evidence: The Golan Heights: Its History and Significance Today [...] The Golan Heights is an elevated plateau stretching across some 932 square miles that shares a border with Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Several Jewish communities unsuccessfully tried to settle in the southern parts of the region and during the late Nineteenth Century the pre-independence Zionist movement claimed this area in the post-World War I Peace Conference of 1919. Rather than emphasising a historical connection to the area, the movement’s leaders chose to stress its strategic importance as a barrier from invading forces from the east (citing Bedouin tribes as the main threat) and a site for reliable irrigation sourcesfor a potential Zionist polity. With the creation of a mandate system in the early 1920s the area was eventually placed under French custodianship and became part of Syria with its establishment in 1946. [...] Of course, the general sentiment that the Golan is supposedly part of Israel predates Trump’s recognition. Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show is a case in point to this ignorance. A segment covering Israel’s 2014 military campaign in Gaza presented a map which did not encompass the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip but depicted the Golan Heights as an integral part of Israel. The fact that Stewart’s team chose this map is, however, hardly coincidental, since many existing maps have erased the line separating the Golan. Can we blame Donald Trump, if even Jon Stewart "recognises" Israel’s control of the Golan?