Can Israel Afford to Concede the Mountain Ridges of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)?
Yoram Ettinger
Yoram Ettinger
Straight from the Jerusalem Cloakroom #223, July 10, 2009
1. The Mideast context since the 7th century: The most fragmented, conflict-ridden, unstable, unpredictable, volatile region; no inter-Arab comprehensive peace, no compliance with all inter-Arab agreements, no ratification of all inter-Arab boundaries, no Arab democracy; the cradle of Islamic terrorism, homicide bombers, hijacking, Improvised Explosive Device (IED), car-bombing and modern day hate-education.
2. Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish history, consists of two over-towering mountain ridges: A 3,000ft steep eastern slope above the Jordan Valley – the most effective tank barrier in the region; a 2,000ft gentle western slope – a dream platform of invasion to the 9-15 miles sliver along the Mediterranean (pre-1967 Israel). Judea and Samaria constitutes the "Golan Heights" of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the coastal plain and the 4 mile wide corridor between the coast and Jerusalem.
3. Israel's security predicament in perspective:
The width of pre-1967 Israel (without the over-towering mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria) is equal to 1/90 of the width of Texas, the distance between JFK and La Guardia airports, between Wall Street and Columbia University, between the Pentagon and Mt. Vernon, roundtrip between Kennedy Center and RFK Stadium, the length of DFW airport, less than the width of San Francisco, Miami and Washington DC, less than the distance between downtown London and Heathrow Airport, roundtrip between Albert Hall and the Tower of London and between Bois De Boulogne and La Place de la Bastille.
4. A 16 mile radius "killing zone" was established by the US Command in Bosnia, in order to safeguard the personal security of US servicemen. A 9-15 mile sliver along the Mediterranean, over-towered by the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, cannot safeguard the national security of the Jewish State.
4. A Deadly Oxymoron: Defensible borders for the Jewish State on the one hand, and a giveaway of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria on the other hand – in the Mideast context - constitutes a deadly oxymoron.
1. The Mideast context since the 7th century: The most fragmented, conflict-ridden, unstable, unpredictable, volatile region; no inter-Arab comprehensive peace, no compliance with all inter-Arab agreements, no ratification of all inter-Arab boundaries, no Arab democracy; the cradle of Islamic terrorism, homicide bombers, hijacking, Improvised Explosive Device (IED), car-bombing and modern day hate-education.
2. Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish history, consists of two over-towering mountain ridges: A 3,000ft steep eastern slope above the Jordan Valley – the most effective tank barrier in the region; a 2,000ft gentle western slope – a dream platform of invasion to the 9-15 miles sliver along the Mediterranean (pre-1967 Israel). Judea and Samaria constitutes the "Golan Heights" of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the coastal plain and the 4 mile wide corridor between the coast and Jerusalem.
3. Israel's security predicament in perspective:
The width of pre-1967 Israel (without the over-towering mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria) is equal to 1/90 of the width of Texas, the distance between JFK and La Guardia airports, between Wall Street and Columbia University, between the Pentagon and Mt. Vernon, roundtrip between Kennedy Center and RFK Stadium, the length of DFW airport, less than the width of San Francisco, Miami and Washington DC, less than the distance between downtown London and Heathrow Airport, roundtrip between Albert Hall and the Tower of London and between Bois De Boulogne and La Place de la Bastille.
4. A 16 mile radius "killing zone" was established by the US Command in Bosnia, in order to safeguard the personal security of US servicemen. A 9-15 mile sliver along the Mediterranean, over-towered by the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, cannot safeguard the national security of the Jewish State.
4. A Deadly Oxymoron: Defensible borders for the Jewish State on the one hand, and a giveaway of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria on the other hand – in the Mideast context - constitutes a deadly oxymoron.
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