Why Israel's Secure Borders Are Imperative--Even In The Age Of Modern Warfare (Israel: Why Land Matters, Part III)

Israel: Why Land Matters, Part III

by Yedidya Atlas

It is an undisputed fact that Israel’s army reserves are the backbone of the IDF in times of war. The question, therefore, is: how does Israel buy the 48 hours she must have to fully mobilize and deploy her army reserves?

Israel’s citizen army naturally mobilizes her reserve troops where they live. This means primarily an “L” shaped land mass, from Jerusalem at one end and Haifa at the other with Tel Aviv in the middle. Along this short and narrow strip resides some 70 percent of Israel’s population (and 80 percent of her industrial base) and therefore, about 70 percent of the nation’s reserve soldiers (as well as 70 percent of her labor force).

If They Recognize Israel's Need For Secure Borders, Why Do They Insist On Unilateral Concession?

Israel: Why Land Matters, Part I

By Yedidya Atlas

In the years that followed the 1967 Six Day War a prevailing conventional wisdom developed among Western policy makers – especially in Washington — that simultaneously contends that a “strong and secure Israel” should have, as per UN Resolution 242, “secure and recognized boundaries” or simply “defensible borders,” yet nonetheless calls on Israel to make unilateral territorial concessions (today’s PC term is a return to the pre-’67 lines with “mutually agreed land swaps”) as part of an ultimate peace settlement with its Arab neighbors.

Strangely few perceive the inherent contradiction between the call for a “strong and secure Israel” and the call to give up the very territory that would – at minimum – comprise said strength and security.