PrintApril 6, 2013
Land for War
President Obama's recent charm offensive in Israel apparently had two aims: 1) to lull Israel into forfeiting timely military action against Iranian nukes in the hope that Obama will act instead, and 2) to convince Israelis that now is the time to revisit the land-for-peace formula. For years, the conventional wisdom -- among Israel's peace camp and its proponents abroad (Obama included) -- has been that if Israel just relinquishes enough territory to its enemies, peace will arrive. But on most of Israel's borders, history has revealed the naïve folly behind an idea that could just as aptly be called "land-for-war."
Consider Syria. From 1948 to 1967, the Syrians regularly fired artillery shells from their dominant positions on the Golan Heights down at Israeli border communities and Fatah used the territory to launch terrorist raids into Israel, until Israel captured it in 1967. But since the U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Syria began in 1999, peaceniks have posited that...(Read Full Article)
