The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau of approximately 1,800 square kilometres on Syria’s southwestern border, overlooking the Jordan River valley and the Sea of Galilee. It was captured by Israel from Syria during the Six-Day War of June 1967, in fighting that lasted less than three days and in which Syrian defences collapsed with unexpected speed. The loss of the Golan was both a military catastrophe and a profound national humiliation for Syria; the plateau’s commanding position over northern Israel and the Jordan valley made it of the highest military value, while the speed of its loss suggested a degree of military incompetence or political interference in command decisions that Ba’ath Syria never fully acknowledged. Hafez al-Assad, Defence Minister at the time, bore some responsibility for the military decisions that led to the collapse; the Golan’s recovery became the defining mission of his political life. Syria launched a major offensive to recover the Golan in the October War of 1973, but Israeli forces repulsed the advance. The disengagement agreement of May 1974 left the Golan in Israeli hands under UN monitoring. Israel formally extended Israeli law to the Golan in 1981 in a move not internationally recognised as annexation; Donald Trump recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in March 2019. The Golan was never recovered under either Assad.