The Judean and Samaria ridges - one thousand meters above the Jordan Valley and 600 meters above the coastal lowlands - are the "Golan Heights" of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Road 6, the coastal lowlands, where 80 percent of Israel's population lives. The eastern ridge is the effective tank barrier in the region, but the western ridge is a potential Palestinian terrorist that could make the coastal plain (15 km wide) a much more painful edition than the "Gaza envelope".

Controlling the Judean and Samaritan ridges - and not a Palestinian state - is an indispensable condition in Middle Eastern realities of 1,400 years of volatility, violence, inter-Arab terror, and the absence of inter-Western democracy and coexistence. In reality, the security frontier must overcome negative and unexpected scenarios, not be based on peace agreements - which may be as fragile and temporary as the regimes they signed - but be able to withstand a breach of peace. The chaos in Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Syria could attack any Arab state and cause political revolutions such as Iran, which in 1979 became an ally for a deadly enemy. A similar transformation in Jordan will dramatically upgrade the vitality of Judea and Samaria.

A security border must discourage aggression and grant the necessary time, with a surprise attack, to mobilize a reserve force of 70 percent from the IDF within 48 hours. Hence the difference between Sinai (60,000 km2), which provides 50 hours to recruit and border the Negev, compared to Judea and Samaria (5,500 square kilometers) giving five to 10 hours and bordered on Jerusalem and the humiliation. And Samaria and the Golan Heights. 

Israel does not have a geographical depth, so the topographic advantage of the Yesha ridges increases. Compared to a technological advantage that may be transient, the topographic advantage is eternal. As the technological capability of the enemy degrades, the greater the dominance of the area for the exercise of our forces and the prevention of terror and invasion.

On August 14, 2008, General Matisse, later Secretary of Defense, wrote: "In the failed war against Hezbollah in 2006, the IDF - contrary to the precedent and the essence of the war - believed that an enemy could be paralyzed by precise air bombardment with small field force."    

Controlling the US ridges enhances Israel's image of national security and security, and its capabilities as a powerful multiplier for the United States and the pro-American Arab states. A Palestinian state in the West Bank will transform Israel from a producer to a national security consumer, from a strategic asset to the burden on the United States, from a daunting entity to an unprecedented swinging terrorist presence in Jerusalem's soft belly and humiliation.