa Farms.

We encourage you to contact your Representative to express your support for the Knollenberg-Scott letter on the Shebaa farms issue and urge them to sign onto this letter.

Phone 202-224-3121 & ask for your Member of the House of Representatives. Alternatively, you can obtain this information through our website here by CLICKING HERE.

The text of the Knollenberg-Scott letter may be found here. (pdf file, 100 MB)