Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas are right to urge that the United States government recognize Israel’s sovereignty over a section of the Golan Heights. Such recognition is long overdue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he is asking President Trump to recognize the legitimacy of Israel’s control of the 7 percent of the heights that it annexed in 1981 after capturing them from Syria during 1967’s Six-Day War. He made the remarks at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.

Control of the heights is tremendously important for the safety of people living in the northern part of Israel. If hostile powers control the heights, they can use the advantages of the elevation to rain attacks on the Israelis below. That’s exactly what Syrian artillery did to Israeli farmers in the 1950s and 1960s. Israel particularly fears Iranian presence on the heights through its proxy, the terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Israel recently exposed the existence of Hezbollah tunnels into Israel from nearly Lebanon, and Iranian-backed militias have been expanding their territory in eastern Syria. With the possible withdrawal of American forces from Syria, Iran’s influence in that country is likely to grow still further. Iran officially says Israel has no right to exist, and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has in the past advocated a specific plan to destroy the Jewish state.

“Israel's northern border has become increasingly dangerous in recent weeks with the discovery of Hezbollah’s terror tunnels and Bashar al Assad’s continued efforts to consolidate control of Syria with the assistance of Iranian shock troops,” Cruz and Cotton said. “Responding to the threat posed by Iran and its proxies requires ensuring that Israel can defend its territory and its citizens from attacks. To support Israel’s right to self defense, Washington should take the long overdue step of affirming Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.”

Netanyahu also has a personal connection to the Golan Heights: It was there that his older brother Jonathan was seriously wounded while successfully rescuing a fellow soldier deep behind enemy lines in the Six-Day War. He again served with valor, including another heroic rescue mission, in the heights during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

The fact is that Israel does not use the Golan Heights to rain terror upon innocent Syrian citizens, but Syria repeatedly did use the heights for terror and for military assaults upon Israel. Israel has maintained peace there for nearly four decades, and its de facto sovereignty there should be recognized as both just and official by other governments and by the United Nations.