•HRES 768 IH 
Whereas since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, 
the violence has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands; 
Whereas over one million people have been wounded; 
Whereas more than 5 million refugees have fled Syria to 
neighboring countries and to Europe, and millions more 
have become internally displaced persons; 
Whereas according to the United Nations Office for the Co-
ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 13.5 mil-
lion Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance; 
Whereas the warring parties have compounded the problem 
by refusing humanitarian agencies access to civilians in 
need; 
Whereas a functioning nation-state is far from being con-
structed out of the currently warring Alawite, Shia, 
Sunni, Kurd, and Druze factions; 
Whereas until the Six Day War in 1967, Syria used a heavily 
fortified Golan as a platform to fire at Israeli villages 
below; 
Whereas Damascus also permitted the Palestinian Liberation 
Organization to use the Golan as a staging ground for 
terrorism; 
Whereas in the immediate aftermath of the Six Day War, 
Israel offered to negotiate the status of all the territories 
it had seized, and Syria, along with Israel’s other Arab 
neighbors, roundly rejected the offer; 
Whereas, in 1973, Arab nations launched the Yom Kippur 
war in an attempt to retake the territory (including the 
Sinai and Golan Heights), to which U.S. military assist-
ance was critical in assisting Israel in repelling. It also 
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•HRES 768 IH 
caused tremendous tension between the U.S. and the 
USSR, and threatened a larger potential conflict; 
Whereas since 1992, four Israeli prime ministers have sought 
to achieve peace with Syria: all initiatives have failed; 
Whereas since being under Israeli control, the Golan has be-
come a thriving site of agriculture, industry, and tourism; 
Whereas the Golan is home to approximately 20,000 Jewish 
Israelis, as well as 20,000 Druze, who speak Arabic and 
practice their own distinctive religion freely under Israeli 
control; 
Whereas the peace and security of Israel is in the United 
States national security interest; 
Whereas the region has been stable and the attacks against 
Israel have significantly decreased since Israel has con-
trolled the Golan; 
Whereas the Golan Heights must not come under the control 
of Islamic State jihadists, Hezbollah or other terrorist 
groups; 
Whereas Israel has a legitimate territorial claim to the Golan 
Heights, and Israeli law has applied to the Golan for al-
most 35 years; 
Whereas Israel has exercised its authority in a manner that 
suits all the residents of the territory; and 
Whereas international law favors stability, order, and peace: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that it is in the United States national secu-
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•HRES 768 IH 
rity interest for Israel to maintain control of the Golan 
Heights. 
Æ 
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