Dilemma of Victory
PETERS, S.
ISRAEL DEBATES THE FUTURE Dilemma of Victory By S. Peters Tel Aviv The swift, decisive military defeat of Egypt, Jordan and Syria last month lifted the sword of annihilation from Israel. But is...
...For the first time the menacing threats appeared on the verge of implementation...
...from the barren Straits of Tiran, now reopened to Israeli shipping, to the Western Wall in the Old City, holiest of Judaism's shrines...
...Then came the war and victory, at a speed and to an extent Israelis would not have imagined in their most daring dreams...
...This would be part and parcel of a peace agreement with King Hussein, and the territories returned to him would represent the price Israel was willing to pay for a Jordanian breach of the persistent Arab refusal to publicly accept Israel's existence...
...Though the files of the Israeli General Staff contain plans for every military contingency, no such advance planning appears to exist in the political and diplomatic field...
...and died quietly, often after their very first session...
...Cabinet and ministerial committee meetings followed each other in quick succession...
...Israelis, however, will not soon forget the seven Egyptian divisions equipped with 1,000 Soviet tanks poised on their border, while Jordan placed its forces under Cairo's command...
...have not changed...
...These discussions sought to "establish Israel's position" in the UN General Assembly debate, to define its targets in the diplomatic and political arena, and to determine practical objectives in the territories occupied during the fighting...
...This is a small country...
...Hundreds of thousands of young people????some of them born after the State of Israel was established, others who immigrated in years since????saw for the first time the sights of the Western Bank, the towns and cities of Nablus, Ramal-lah, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron...
...Next came the casualty lists: 679 dead and over 2,500 wounded...
...From Israel's point of view, any solution must find the optimum between two aims that are at least partly contradictory: On the one hand, Israel wants to have its new borders drawn along lines that would provide maximum military security...
...This, of course, makes the victory even more precious, even more important...
...The second week after the war was one of intermittent conferences...
...These involve safeguards to insure freedom of passage through the Straits of Tiran and the Suez Canal, and to prevent the Syrian Heights from again becoming a base for constant terrorist and artillery attacks on Israeli towns and villages in the Galilee...
...Only then will the country have its natural borders, geographically, politically and strategically...
...The general outline of Israel's essential position emerged from official speeches and statements even before formal discussions began, a) There can be no return to the conditions that prevailed before June 5; b) Israel wants to negotiate peace and not another interim arrangement...
...S. Peters, a previous contributor, is a free-lance writer currently based in the Middle East...
...What they can accept is a more complicated matter...
...From public pronouncements by different politicians, however, it is safe to assume that three approaches to the question are being considered: 1. The occupied territories, particularly within the traditional borders of Palestine, should be fully annexed to Israel...
...But it was obvious that Israel's political leaders have not yet mastered the modern techniques of decision making...
...Apparently there is a feeling that the future of the Sinai Peninsula and of the Syrian Heights occupied by Israel represent strategic and security objectives that can be negotiated...
...This is a difficult dilemma, and Israeli leadership has been rather slow at developing clear-cut solutions...
...c) Israel wants to negotiate directly with the Arabs and not through intermediaries...
...Israelis based their approach on two premises: First, Washington will support the above position because it is both reasonable and in accord with U.S...
...Thus there is a growing feeling in this country that once more time is running out????that the advantages won on the battlefield may be lost through vacillation in the conference rooms...
...It would make no sense for Washington to let Israel down and thus enable Moscow to appear as the saviour of the Arabs...
...The background for all these deliberations was the obvious public sentiment against returning the newly occupied territories, particularly inside Palestine, with feelings running highest about the Old City of Jerusalem...
...Second, the Soviets will use every means at their disposal to retrieve for the Arabs what they lost on the battlefield save one ????the direct use of arms...
...on the other hand, Israel would like to avoid, as much as possible, the enormous problems and complications that would certainly emerge from having to care for nearly one million additional Arabs within its borders...
...But is peace closer now that the danger of annihilation is more distant...
...This solution would be the closest to what was suggested (but rejected by the Arabs) in the 1947 UN partition resolution, with one important difference: Twenty years ago Israel would have been the junior partner in such a confederation, whereas now Israel...
...2. The occupied Arab territories should become an autonomous Arab republic linked to Israel in matters of defense and foreign policy, with a possible economic union as well...
...stronger militarily, economically, and with a greater population—¦ would have the advantage over the Arabs...
...Israeli Cabinet discussions on the minimum terms for a settlement and the future of the occupied territories have naturally been conducted behind tightly closed doors...
...Moreover, the scope of Israel's victory not only exceeded its own expectations but left it completely unprepared to deal quickly with the fruits????and problems????of success...
...The Israelis know what they cannot accept: a return to the status quo ante...
...3. Some relatively minor border rectifications aimed primarily at widening Israel's dangerously narrow waist north of Tel Aviv and broadening the corridor to Jerusalem, with the entire city united...
...Any attempt to answer this question must begin by comparing the situation that prevailed in the fortnight prior to June 5 with the picture as it emerged on June 10, when the cease fire became effective on all fronts...
...It is easy now????particularly abroad????to discount the seriousness of those threats in the light of the overwhelming setback suffered by the Arabs...
...They were bewitched by the beauty of the newly-discovered countryside, adding their voice to the "we stay here" sentiment of their elders...
...Different as these three suggestions (and their variants) are from each other, they have two points in common: They concentrate primarily on the future of Palestine proper, and they leave the door open for the solution of the Arab refugee question...
...The scope of the Egyptian defeat might have been larger than Moscow realized when it agreed with Washington on the mutual avoidance of direct intervention in the war, but the basic considerations which resulted in the decision against a face-to-face military confrontation with the U.S...
...But the keen awareness of every Israeli that this time the Arabs really meant to exterminate them is the key factor in their reaction to any call for generosity from the victors, as well as to their attitude toward the settlement that must emerge from the failure of Arab plans...
...For Israeli leaders, the first week after the war was like a victory parade and a religious pilgrimage combined: They rushed from the scene of 100 destroyed Egyptian tanks in the Sinai desert to the ancient city of Jericho whose walls fell before Joshua's trumpet several millennia ago...
...During the two weeks before the fighting errupted the Israelis did not simply face the same general barrage of hostile words and sporadic hostile deeds to which they have long become accustomed...
...In the case of the territories in Palestine proper, though, political concerns complicate the situation...
...interests...
...subcommittee and advisory groups were established...
...The vacillation of Premier Levi Eshkol's government, until popular sentiment forced it to hand over the Defense portfolio to General Moshe Dayan, only deepened the trauma of those two weeks...
...there is hardly a person here who did not know quite a number of those who fell or were injured...
Vol. 50 • July 1967 • No. 14
