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Israeli Security Requires Control over the Jordan Valley
(Mosaic) Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen - It has never been and will never be sufficient to dot Israeli troops sparsely across West Bank hilltops and along the Jordan Valley. Instead, long-term Israeli sovereignty and settlement is needed across parts of the West Bank to ensure Israeli security. The Jordan Valley buffer zone is an essential shield for Israel. One need only look at the recent past to understand why. Recall the lessons of the second intifada 20 years ago, the regional instability wrought by the "Arab Spring" 10 years ago, the continuing missile threat from Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and the unimpeded growth of Iran's presence on Israel's borders, including inside the West Bank and Gaza. Even the stability and longevity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan cannot be guaranteed if Israel abandons the scene. IDF control of the Jordan Valley allows Israel to enforce the requirement, embedded in the U.S. peace proposal, that the future Palestinian state be demilitarized. Moreover, the Iranian Quds Force and its Shiite militia allies are aggressively seeking to penetrate the West Bank from Jordan. The writer, a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, served in the IDF for 42 years, commanding troops in battle on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts.