deborah sharavi

Boundaries
Myths & Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict
by Mitchell G. Bard

MYTH
The creation of Israel in 1948 changed political and border
arrangements between independent states that had existed
for centuries.

FACT
The boundaries of Middle East countries were arbitrarily fixed
by the Western powers after Turkey was defeated in World War
I and the French and British mandates were set up. The areas
allotted to Israel under the UN partition plan had all been
under the control of the Ottomans, who had ruled Palestine
from 1517 until 1917.

When Turkey was defeated in World War I, the French took over
the area now known as Lebanon and Syria. The British assumed
control of Palestine and Iraq. In 1926, the borders were redrawn
and Lebanon was separated from Syria.

Britain installed the Emir Faisal, who had been deposed by the
French in Syria, as ruler of the new kingdom of Iraq. In 1922,
the British created the emirate of Transjordan, which incorporated
all of Palestine east of the Jordan River. This was done so that
the Emir Abdullah, whose family had been defeated in tribal
warfare in the Arabian peninsula, would have a Kingdom to
rule. None of the countries that border Israel became independent
until this century. Many other Arab nations became independent
after Israel.1

MYTH
Israel has been an expansionist state since its creation.

FACT
Israel's boundaries were determined by the United Nations
when it adopted the partition resolution in 1947. In a series
of defensive wars, Israel captured additional territory. On
numerous occasions, Israel has withdrawn from these areas.

As part of the 1974 disengagement agreement, Israel returned
territories captured in the 1967 and 1973 wars to Syria.

Under the terms of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Israel
withdrew from the Sinai peninsula for the third time. It had already
withdrawn from large parts of the desert area it captured in its
War of Independence. After capturing the entire Sinai in the
1956 Suez conflict, Israel relinquished the peninsula to Egypt a
year later.

In September 1983, Israel withdrew from large areas of Lebanon to
positions south of the Awali River. In 1985, it completed its withdrawal
from Lebanon, except for a narrow security zone just north of the
Israeli border. That too was abandoned, unilaterally, in 2000.

After signing peace agreements with the Palestinians, and a
treaty with Jordan, Israel agreed to withdraw from most of the
territory in the West Bank captured from Jordan in 1967. A small
area was returned to Jordan, and more than 40 percent was ceded
to the Palestinian Authority. The agreement with the Palestinians
also involved Israel's withdrawal in 1994 from most of the Gaza
Strip, which had been captured from Egypt in 1973.

To date, Israel has withdrawn from more than 40 percent of the
West Bank and approximately 80 percent of the Gaza Strip, and
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to withdraw from 95
percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip in
a final settlement. In addition, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and
his successors offered to withdraw from virtually all of the
Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.

Negotiations continue regarding the final disposition of the remaining
disputed territories in Israel's possession. Israel's willingness to
make territorial concessions in exchange for security proves its
goal is peace, not expansion.

MYTH
Israel has long sought to conquer Arab lands stretching from the
Nile to the Euphrates. There is even a map hanging in the
Knesset documenting this.

FACT
This theme is frequently used by Israel's enemies, and is routinely
repeated throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds.

In Iran, a map purporting to show Israel's "dream" boundaries —
an empire including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of
Turkey and Iran — was included in a 1985 reprint of the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious Czarist forgery.

At a May 25, 1990, press conference in Geneva, Yasser Arafat
claimed Israel's 10-Agora coin depicts a map of an enlarged Israel,
which included all of Jordan and Lebanon, as well as large portions
of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

In fact, the Agora is patterned after an ancient Jewish coin issued at
the time of King Mattathias of the Hasmonean dynasty. The modern
Israeli version depicts the shape of the original coin, which had eroded
during the ensuing 2,000 years. It is this deformed shape of an ancient
coin that Arafat asserted represents a secret "map" of an expansionist
Israel.

Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas has said that an inscription,
"The Land of Israel, from the Euphrates to the Nile," is chiseled over
the entrance to the Knesset.2 Others have claimed a map inside the
Knesset shows these borders.

No such inscription or map exists. But many in the Arab world have
persuaded themselves it is true. Arabs who have toured the
parliament and not seen the map sometimes claim it was removed
in anticipation of their visit.3

Of course, the best evidence against this myth is the history of
Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in 1948, 1956, 1967,
1973 and 1982.

MYTH
The West Bank is part of Jordan.

FACT
The West Bank was never legally part of Jordan. Under the
UN's 1947 partition plan — which the Jews accepted and
the Arabs rejected — it was to have been part of an independent
Arab state in western Palestine. But the Jordanian army invaded
and occupied it during the 1948 war. In 1950, Jordan annexed the
West Bank.

Only two governments — Great Britain and Pakistan — formally
recognized the Jordanian takeover. The rest of the world, including
the United States, never did.

MYTH
Israel seized the Golan Heights in a war of aggression.

FACT
Between 1948 and 1967, Syria controlled the Golan Heights and
used it as a military stronghold from which its troops randomly
sniped at Israeli civilians in the Hula Valley below, forcing children
living on kibbutzim to sleep in bomb shelters. In addition, many
roads in northern Israel could be crossed only after being cleared
by mine-detection vehicles. In late 1966, a youth was blown to
pieces by a mine while playing football near the Lebanon border.
In some cases, attacks were carried out by Yasser Arafat's Fatah,
which Syria allowed to operate from its territory.4

Israel repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, protested the Syrian
bombardments to the UN Mixed Armistice Commission, which
was charged with enforcing the cease-fire. For example, Israel
went to the UN in October 1966 to demand a halt to the Fatah
attacks. The response from Damascus was defiant. "It is not
our duty to stop them, but to encourage and strengthen them,"
the Syrian ambassador responded.5

Nothing was done to stop Syria's aggression. A mild Security
Council resolution expressing "regret" for such incidents was
vetoed by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Israel was condemned
by the UN when it retaliated. "As far as the Security Council

After the Six-Day War began, the Syrian air force attempted to
bomb oil refineries in Haifa. While Israel was fighting in the Sinai
and West Bank, Syrian artillery bombarded Israeli forces in the
eastern Galilee, and armored units fired on villages in the Hula
Valley below the Golan Heights.

On June 9, 1967, Israel moved against Syrian forces on the Golan.
By late afternoon, June 10, Israel was in complete control of the
plateau. Israel's seizure of the strategic heights occurred only
after 19 years of provocation from Syria, and after unsuccessful
efforts to get the international community to act against the
aggressors.

MYTH
The Golan has no strategic significance for Israel.

FACT
It is true that Syria — deterred by an IDF presence within artillery
range of Damascus — has kept the Golan quiet since 1974. But
during this time, Syria has provided a haven and supported
numerous terrorist groups that attack Israel from Lebanon
and other countries. These include the Democratic Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, Hizbollah and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). In
addition, Syria still deploys hundreds of thousands of troops —
as much as 75 percent of its army — on the Israeli front near
the Heights.

From the western Golan, it is only about 60 miles — without major
terrain obstacles — to Haifa and Acre, Israel's industrial heartland.
The Golan — rising from 400 to 1700 feet in the western section
bordering on pre1967 Israel — overlooks the Hula Valley, Israel's
richest agricultural area. In the hands of a friendly neighbor, the
escarpment has little military importance. If controlled by a hostile
country, however, the Golan has the potential to again become
a strategic nightmare for Israel.

Before the Six-Day War, when Israeli agricultural settlements
in the Galilee came under fire from the Golan, Israel's options
for countering the Syrian attacks were constrained by the
geography of the Heights. "Counterbattery fires were limited
by the lack of observation from the Huleh Valley; air attacks
were degraded by well-dug-in Syrian positions with strong
overhead cover, and a ground attack against the positions...would
require major forces with the attendant risks of heavy casualties
and severe political repercussions," U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Irving
Heymont observed.7

When Israel eventually took these risks and stormed the Syrian
positions in 1967, it suffered 115 dead — roughly the number of
Americans killed during Operation Desert Storm.

As the peace process faltered in the late 1990's, Syria began to
renew threats of war with Israel and to make threatening troop
movements. Some Israeli analysts have warned of the possibility
of a lightning strike by Syrian forces aimed at retaking the Golan.
The Israeli Defense Forces have countered the Syrian moves,
however, and — to this point — preserved the peace.

For Israel, relinquishing the Golan to a hostile Syria without adequate
security arrangements could jeopardize its early-warning system
against surprise attack. Israel has built radar systems on Mt.
Hermon, the highest point in the region. If Israel withdrew from
the Golan and had to relocate these facilities to the lowlands of
the Galilee, they would lose much of their strategic effectiveness.

MYTH
Israel has refused to offer any compromises on the Golan Heights
while Syria has been willing to trade peace for land.

FACT
Under Hafez Assad, Syria's position was consistent: Israel must
completely withdraw from the entire Golan Heights before he would
entertain any discussion of what Syria might do in return. He never
expressed any willingness to make peace with Israel if he received
the entire Golan or any part of it.

Israel has been equally adamant that it would not give up any
territory without knowing what Syria was prepared to concede.
Israel's willingness to trade some or all of the Golan is dependent
on Syria's agreement to normalize relations and to sign an
agreement that would bring about an end to the state of war
Syria says exists between them.

The topographical concerns associated with withdrawing from
the Golan Heights could be offset by demilitarization, but Israel
needs to have a defensible border from which the nation can be
defended with minimum losses. The deeper the demilitarization,
and the better the early warning, the more flexible Israel can be
regarding that border.

In addition to military security, Israelis seek the normalization
of relations between the two countries. At a minimum, ties with
Syria should be on a par with those Israel has with Egypt; ideally,
they would be closer to the type of peace Israel enjoys with
Jordan. This means going beyond a bare minimum of an exchange
of ambassadors and flight links and creating an environment
whereby Israelis and Syrians will feel comfortable visiting each
other's country, engaging in trade and pursuing other forms of
cooperation typical of friendly nations.

In the meantime, substantial opposition exists within Israel to
withdrawing from the Golan Heights. The expectation of many is
that public opinion will shift if and when the Syrians sign an
agreement and take measures, such as reigning in Hizballah
attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon, that demonstrate a
genuine interest in peace. And public opinion will determine
whether a treaty is concluded because of a law adopted
during Prime Minister Netanyahu's term that requires any
agreement to be approved in a national referendum.

President Hafez Assad died in June 2000 and there have not
been any negotiations since, as Assad's son and successor,
Bashar, has moved to consolidate his power in Syria. Rhetorically,
Bashar has not indicated any shift in Syria's position on the
Golan. Absent dramatic changes in Syria's government and
its attitude toward Israel; however, the Jewish State's security
will depend on its retention of military control over the Golan Heights.
"From a strictly military point of view, Israel would require the
retention of some captured territory in order to provide militarily
defensible borders."—Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense from the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, June 29, 1967

MYTH
Israel illegally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, contravening
international law and UN Resolution 242.

FACT
On December 14, 1981, the Knesset voted to annex the Golan
Heights. The statute extended Israeli civilian law and administration
to the residents of the Golan, replacing the military authority that had
ruled the area since 1967. The law does not foreclose the option
of negotiations on a final settlement of the status of the territory.

Following the Knesset's approval of the law, Professor Julius Stone
of Hastings College of the Law wrote: "There is no rule of international
law which requires a lawful military occupant, in this situation, to
wait
forever before [making] control and government of the territory
permanent....Many international lawyers have wondered, indeed,
at the patience which led Israel to wait as long as she did."8

MYTH
Israel can withdraw from the West Bank with little more difficulty
than was the case in Sinai.

FACT
Several pages of Israel's peace treaty with Egypt are devoted to
security arrangements. For example, Article III of the treaty's annex
concerns the areas where reconnaissance flights are permitted,
and Article V allows the establishment of early-warning systems
in specific zones.

The security guarantees, which were required to give Israel the
confidence to withdraw, were only possible because the Sinai was
demilitarized. They provide Israel a large buffer zone of more than
100 miles. Today, the Egyptian border is 60 miles from Tel Aviv
and 70 from Jerusalem, the nearest major Israeli cities. The Sinai
remains sparsely populated desert, with a population of less than
250,000.

The situation in the territories is entirely different. More than
two million Arabs live in the West Bank, many in crowded
cities and refugee camps. Most of them are located close
to Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is important
for Israel that the West Bank not fall into the hands of hostile
neighbors. The infiltration in recent years of terrorists from
the Palestinian Authority who have committed horrific acts
such as suicide bombings illustrate the danger.

Despite the danger, Israel has withdrawn from more than
40 percent of the West Bank since Oslo, and offered to give
up 95 percent of it in return for a final settlement with the
Palestinians. Israel will not, and cannot, however, go back
to the pre-1967 borders as demanded by the Palestinians
and the Arab states.

The agreements Israel has signed with the Palestinians, and
the treaty with Jordan, contain many specific provisions
designed to minimize the security risks to Israel. The
violence of the "al-Aksa intifada," however, has shown that
the Palestinians are not prepared to fulfill their signed
commitments to prevent terrorism and incitement.


"It is impossible to defend Jerusalem unless you hold the high
ground....An aircraft that takes off from an airport in Amman is going
to be over Jerusalem in two-and-a-half minutes, so it's utterly
impossible for me to defend the whole country unless I hold that
land."—Lieutenant General (Ret.) Thomas Kelly,director of operations for
the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War9


MYTH
The Gulf War proves that Israel's demands for defensible borders
are unrealistic in an era of ballistic missiles and long-range bombers
capable of crossing vast amounts of territory in minutes.

FACT
History shows that aerial attacks have never defeated a nation.
Countries are only conquered by troops occupying land. The most
recent example of this was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, in which the
latter nation was overrun and occupied in a matter of hours.
Though the multinational force bombed Iraq for close to six
weeks, Kuwait was not liberated until the Allied troops marched
into that country in the war's final days. Defensible borders are
those that would prevent or impede such a ground assault.

Israel's return to its pre-1967 borders, which the Arab states
want to reimpose, would sorely tempt potential aggressors to
launch attacks on the Jewish State — as they did routinely
before 1967. Israel would lose the extensive system of early-
warning radars it has set up in the hills of Judea and Samaria.
Were a hostile neighbor then to seize control of these mountains,
its army could split Israel in two: From there, it is only about
15 miles — without any major geographic obstacles — to
the Mediterranean.

At their narrowest point, these 1967 lines are within 9 miles of
the Israeli coast, 11 miles from Tel Aviv, 10 from Beersheba,
21 from Haifa and one foot from Jerusalem.

In 1989, the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, an Israeli think
tank considered dovish, wrote:

"The introduction of surface-to-surface missiles into the arena
sometimes gives rise to the question of whether the concepts
of strategic depth and security arrangements remain meaningful
in this new era. The answer is an unequivocal yes. Early-warning
stations and the deployment of surface-to-air missile batteries
can provide the time needed to sound an air-raid alert, and
warn the population to take shelter from a missile attack.
They might even allow enemy missiles to be intercepted in
mid-flight."

The study concluded: "As long as such missiles are armed with
conventional warheads, they may cause painful losses and damage,
but they cannot decide the outcome of a war."10

In a report to the Secretary of Defense in 1967, the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff wrote that, at a minimum, "Israel would need a
defense line generally along the Bardala-Tuba-Nablus-Bira-
Jerusalem axis, and then to the northern part of the Dead Sea.
This line would widen the narrow portion of Israel and provide
additional terrain for the defense of Tel Aviv."

The report also provides support for a united Jerusalem under
Israeli control. To defend Jerusalem, the Joint Chiefs concluded,
Israel would need to have its border "positioned to the east of
the city."11

"For a Texan, a first visit to Israel is an eye-opener. At the narrowest
point, it's only 8 miles from the Mediterranean to the old Armistice
line: That's less than from the top to the bottom of Dallas-Ft. Worth
Airport. The whole of pre-1967 Israel is only about six times the size
of the King Ranch near Corpus Christi."— President George W. Bush)12

MYTH
Israel ‘occupies’ the West Bank.

FACT
In politics words matter and, unfortunately, the misuse of words
applying to the Arab-Israeli conflict has shaped perceptions to
Israel's disadvantage. As in the case of the term "West Bank,"
the word "occupation" has been hijacked by those who wish
to paint Israel in the harshest possible light. It also gives
apologists a way to try to explain away terrorism as "resistance
to occupation," as if the women and children killed by suicide
bombers in buses, pizzerias, and shopping malls were
responsible for the plight of the Arabs. Given the negative
connotation of an "occupier," it is not surprising that Arab
spokespersons use the word, or some variation, as many
times as possible when interviewed by the press. The more
accurate description of the territories in Judea and Samaria
is "disputed" territories.

In fact, most other disputed territories around the world are
not referred to as being occupied by the party that controls
them. This is true, for example, of the hotly contested region
of Kashmir.13

Occupation typically refers to foreign control of an area that
was under the previous sovereignty of another state. In the
case of the West Bank, there was no legitimate sovereign
because the territory had been illegally occupied by Jordan
from 1948 to 1967. Only two countries — Britain and
Pakistan — recognized Jordan's action. The Palestinians
never demanded an end to Jordanian occupation and the
creation of a Palestinian state.

It is also important to distinguish the acquisition of territory
in a war of conquest as opposed to a war of self-defense.
A nation that attacks another and then retains the territory
it conquers is an occupier. One that gains territory in the
course of defending itself is not in the same category. And
this is the situation with Israel, which specifically told
King Hussein that if Jordan stayed out of the 1967 war,
Israel would not fight against him. Hussein ignored the
warning and attacked Israel. While fending off the assault
and driving out the invading Jordanian troops, Israel came
to control the West Bank.

By rejecting Arab demands that Israel be required to withdraw
from all the territories won in 1967, the UN Security Council,
in Resolution 242, acknowledged that Israel was entitled to
claim at least part of these lands for new defensible borders.

Since Oslo, the case for tagging Israel as an occupying power
has been further weakened by the fact that Israel transferred
virtually all civilian authority to the Palestinian Authority. Israel
retained the power to control its own external security and that
of its citizens, but 98 percent of the Palestinian population in
the West Bank and Gaza came under the PA's authority. The
extent to which Israel has been forced to maintain a military
presence in the territories has been governed by the Palestinians'
unwillingness to end violence against Israel. The best way to
end the dispute over the territories is for the Palestinians to
fulfill their obligations under the Oslo agreements, reform the
Palestinian Authority, stop the terror and negotiate a final
settlement.

Notes
1 Egypt didn't achieve independence until 1922; Lebanon, 1946; Jordan,
1946; and Syria, 1946. Many of the Gulf states became independent after
Israel: Kuwait, 1961; Bahrain, 1970; the United Arab Emirates, 1971; and
Qatar, 1971.
2 Al-Jazira, (January 17, 1982).
3 Washington Jewish Week, (July 6, 1989).
4 Netanel Lorch, One Long War, (Jerusalem: Keter, 1976), pp. 106-110.
5 Anne Sinai and Allen Pollack, The Syrian Arab Republic, (NY: American
Academic Association for Peace in the Middle East, 1976), p. 117.
6 Lorch, p. 111.
7 Sinai and Pollack, pp. 130-31.
8 Near East Report, (January 29, 1982).
9 Jerusalem Post, (November 7, 1991).
10 Israel's Options for Peace, (Tel Aviv: The Jaffee Center for
Strategic Studies, 1989), pp. 171-72.
11 Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, June 29, 1967, cited in
Michael Widlanski, Can Israel Survive a Palestinian State?, (Jerusalem:
Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, 1990), p. 148.
12 Speech to the American Jewish Committee, (May 3, 2001).
13 U.S. Department of State, Consular Information Sheet: India, February
22, 2002).

See also:
History of Israel
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/ishisttoc.html

The 1967 Six-Day War
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/1967toc.html

The 1973 War
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/1973toc.html

The Gulf War
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/gulftoc.html

Boundaries
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Peace/boundtoc.html

Peace Process
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Peace/pptoc.html

Military Threats to Israel
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Thr...threattoc.html


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joryres

Deborah-

Jews claim the Bible gives them land from "the river of Egypt to the
River Euphrates." If I lived in the Mideast, I would feel threatened
by Jews. Jews claiming they really don't want to grab any more land
is like Hitler invading Poland and then declaring peace.

- Is there enough water for both Israelis and Palestinians? Will
there be enough water for Israelis' & Palestinians' grandchildren?

- Are you a descendent of the Hebrews? I don't need a bio, just pick
one of the following:

A. Definitely.
B. Most Likely.
C. Really don't know.
D. Probably not.
E. No.

And how about Ariel Sharon & Benjamin Netanyahu? Are they descendents
of the Hewbrews?

-Jory

mathias donien

WHICH Jew made WHEN this claim? It is very important to double-check
details for a more accurate view. Details matter most and can change a
situation completely.
Only some Bible fundis could claim that, if any.

The official position of the state of Israel is definitely not from "the
river of Egypt to the river Euphrates". If it would be their position,
they wouldn't have given up the complete Sinai. Seems logical, eh?

You should read the text (yes, it is quite long but written in a neutral
language, accurate and not boring).

Water is a difficult problem. But there exist treaties between Israel
and Jordan (and even with Syria and Lebanon) about sharing water. Did
you hear any complaints from the governments of Syria, Lebanon or Jordan
referring to water?

BTW, does anybody in these NGs know about projects in Mideast to build
facilities which are able to produce sweet water from salt water?


I guess Deborah would chose A or B. AS and BN probably as well. I am a
German, therefore I tend to C or D.

--
If we believe absurd, we will do terrible. Voltaire (1694-1778)
http://www.rsf.org/predators.php3 Predators of Press Freedom
http://www.fair.org/ Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
http://www.honestreporting.com/ Media Critiques

srichter

so Mathias, just what does Israel claim its borders to be? Does the
west bank barrier, the barrier whose construction Sharon just told GWB
will not be stopped, deliniate the land it claims?

-Steve