This week Israel marked
the 17th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin. At various events, there were speakers who recalled their
personal relationship with the late prime minister in order to determine
what his legacy was.
But Rabin actually
detailed how he envisioned the future borders of the State of Israel, in
his last Knesset address, which was delivered exactly one month before
he was killed. Looking back and reading the speech is an eerie exercise,
for although he had no idea what would happen to him in a few weeks, he
nonetheless appeared to be leaving a political will to the citizens of
Israel.
The actual date of
Rabin's speech was Oct. 5, 1995. The prime minister was presenting the
Oslo II Interim Agreement for ratification by the Knesset. The first
Oslo Agreement that was signed on the White House lawn on Sept. 13,
1993. It was followed by the Gaza-Jericho Agreement in 1994. The Oslo II
Interim Agreement applied to all the cities and major villages in the
rest of the West Bank.
Oslo was only an
interim agreement. But to get it approved, Rabin felt he had to lay out
his ultimate vision of where he saw his negotiations with the
Palestinians leading. Rabin firmly declared: "The borders of the State
of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which
existed before the Six-Day War. We will not return to the June, 4 1967
lines." He never stipulated that Israel would have to pay for territory
it would ultimately retain with "land swaps."
He also spoke about
Israel retaining the settlement blocs, modeling them on Gush Katif in
the Gaza Strip. Of course he did not know that ten years later, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon would dismantle Gush Katif along with all the
settlements in Gaza. Nevertheless the idea of settlement blocs was very
much part of his thinking: "Changes which will include the addition of
Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are in
the area east of what was the 'Green Line,' prior to the Six-Day War."
One of the striking
features of Rabin's map was what he said about the Jordan Valley: "The
security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan
Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term." By saying the "broadest
meaning of that term," he understood that Israel's defense line had to
include the eastern slopes of the West Bank hill ridge, which rose from
an area near the Dead Sea which was 400 meters below sea level to hill
tops that in one case reached a height of over 800 meters.
This steep 1200 foot
topographical barrier was Rabin's defense line. What needs to be
recalled is that Rabin outlined these Israeli security needs even though
his government had signed the Oslo Agreement two years earlier and even
added the peace treaty with Jordan a year later. Seventeen years before
the Arab Spring, what Rabin implicitly understood is that political
conditions in the Arab world can change and that Israeli security cannot
be based on a snapshot of the situation in 1995.
When Rabin began
detailing his map he began with what meant most to him: "First and
foremost a united Jerusalem ... as the capital of Israel, under Israeli
sovereignty." In 1994, he concluded the "Washington Declaration" with
King Hussein, which stated that Israel “respects the present role of the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the Muslim Holy Shrines in Jerusalem."
It added that "when negotiations on the permanent status will take
place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in
these shrines.”
There are many who
debate what exactly Rabin's legacy was. There are people who can point
to private conversations they had with him to back their version of what
he stood for. But Rabin's last Knesset speech cannot be ignored as the
most authoritative source of how he envisioned Israel's future borders.
The principles outlined in his plan, moreover, have not lost their
relevance for Israel 17 years later.
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