What Israel's Borders Might Look Like If Obama's Vision for a Palestinian State Turns Into Reality

The big news today is that Barack Obama is endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Six Day War. Obama’s call to set Israel’s boundaries back to the boundaries that existed before 1967 in order to create a Palestinian state has already been rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described the borders as “not defensible”.

I thought it would be useful today to post a map of what Israel looked like before the Six Day War in 1967 to illustrate what Israel could look like if Obama’s plan is enacted.

Pre-1967 Israel

The following map of Israel before the Six Day War is from a website called Information Regarding Israel’s Security: Link The area highlighted in green is essentially what Israel could look like if it returned to its pre-1967 borders:

Pre-1967 Israel had control of much less territory than it has today. Israel did not possess control of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, nor all of Jerusalem before the Six Day War. In addition, Israel’s territory at some areas was less than 10 miles in width (see Netanya on the map).

The following passage is from a memorandum that former Lord Chancellor Viscount Hailsham wrote to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about how the pre-1967 borders had put Israel in a difficult security situation:

Prior to 1967 the physical boundaries of Israel were virtually untenable militarily. South of the Jezreel valley, the geography of Israel is starkly simple, consisting virtually of three parallel straight lines running North and South, the sea, the Judean hills and the Jordan valley. Whoever commands the hills commands the rest. Prior to 1967 the waist-line of Israel was only 10 miles broad, and its main centers of population [were] exposed to artillery fire as well as the prospect of devastating air raids. After 1967 Israel has enjoyed reasonably viable military frontiers consisting of the Judean hills (and the no less important frontier heights on the Syrian border). Jerusalem is built on the Judean hills.

Former U.S. President Ronald Regan also recognized the security challenge that Israel faced with its pre-1967 boundaries. He once proclaimed:

"in the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely ten miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel's population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again."

These statements perhaps provide some idea of why Netanyahu characterized the pre-1967 boundaries as "non defensible"...

Obama’s announcement comes a day before Netanyahu meets him at the White House. I imagine the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama is going to be a tense one…