As countries around the world attempt to draw Israel’s borders for it, the time has come for Israel to make a leadership decision and draw its own. With the firm backing of the Trump administration, unilateral steps that undermine Israel’s security should now meet their long-overdue response.
This week, a host of countries led by France, the UK, Canada, and Australia crossed what was long considered a red diplomatic line. Despite a large majority of Israelis opposing such imposition, even a majority among Palestinians rejecting “just 22% of Palestine,” in the words of Hamas’ Khaled Mashal, they circumvented both parties and recognized a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders. Macron, Starmer, and others fiercely defended the move as a service for Israel’s security – without consulting it.
Anti-Semitism, mass migration, and traditional anti-Israel bias – all may have played some role behind the scenes. Yet the specific border question stems from the ruling dogma long considered to be the “only solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among the international milieu: imposing the so-called “Two State Solution”.
So dominant is its monopoly that the EU reacted coldly, even to the 2020 historic Abraham Accords, and, with the exception of Hungary, boycotted the signing ceremony altogether.
However, one must also acknowledge a basic truth. These liberal elites attempt to decide in Israel’s name because Israel itself has been kicking the can down this political stalemate for decades. In the words of the late Henry Kissinger, “nature abhors a vacuum; so does the international system”.
A stellar Israeli decision on the future of the territories, backed by the US, would have provided much more clarity on not just what cannot be done, but what must be done.
Israel’s eastern iron wall
In today’s chaos, the Jordan Valley is at the heart of the pro-Israeli consensus as Israel’s eastern iron wall. From David Ben Gurion through Yitzhak Rabin to Benjamin Netanyahu, all agree that without the Jordan Valley, Israel will be left exposed to an October 7 from the east – and an unimpeded flow of arms from Tehran to the outskirts of Jerusalem. Even today, the IDF’s central command warns against “growing changes” as drones smuggle arms to Palestinian villages.
There is no substitute for a permanent Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley. No international force can replace it – let alone a Palestinian state. The plan offered by former President Obama’s General John Allen in 2013 proved illusory; Afghanistan’s collapse would be Exhibit A of that conundrum.
President Trump’s own “Deal of the Century” endorsed that idea: “The Jordan Valley, which is critical for Israel’s national security, will be under Israeli sovereignty.” Under no future scenario can Israel withdraw from this strategic region.
As the war in Gaza nears its third year, and a wave of anti-Semitism floods the world, it is high time for Israel to move beyond rhetoric, pushback, or impressively stern press releases. Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to enact the Israeli law over the Jordan Valley in the past precisely because of its centrality to Israel’s security and historic importance to the Jewish people.
Now, European nations have handed him and the Trump administration the opportunity to respond to one unilateral action with another: enact the Israeli law over the Jordan Valley, from the Jordan river to the Alon road, and just like the Jerusalem recognition in 2017 – take it off the negotiating table.
The author is the executive director of the David Institute for Security Policy and a member of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum.