The on again-off again nature of formal talks between Israel and Syria raises legitimate questions about the successful outcome of efforts to arrange a peace between the long bitter enemies. What is not in dispute, however, is the degree to which Israel has reassessed long-held views of its territorial and settlement requirements on the Golan Heights–a transformation in elite military and strategic concepts, if not in public attitudes. Such views have enabled Israeli prime ministers since Yitzhak Rabin to conclude that Israel’s strategic interests in the twenty-first century will be better served by a contractual peace with Syria and without Golan settlements.