Israel: Palestinians Can Never Have Any Presence at Their Own Borders

Proposed US 'Compromise' Rejected by Both Israel, Palestinians

Agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been as scarce as hens’ teeth during the ongoing peace talks, but they were unanimous today in their rejection of a US “compromise” proposal on border security.

The details of the proposal were never made public, but were believed by the US to skew in Israel’s favor, and were supposedly designed to placate an Israeli government that is increasingly angry at the Obama Administration about seemingly everything.

The question was about the Jordan Valley, the prospective future border between an independent Palestine and Jordan, and the US had reportedly been pushing an idea of an international force, along with joint Israeli-Palestinian presences at the border, giving Israel partial control over a border between two other countries.

The Palestinians complained this amounted to a de facto continuation of the Israeli occupation. Israel, which managed to be just as outraged about the proposal, objected to allowing any Palestinian presence at all on their own border, saying Israel would insist on full civilian and military control over the border between Jordan and Palestine.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.