Why is Syria insisting on the June 4th, 1967, lines? Those didn`t correspond to anything, not to the internationally recognized border as determined by the Franco-British Boundary Agreement of 1922 (ratified in 1923) nor to the Israeli-Syrian Armistice Agreement of 1949. They were just the front lines between the two hostile armies before the Six-Day War and have no political meaning. If Israel wants to go back to the internationally recognized border, then she had better start out by insisting on the 1974 Alpha Line of the UNDOF demilitarized zone as the border and compromise her way down to it from that. When you bargain with Arabs don`t start with your bottom line.
Besides, there`s a bill moving through the Knesset which would require a 2/3rds vote to ratify any deal with Syria which entails an Israeli withdrawal from any portion of the annexed Golan Heights. Syria and Israel will delay things until the political dust settles in the U.S. and Israel so I don`t see much until 2009. |
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