From: arens@ISI.EDU (Yigal Arens)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: talk.politics.mideast
Date: 18 Nov 92 02:12:46 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: USC/Information Sciences Institute

Hadashot, November 2, 1992.

By Prof. Ze'ev Tsachor, a professor of Jewish history at Ben-Gurion
University.


IT'S NOT OURS

The border between Israel and Jordan was drawn even before the
countries came into existence.  In 1921, three British Lords met in
Cairo: Gertrude Bell, archeologist and adventurer, T. A. Lawrence,
"Lawrence of Arabia", and Winston Churchill, then Minister for the
Colonies in the British Government.  They divided the Middle East into
political units.  The border line they drew for eastern Palestine
appeared to be a natural one, connecting the Jordan river, Lake
Kinneret [Tiberias] and the Dead Sea. Its natural continuation was
Aravah Creek, which flows from the Dead Sea towards Aqaba [on the Red
Sea].  The border they decided upon was recognized internationally by
the League of Nations in San Remo in 1922, and later by Israel and
Jordan in the 1949 armistice agreement.

The problem is that Aravah Creek is not the English Channel -- not
even the Jordan river.  Its path varies, and it changes course with
every rainstorm.  Border markers were put in place in the 1950s to
indicate the permanent line.  They remained in place until Ein-Yahav,
the first moshav [communal village] in the Aravah region, was
established.  Members of Ein-Yahav did not consider Churchill a fit
authority concerning which desert plot was most fitting for tomato
growing.  They therefore paid little attention to a border line drawn
by three Brits on some old map.

During the 60s, the heyday of Israeli machoism, there was no-one
around who could stand in the way of an Israeli desert-blooming farmer
who decided to push aside a bothersome border marker.  Farmers of
Ein-Yahav, followed by farmers of Hatzevah, went on the offensive.
The IDF complied with their efforts, and the border moved gradually,
plot after plot, into Jordan.  The border movement was not done in
secret.  In several places nobody even bothered to take down the old
border fence, which stayed way behind as a reminder.  The Jordanians
watched, incapable of responding, waiting for the day of reckoning.

The first one to realize that the Arabs have a long memory was,
contrary to expectations, Menachem Begin.  He realized that without
returning all of the Sinai to Egypt, up to the last centimeter of
Taba, peace will not be possible.  The agreement signed by him
included a commitment to return every last bit to Egypt.  His
followers' attempt to argue that Taba was just a grain of sand for
Egypt, but a matter of supreme importance to us -- was irrelevant.
Israel's indecent effort to hold on to Taba cost us dearly in way of
respect and trust.  Only after being proven wrong did we return
everything.  What a shame.

Now Jordan is presenting its own bill.  If negotiations with it reach
the stage of a peace accord, the principle agreed to by Begin will be
applicable here as well.  Aravah Creek does not contain the tombs of
any patriarchs (thank God), and the residents of Ein-Yahav and
Hatzevah are not settlers of the kind that storm guards in Jerusalem.
The Creek does move with each rain, but both sides know perfectly well
where the border markers were, who moved them, and where to.  There
will be no need to raise Churchill from the dead in order to redraw it.

Perhaps this time, instead of debasing ourselves and retreating only
under pressure, we should take the initiative and offer to return
outright what never was ours anyway.
--
Yigal Arens
USC/ISI                                                TV made me do it!
arens@isi.edu
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast