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What Happened to the Jordan Valley?

(Jerusalem Post) Dore Gold - Prime Minister Netanyahu has explained that to create effective security arrangements for Israel and safeguard the demilitarization of the West Bank in the event of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, it was vital for the IDF to maintain a military presence along the points of entry to the territories from the east, in order to prevent these areas from being penetrated and flooded by smuggled weaponry - alluding to the critical importance of the Jordan Valley for the future security of Israel. One month before he was assassinated, Yitzhak Rabin outlined to the Knesset on Oct. 5, 1995, how he viewed the country's future borders. He first declared that "Israel will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967" and then stated that "the security border for defending the State of Israel will be in the Jordan Valley, in the widest sense of that concept." He sought to exploit the steep eastern slopes of the West Bank hill ridge that rise to a maximal height of 3,000 feet from the river bed which is below sea-level. In an interview in Ha'aretz on April 14, 2005, Ariel Sharon explained that Israel must control the Jordan Valley from the hill ridge above the Allon Road. Yet in the public discourse over Israel's future borders, it seems as though the question of the Jordan Valley has been forgotten. Once prime ministers started talking about giving up 88, 93 or 97% of the West Bank, they stopped talking about the Jordan Valley. After all, the whole area is approximately 33% to 40% of the West Bank. A diplomatic strategy of holding on to the Jordan Valley contradicted their peace proposals, which became increasingly motivated by the question of what would be acceptable to the Palestinians rather than what was necessary for Israel's security. It is now well-understood by the Israeli public that the most crucial error of the Gaza disengagement was abandoning the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egyptian Sinai, which allowed Hamas to build a vast tunnel network and smuggle a huge arsenal into Gaza. It does not require much imagination to understand what would happen in the West Bank if Israel left the Jordan Valley - which should be seen as the Philadelphi Corridor of the West Bank. Up until now, Israel has not had to deal with SA-7 shoulder-fired rockets that could be aimed at aircraft over Ben-Gurion Airport, because it is difficult to smuggle them into the West Bank as long as the area is blocked by the IDF in the Jordan Valley. Nor has Israel had to face Islamist volunteers because Israel can deny them access to the West Bank. The writer is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and served as Israel's ambassador to the UN.
2010-01-18 08:11:00
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