Most of the dealers in the issue have no dispute: In the present circumstances, the hatching is essential to Israel as an isolation area that will remain under IDF control • The question is what will be the breadth of the territory • Opinion
Photo: Gil Eliyahu - Ginny
Three fundamental questions make the distinction between the positions expressed in the last two days on the issue of annexation of the Jordan Valley. The first: What is the width required for the Jordan Valley in its security role - whether only from the Jordan crossings to Highway 90, or in an area that extends over 15 km west, as described by Yitzhak Rabin in his last speech in the Knesset. The second question - Is the Israeli requirement for the Jordan Valley as an eastern defense border? They are currently required for security and are fundamentally open to negotiations, or this is a basic and permanent requirement for the future of Israel.
The third question is how this area of land fits into an overall national outline plan for securing settlement, roads and infrastructure, as an eastern avenue for the state.
Most of those dealing with the issue have no dispute that, under the circumstances, the Jordan Valley is essential to the State of Israel as an isolation area controlled by the IDF. The question is what is the breadth of the area.
According to martial law, for the organization of space for defense purposes, as also proposed by the Alon program, Israeli control is required for the full range from the Jordan River to the ridge lines in Samaria, on two levels: First line for axis 90 protection requires control of the hill line that dominates the axis to the west. In the absence of such control, the movement on the axis cannot be secured. The second line, along Oak Road, also requires control of the ridge lines to the west.
Those who claim to end the Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley, including former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, do not deny this military operation. Ehud Barak, hatred of Camp David 2000 to give up the entire Jordan Valley, naturally remembered the considerations of the defensive outline on the eastern front, according to which the chief of staff determined the defensive area as extending from the Jordan line to the western ridges in Samaria: Mount Ebal, Mount Greaseim.
Many changes have occurred in the region since the Barak and Olmert concessions, including the lessons learned from the strategic threat posed in the Gaza Strip, and the proliferation of the Iranian threat of deploying militias across Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. In the turnaround, the reliance on international forces has been reiterated, which has difficulty ensuring effective presence in hostile spaces over time.
The right-wing approach to the three fundamental questions is clear: full-scale rifting is essential for the security of the State of Israel and is not at all negotiable.