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U.S. Says Israel Is Not Required to Withdraw to the Pre-1967 Lines
(Jerusalem Post) Tovah Lazaroff and Yvette J. Deane - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that UN Security Council Resolution 242 bolsters the international legitimacy of the U.S. decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, since it allows for Israel to retain territory acquired in the 1967 war for security reasons. Israel's former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold said a security rationale for retaining territory "is even stronger in the West Bank" than it is on the Golan. The previous claimant to sovereignty in the West Bank was Jordan, which acquired the territory during the 1948 War of Independence, Gold explained. The claim was recognized only by Pakistan and Great Britain. In contrast, many countries recognized Syria's previous standing on the Golan, even though Syria was an aggressor in the 1967 war. Gold pointed to the letter former U.S. President George Bush wrote to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2004 in which Bush stated that, for security reasons, Israel is not required to fully withdraw to the pre-1967 lines.