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Israel Needs Palestinian Demilitarization and Defensible Borders

(Israel Hayom) Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen - In his 1978 book And Now Tomorrow, then-Labor party leader Shimon Peres discusses the demilitarization of a future Palestinian state. "If a separate Palestinian state is established, it will be armed to the teeth. It will also have bases for the most extreme terrorist forces and they will be equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles that will endanger not only passersby but every plane and helicopter flying in Israel's skies and every vehicle traveling on the main highways of the coastal plain....The main problem is not agreeing on demilitarization, but upholding such an agreement in practice." The completion of the Israeli withdrawal from Areas A and B in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] in 1996 and the 2005 disengagement from Gaza are proof that our rule over another people has ended. About 90% of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria has been under the Palestinian Authority's rule since the mid-1990s and Gaza's population has been under Hamas rule since 2007. Therefore, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict currently focuses on the Jerusalem area and Area C. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin argued that Israeli control in these areas - all the settlements, military bases, main highways and the vital area leading to the Jordan Valley - was the minimum necessary to preserve defensible Israeli borders. The writer served in the IDF for 42 years, commanding troops in battle on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts.
2017-05-23 00:00:00
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