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• Wednesday, January 7, 2009 07:05 AM

  @Malkatraz

  I take your point about the Jordan River. It's plain that water resources are significant for the sustenance of any population, and their allocation often has political implications that can be stressful. That isn't a situation that's unique to the Middle East. I'm familiar with the issue. I live in California.

  But- once again, beyond the religious rationales- I'd like you to consider that there's another reason why so many Israelis are loath to return the West Bank region to Palestinian sovereignty and rule, having to do with territorial self-defense.

  Most people familiar with the issue are able to visualize the pre-1967 map of Israel in their minds...you know that part that bulges in from the Jordan River, all the way to West Jerusalem, the "West Bank" part? That border comprises what is known in military science as an indefensible salient. You know...when there's defensive perimeter that looks like a straight line, that's a strong perimeter. When it has a bulge in the middle- a salient- it's useless.

  Not only that...from the edge of that salient, a hostile group like Hamas can fire those homemade Qassam rockets all the way to the beaches on the Mediterranean, if they have a strong east wind with them. From one border to another.

  It's a piece of cake for a hostile armed force to cut Israel in two, under the pre-1967 borders. It's only a slight exaggeration to say that they wouldn't even require weapons.

  It isn't often spoken of. But that's how terribly vulnerable that part of the border of Israel is, as drawn up pre-1967. And the 1947 borders of the Jewish territories were even more vulnerable. That vulnerability wouldn't even be an issue of the Jewish settlements were able to peacefully co-exist with the Arab territory alongside those borders. But it hasn't worked out that way. And every time the Israelis managed to repel attempts to overrun them, they sought to obtain more defensible borders.

  At this point, they have them- as long as they maintain military predominance in the West Bank. But- UN resolutions notwithstanding- the Israelis fear that the real-time, on-the-ground consequences of returning to the 1967 borders would be a repeat of what's happening in Gaza right now, only worse. A lot worse.

  I tell you, looking at it as an outsider, it makes me crazy. I tear my hair out thinking about it. If I ran it all- big laugh- I'd consider something more territorially fair to the Palestinians, like providing them with sea access by ceding Haifa and northern Israel to them, along with half of the Golan, in return for Israel getting all of Jerusalem and most or all of the West Bank. But I can't even claim to have the foggiest idea of what I'm talking about. That's simply what the map suggests to me. And I never really got the part about people being attached to their olive groves, or whatever. I'm a tumbling tumbleweed.

  I do understand defensive perimeters. I studied military history battlefield maps at age 6, literally on my daddy's knee.

  Ironically, I no longer understand warfare. The technology has gone so far that it's unmasked the true nihilism that lies at the heart of the concept. There's no "heroism", no "glory", no "victory." Go somewhere else, if you're looking for that. In warfare, that can all be nullified by machinery and automation in a matter of seconds. The only thing remaining is horror.

  But people still seem to want to do it. I don't get it.

  —cabdriver Read cabdriver's other letters
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