Israel plans to expand Golan settlements after fall of Assad

[nmmi]

4. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981. So it's been a done deal for 43 years in many/most Israeli minds

and certainly in Bibi's mind.

Neither the UN nor the international community has recognized that annexation. As for the U.S. ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights

On 25 March 2019, then-President of the United States Donald Trump proclaimed U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as a part of the State of Israel, making it the first country to do so.[232][233] Israeli officials lobbied the United States into recognizing "Israeli sovereignty" over the territory.[234] The 28 member states of the European Union declared in turn that they do not recognize Israeli sovereignty, and several experts on international law reiterated that the principle remains that land gained by either defensive or offensive wars cannot be legally annexed under international law.[235][236][237] The European members of the UN Security Council issued a joint statement condemning the US announcement and the UN Secretary-General issued a statement saying that the status of the Golan had not changed.[238]

Under the subsequent administration of President Joe Biden, the US State Department's annual report on human rights violations around the world once more refers to the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as being territories occupied by Israel.[239] In June 2021, the Biden administration affirmed that it will continue to maintain the previous administration's policy of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.[240]
. . .
[240] Lazaroff, Tova (26 June 2021). "US: No change to policy recognizing Israeli sovereignty on Golan". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 28 June 2021. ( https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/us-no-change-to-policy-recognizing-israeli-sovereignty-on-golan-672052 )

Emphasis added by nmmi

The essense of the Jerusalem Post article:

The United States rejected as “false” a claim by the Washington Free Beacon that it had “walked back” its recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

“US policy regarding the Golan has not changed, and reports to the contrary are false,” the State Department tweeted under its Near Eastern Affairs account on Friday.

It spoke up less than 24 hours after the Beacon published its report, which claimed that the US was rescinding the Golan sovereignty recognition granted Israel in 2018 under the Trump administration.

And now Israel is occupying the buffer zone - a small (about the size of the Gaza strip) formerly demilitarized strip (that was patrolled by the U.N.) between Israeli-occupied/annexed Golan Heights and Syria. Supposedly temporarily but I'm not buying that anymore.

And Mount Hermon, the highest point in the region. They aren't going to give that up either.