Security Considerations and National Unity Require Jordan Valley Sovereignty
By Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman and Prof. Efraim Inbar, JISS
Executive Summary
The American peace plan provides a historic opportunity to break the futile paradigm based on the 1967 lines and ensure Israeli national security for the long term. It can extricate Israel (and the Palestinians) from false hopes engendered by the current peace paradigm – the “conventional wisdom” about an Israeli-Palestinian deal involving the expectation of Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders (with slight modifications), the uprooting of settlements, and a partition of Jerusalem. Again, this old paradigm is a recipe for continued deadlock.
In terms of security – protecting Israel, stabilizing Jordan, and preventing a terrorist takeover of a future Palestinian entity, and given the supreme importance of national cohesion, it is imperative to focus on the Jordan Valley and the Jerusalem envelope (which dominates the road to the Jordan Valley). There is a broad national consensus regarding the need to retain these regions. Moreover, this paradigm is consistent with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s strategic legacy (as expressed in his last major diplomatic address to the Knesset in 1995).
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