Unlike a technological advantage that may be transient, the topographical advantage is eternal.
By Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM
The Judea and Samaria mountains are the “Golan Heights” of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Ben Gurion International Airport, and the major highways crisscrossing central Israel – all critical civilian and security infrastructures.
The eastern ridge is an effective barrier against tanks but the western ridge harbors the potential for Palestinian terrorism that could make the coastal plain a much more painful version of the Gaza-vicinity area.
Controlling the Judea and Samaria mountains – not a Palestinian state – is an essential condition in a Middle Eastern reality rife with 1,400 years of violence, terrorism, the absence of democracy, and inter-Arab animosity.
This reality mandates that a security frontier must be able to overcome countless unexpected scenarios, and rather than rely on brittle peace agreements it must be able to withstand a breach of these peace treaties. For example, should Jordan fall prey to the chaos that has been ravaging Libya, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, Israeli control over Judea and Samaria will prove all that more essential.
A defensible border must discourage aggression and grant Israel the necessary time during a surprise attack, to mobilize its reserve force within 48 hours. Hence the difference between Sinai, which borders the Negev desert and gives the IDF 50 hours to mobilize troops, and Judea and Samaria, which border Jerusalem and the coastal plain and affords the military only 10 hours.
Israel is devoid of geographical depth, so the topographic advantage of the Judea and Samaria mountains increases. Moreover, unlike a technological advantage that may be transient, the topographical advantage is eternal. The greater the enemy’s technological ability becomes, the greater the importance of controlling the physical area from which we can prevent terrorism and invasion.
Controlling the Judea and Samaria mountains enhances Israel’s ability to generate deterrence as well as its national security. A Palestinian state in the West Bank will transform Israel from a producer of national security to its consumer, and from a strategic asset for the United States to a burden on it.
It will also strip Israel of its formidable image and render it vulnerable to the Palestinian terrorism that will not hesitate to targets Jerusalem and the coastal plain.
@ Reader:
You forgot I am not interested in dialog with you. Have a good day!
Dismantle the AlAqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock and ship by Fedex to Mecca along the rock.
@ Bear Klein:
“take control of all PA Towns” I understand there are 176,500 active soldiers in the IDF and “2.16 million Arabs …in the West Bank, 1.84 million Arabs …in Israel, and 1.79 million Arabs …in the Gaza Strip.” [as of the end of 2018] (Wikipedia)
Ignoring the question of 176,500 active IDF soldiers (plus some reservists?) controlling 2.16 million angry Arabs in the “West Bank”, what if both Israeli and Gaza Arabs riot simultaneously with that military operation?
And we all know their habit of using their women and children as human shields or terrorists.
What would you suggest the Israeli Jews do then?
The PA appears actually to be following through on cutting security coordination.
This likely will lead to an uptick in violence. Israel need to take an iron fist. Completely strip all of the PA Security of weapons and take control of all PA Towns.
A very trenchant and accurate analysis
. It is deeply worrying to me that on several occasions in the past Benny Gantz has expressed a willingness to surrender this area to the PLO-PA. There is even an implied willingness to hand over this area to the PLO in the Blue-White platform. The platform says that a Blue-White government will not withdraw from the settlement blocs or the Jordan Valley, but is silent about the central Judea-Samaria mountainous area described by Dr. Ettinger.
Gantz is the new defense minister, and will soon be Prime Minister.