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Israel Must Retain Borders It Can Defend
(Baltimore Sun) Dore Gold and Yaakov Amidror - * In a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on April 14, 2004, supporting the unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, President George W. Bush reiterated the "steadfast commitment" of the U.S. to Israel's security, including to "defensible borders." * Advocates of the Gaza disengagement could argue that Israel may not have obtained a quid pro quo from the Palestinians for withdrawal but rather from the U.S. As such, the Bush letter was presented as part of a package addressed to the people of Israel that linked their Gaza pullout to new U.S. commitments with respect to the West Bank. * From Israel's standpoint, the stakes in what happens in the West Bank, in particular, are huge. Its mountain ridge dominates the lowlands of the adjacent Israeli coastal plain, where 70% of Israel's population and 80% of its industrial capacity are situated. * Were Israel to withdraw from the Jordan Valley to the vulnerable 1949 armistice lines, the weaponry and insurgent forces spread today from southern Syria to western Iraq would flow directly to the hills of the West Bank that dominate Israel's most vital infrastructure. * The Bush administration's road map for peace provides the Palestinians with a very tangible gain - a Palestinian state. Israel equally needs its most tangible long-term goal addressed as well: the assurance that it will gain defensible borders - for the only peace that will endure is a peace that can be defended.