Member-only story
What Israel Should Have Done…
My two-bits of opinion which doesn’t change the situation one bit.
I understand why Israel went to war with her Arab neighbors in 1967. She had been isolated in terms of land and sea with the Suez Canal shut off, and armed Arabs at her borders. After a month, she took a decision to attack, and she won. She took Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Had I been the Israeli prime minister, I would have sat down at the table with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and said, “I think we’ve proven a point — that we can take you in battle. Now here’s your land back. We don’t want it. Just get a life, won’t you? Leave us alone. If you attack us in the future, we will win again. So stop attacking us.”
Then, again, I would have done the same thing in 1947/48. In that war, Israel also took land, and she kept it. I don’t think she should have.
The difference in the stance of the United Nations is this — a link I can’t currently find. It disappeared from the United Nations website shortly after the 10/7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
There is/was a United Nations policy that whichever country was responsible for the initial invasion, that country could not keep the land it took in battle. So, in the war of 1947/48, it was the…
