Friday, May 27, 2011

1967

From Juan Cole's excellent blog, Informed Comment:

Netanyahu’s argument for not going back to 1967 borders is that it is inconvenient. He says that the 1967 borders are indefensible. This assertion is a logical fallacy, known as special pleading. You can’t launch a war and annex your neighbor’s territory because you fear that your own presents security challenges. Lots of countries are unhappy with their borders. Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait in 1990 in part because he felt that the British had erred in not giving modern Iraq a deep water port, which made Iraq ‘indefensible’ and put it at an economic disadvantage. Pakistan believes that its failure to secure the headwaters of the Indus Valley rivers in Kashmir in 1947 puts it at a permanent disadvantage vis-a-vis India and makes the country overly vulnerable (‘indefensible’). Netanyahu’s immoral argument that a country just has to take by main force whatever it feels will make it more secure is astonishing and is a standing danger to world peace if it were taken seriously by other countries.

Israel enjoys a tactical and strategic superiority over its neighbors; its military is both better-equipped and better-trained than any other force in the region, and it enjoys access to all the benefits of being a staunch US ally. The 1967 borders weren't "indefensible" in 1967 (Israel won the 1967 war. QED.), and are even less "indefensible" now.

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