And IMO, right now an "internationally recognized border" acceptable to all parties does not exist.
I think so too. Tom Friedman seems to buy into the idea that there is such a border, and that it's a historic injustice for Jews to live east of it. I see why Arabs claim this, but not why an American, particularly an American Jew, should buy into it.
The Arabs promised to recognize the Green Line in 1949, but welshed on the deal. Had Jordan recognized the border in 1967, there would be no problem. But Jordan did not recognize it; they invaded Israel despite Levi Eshkol's pleas to stay out of the war. Once they lost the West Bank, naturally the Green Line became a sacred border -g-
If the Pals had been ready to join the talks in 1974 or 1979, they might have gotten nearly everything back. But they weren't. Not even the infamous UN res 242 says the border has to be the Green Line exactly; it talks of negotiated borders. So I hardly see an "historical injustice" in Israel keeping places like Gush Etzion, which Zionists bought and developed in the 20s, were driven out of in 1948, and returned to in 1967. It's a piece of the Mandate of Palestine to the east of a truce line. If you admit that Arabs and ONLY Arabs have any right to be on the West Bank, by what right are Jews living in the rest of Israel, to the west of the truce line? The Arab answer is: by no right, by right of conquest only. Is this what America believes too? So does everybody shift to the idea that it's right and proper that a million Arabs live in Israel, but Palestine must be Jew-free? (And never mind that other Palestinian country, Jordan. Doesn't count.)
Those who argue this case will say "but the Arabs were there first," but they will suddenly acquire amnesia when it's pointed out that Jews were in Hebron or the Jewish quarter of the Old City first too, and nobody minded when the Jordanians drove them out. For that matter, the Jews were in Baghdad too before any Arabs arrived. The arguments against "transfer" all seem to work in one direction only.
If an actual internationally recognized border existed, that is, one recognized by neighbors on both sides of the border, it would be a different case. But it doesn't, and all efforts to negotiate one have failed. |
