(Huffington Post) Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Michael Herzog - Twenty years after Israel and the Palestinians launched the Oslo process, there are real gaps between the parties on all core issues. Israel considers security to be paramount because although the country is militarily strong, it is highly vulnerable due to its lack of strategic depth, limited resources and location in a hostile environment. The 1967 lines, which the Palestinians see as a baseline for an agreement, leave Israel with a dangerously narrow waist along its coastal plain - less than 15 km. at its thinnest point - and overlooked by the West Bank's commanding hills. Israel is highly concerned about potential dramatic changes in the strategic regional landscape, which have happened more than once, especially in recent years. Israel therefore seeks solid arrangements which will compensate for the required compromise in a two-state solution and enable it to protect its critical national security if things go wrong. Israel seeks territorial adjustments to the 1967 lines to establish more secure, defensible boundaries, primarily by incorporating the major settlement blocs in order to modestly beef up the country's depth. Israel wishes to create additional strategic depth through the demilitarization of a Palestinian state. Moreover, Israel seeks to establish a special security regime along the Jordan River. Such a regime would verify demilitarization, serve as a deterrent factor and tripwire against military threats, provide early warning, and deal with daily threats of terrorism. This position is informed by deep Israeli concerns about long-term stability in Jordan as well as hostile state, state-sponsored or jihadi threats from the east. The writer, a former chief of staff to Israel's minister of defense, is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2016-09-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive