Karl Vick is an idiot.
There, I said it. And so did Elder.
His latest piece, on the dichotomy between Israel and Syria vis-à-vis the Golan, is riddled with errors, that any 8 year old with Wikipedia can find.
…the strategic high ground Israel twice has taken from Syria — first, in the lightning-quick Six-Day War of 1967, then again, at great cost, after Syria’s surprise offensive in the October War six years later.
As I have shown before, the battle for the Golan 40 years ago is often shrouded in the “Israel lost” narrative. Truth is, that the Syrian offensive was stopped dead after 36 hours, and by the 4th day, Israeli armour was advancing inside Syria. That Vick says that Syria has somehow recaptured the entire Golan before Israel “took” it, is out of touch with reality. While Syria did capture key points, it didn’t come near as capturing the entire area.
He goes on to explain about the Golan demography, and fails.
Populated only by fewer than 20,000 people, most of them Druze who used to be Syrian, the airy landscape is mostly cattle rangeland, plus apple orchards, apiaries and vineyards.
Like the Guardian, the Golan population trumps journalism. There are 42,600 people living in the Golan, per 2012 CBS fact sheet. 20,800 of those are Druze, the rest Jews and Alawites, though topographically speaking, Ghajar isn’t on the Golan. As for “used to be Syrians”, the Golan has been Israeli longer than it has been Syrian and the Druze population after the 6 Day War was around 7000 people. It is true that while the older generation of Druze in the Golan view themselves as Syrians, this trend is changing since the onset of the Syrian civil war.
Vick goes on to translate:
“It’s a pity, really,” he says. “People on one side of the border drink wine, and on the other side they are killing each other.” He dandles his 18-month old daughter, named Emuna, Hebrew for “fate.”
“Emuna” is Hebrew for belief.
Then again, perhaps Vick needs an ear exam. It’s quite possible that Yaron Dekel, the man talking about his daughter, said: “Emunah is Hebrew for faith”
