blankmind, the position of the Israeli government is that the occupied territories are disputed territories, and that the border between Israel and Jordan and/or a Palestinian State should be settled by negotiations between the parties per UN 242.
The border between Israel and Jordan has been settled by a peace treaty. The border between Israel and the fast-diminishing PA remains in dispute.
The Israelis may reoccupy the territories but I think they have given up on permanent occupation. If Israel were like any other part of the world, they would have annexed the territories in 67 and driven out the Arabs, probably by making life so difficult for them that they just left. This is what the Muslims have been doing to the Hindus in Kashmir for years. But, as we all know, the rules are different for Israel, for reasons both internal and external. Does anyone even remember that Israel offered all the territories back in exchange for a peace treaty, and got the three 'nos' of the Khartoum conference?
As for getting a lot of decent Arabs ticked off at them, they are already so ticked off, it would hardly make a difference. What's needed is a political solution, and that's not possible while Arafat and his motley crew of mob bosses and terrorists run Area A.
In retrospect, Israel's big mistake was trying to hang onto the territories in the 80s, when they might have been able to do a deal with King Hussein. Now, that was a gentleman you could do business with, and his son seems to take after him. But it would be an act of masochism for Jordan to touch the tar baby of the West Bank now. The only hope is a secret deal whereby Israel cleans out the PA and Hamas, and gets the opprobrium for it, then Jordan administers it as an autonomous region. Even that is grasping at straws. |
