Reply #2: The Green Line is not an official border [View All]

[furman]

The Green Line an armistice line denoting the approximate positions
of the military as of the conclusion of the Israeli War of Independence of 1948.
This war was started by the neighboring Arab countries when they refused to accept the
UN Partition resolution of 1947 and the presence of a Jewish state in the region.

When provoked into another war in 1967, Israel conquered all of the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel therefore has control of the territories until a negotiated
final settlement with official defensible borders is completed.

UN Resolution 242 calls for "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict".
Note that the wording does not say "the territories", or "all of the territories".
The wording was meant to be ambiguous because it was well-known that the 1949 armistice line is not considered defensible.
Final borders are to be negotiated in the final stages of a peace settlement.

And why shouldn't Jews be allowed to live anywhere they want?
To insist on expelling Jews from the disputed territories would be considered racist.
The number of Jews in the West Bank is a very low percentage (10-15% I believe?) of the total population.

Israel has not annexed any "Palestinian land".
The security fence is meant to be a temporary measure until a final settlement is negotiated.
Israel has given back land and changed borders in the past and they are willing to do it again for genuine peace.

The problem has been with the Arabs and Palestinians, who have never been interested in a true peace with their own state.
Their leaders use the call for a Palestinian state as a propagandist ruse for their real goal, which is the expulsion of the Jews from Israel and the establishment of a single Arab state consisting of the disputed territories and Israel proper.