 Israel claims their intent was to create a 25-mile-wide sanitary cordon to protect its northern settlements. Others argue the invasion was long in the planning to neutralize Syrian and PLO opposition to Israel's plans to annex the Golan Heights, Samaria, and Judea, as well as Israel's hope to gain control of water rights to the Latani River and set up a pliant Christian government in Lebanon, thereby defeating Syrian influence in the region.