As The Daily Wire has reported numerous times, there has been a recent push among many for the U.S. to formally recognize Israel's control over the strategically sensitive Golan Heights region, which Israel first acquired in 1967's existential Six Day War defensive fight and formally annexed in 1981.
Since 1981, however, the status of the Golan Heights has languished as a matter of formal U.S. recognition.
On December 18, a joint Senate resolution from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) called for formal recognition by thoroughly tracing the modern history of the Golan's legal status, from 1967 through the bloody years-long civil war raging in Syria through the present day.
In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct pitch for formal U.S. recognition to National Security Advisor John Bolton. At a joint press conference with Bolton, Netanyahu stated, "Tomorrow, if weather permits, we will go up to the Golan Heights — it is tremendously important for our security. When you are there, you'll be able to understand perfectly why we will never leave the Golan Heights and why it is important that all countries recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights." And most recently, some Democrats last month indicated the possibility that there might be bipartisan support for some measure of U.S. recognition — either formal or de facto — of the Golan Heights.
Now, Axios reports that, for the first time, the U.S. State Department — long a parochial bastion of pro-Arab, anti-Israel bias — has taken the comparatively mild step of referring to the Golan Heights not as "occupied territory," but instead as "under Israeli control":
