Why are the Golan Heights of such strategic importance to Israel?

Answer 1

The Golan Heights are higher than the the surrounding Israeli land. When the Syrians had control of the Heights, they'd fire rockets at civilian settlements in Israel from the vantage point.

Today, Israel uses the dead soil of the Heights for agricultural research to develop drought resistant crops.

Answer 2

The Golan Heights are an area of high ground.

West of the Golan Heights is a somewhat lower area that has been part of Israel since at least 1948. In that area are farms operated by Israeli citizens, and towns populated by Israeli citizens.

While the Golan was an undisputed part of Syria, heavy artillery were often based there and randomly fired heavy artillery shells into the Israeli valley west of it. This not only damaged farm land but also caused considerable stress among the Israelis who lived there.

Therefore when Syrian forces invaded Israel in 1967 and were subsequently pushed out, the Golan Heights were occupied by Israel. That had the effect of reducing the artillery fire into the valley below.

As is typical in these cases, the Israelis did not retaliate in kind. There was never a peacetime shelling of the Syrian regional capital of Quneitra or any other place in the Western Quneitra government (even prior to the establishment of UNDOF in 1974). Israel has asked Syria to come to Quneitra which was heavily destroyed in the wake of Arab-Israeli War of 1973 and rebuil it, even though it sits in the UNDOF zone. To date, Quneitra is still a mound of rubble since Syria would prefer it be a testimony to "Israeli cruelty" that never actually occurred.

Answer 3

On very many occasions during the early 1970s, rockets were fired from the Golan Heights into the nearby lowlands, making it impossible for the Israelis in the Hula valley to conduct normal life. Had our neighbors to the north not insisted upon shooting at us, we could have left the Golan Heights in Syrian hands.

Answer 4

The area known as the Golan Heights overlooks a large area of northern Israel that includes

towns, farms, and kibbutzim. The valley is within easy range of artillery situated on the Heights,

and the Golan was used extensively and often for that purpose before Israel took control of it.

Answer 5

The Golan heights are not far from Damascus and were, relatively recently, a part of Syria. On the other hand, they overlook a large area in Israel and were sometimes used by the Syrians to fire rockets at Israeli towns or Kibbutzim.

For the above reasons, both sides see the Heights as an important strategic asset.