Israel may soon learn occupation and devastation are no guarantee of security

September 23, 2026 — 3:00am

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Militaries are rarely good occupiers. Time and demographics usually wear down the occupying power, and the reasons why occupation initially made sense rarely apply at the end. A displaced population will want their land back, making life increasingly hard for the occupiers and their political masters.

Next year will mark 60 years that Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Syria’s Golan Heights has been under de facto Israeli control for more than half a century. Following its response to the October 7, 2023 attacks, Israel now occupies 70 per cent of Gaza – territory it withdrew from in 2005. It has also grabbed strategically significant Syrian land including the summit of Mount Hermon after the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, and expanded its hold on Lebanese territory with a major ground operation in March.

There are sound tactical and even strategic reasons for temporary occupation. But temporary has an unerring tendency to lean towards the permanent in recent Israeli history. More than 30 years ago, then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said his “foremost consideration regarding the Golan Heights is the security value … Peace is for me a more important value for the future security of Israel than a group of settlements”.

Last month, in celebrating Colombia becoming the second country after the United States to recognise Israeli sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights, Prime........

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