The Netanyahu government has now announced that it will expand the separation wall to seal in the Jordan Valley, building along the border with Jordan. The Israeli daily Maariv broke [Hebrew] the story yesterday, citing that Netanyahu also promised to increase the speed of construction along the northern border with Syria and Lebanon.
The idea of formally retaining Israeli control over the Jordan Valley dates back to just after the June 1967 war when Yigal Allon mapped out a plan to annex the agricultural lowlands as part of the Allon Plan. Within a year socialist-inspired kibbutzniks working alongside IDF bases established the first settlements. “Defensible borders without peace are preferable to peace without defensible borders,” wrote Allon two years after the occupation began. For Allon, it was more important to gain control of the Jordan Valley rather than sign a peace deal with the Palestinian leadership. “It is better if they are secure, even if for many years to come they are not agreed,” he continued.
In recent years Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown a renewed emphasis in the Jordan Valley. In 2010 the Likud leader asserted to the Israeli public, “Israeli will never cede the Jordan Valley.”
One year later Netanyahu repeated his stance [PDF] to congress stating,
‘Israel will never cede the Jordan Valley. Israel would never agree to withdraw from the Jordan Valley under any peace agreement signed with the Palestinians. And it’s vital – absolutely vital – that Israel maintain a long-term military presence along the Jordan River.’
Around the same time he began to lobby Israel’s defense ministry to begin planning the route of the wall. Marriv reports:
In a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee hearing held two years ago, Netanyahu said that there is a danger of invasion in Judea and Samaria from the [Palestinians in the] Jordan Valley. He did not elaborate but made clear: ‘We must continue the Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley along the Egyptian border and the Jordanian border. The government is examining the possibility of establishing a fence.’
In 2007 Israel suspended expansion of the separation barrier. Last year the construction restarted, concentrating on the regions near Israel’s northern and western borders. With the addition of the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu will have effectively walled-in the country.
“Israel will never cede the Jordan Valley”
Judaism will-the caretaker regime that takes over from the bots.
I wonder what it will have to take for Judaism to wake up before this happens. Zionism is like the continuation of the darkness of WW2.
Can’t wait to hear Beinart on this. Maybe Jews are just misunderstood . Am looking forward to the explanation.
Does the King of Jordan have anything to say about this grotesquerie?
Why do they insist on claiming/ referring to the ancient “Judea and Samaria”? It’s the West Bank.
The King of Jordan is too busy planning his emergency exit. The only card the Palestinians have is to play the surrender card. Admit Israel has won. Demand citizenship and equal rights to live in Jerusalem in Haifa in Lod in Ramallah just like any other Israeli. Then they can work to bring in their direct relatives from the camps and the diaspora
The only way Israel could get to this point was total indoctrination of the Jewish population . Pathological victimhood and narcissism married with utter sonofabitchiness. Not even a whimper from the opposition.
The problem with this program of clearing the land of Palestinians to purify the land for Gd is that by the time it’s over there won’t be anything to talk to Gd about.