(Haaretz) Amos Harel - Maj.-Gen. Giora Eiland, head of the IDF Planning Branch, claims that the main reason the Palestinians oppose the fence comes from the fact that it separates Israeli Arabs from the Palestinians in the territories and makes the de-facto exercise of the right of return difficult. The Palestinian worldview has been based on a concept of a creeping right of return. Inside the pre-1967 "green line" there are 130,000 Palestinians from the territories who entered Israel permissibly and became Israeli citizens through family unification arrangements. According to estimates, there are a similar number of Palestinians from the territories who are in Israel illegally. The real threat to Israel is not just terrorism but rather the combination of terrorism and demography.
2003-10-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive