In an interview with Israel National News, Middle East expert Professor Moshe Sharon said that there was no need to take seriously Syrian threats to "return to violence" unless Israel agreed to surrender the Golan. "That kind of talk is popular today in the Arab world," he said. Syrian President Bashar Assad "wishes the Golan Druse would organized a terror group to fight Israel, but this is an empty threat, because the Golan Druse are too smart for this, and they have no reason to ruin their pastoral lives for Assad," he said.
What Assad really wants, Sharon said, was to be able to control the water resources of the region. Syria is suffering from a serious water shortage, he said, and "the Syrians want the Kinneret to be able to meet their needs."