ISIS: Netanyahu’s New Excuse for Keeping West Bank Border Zone

Insists Israel Needs Territory to Protect Itself From 'ISIS Threat'

by | Jun 29, 2014

ISIS forces are on the Jordanian-Iraqi border, and even if this is a long, long way away from Israel, that’s no reason Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t use it as the newest excuse against Palestinian statehood.

In his comments today, Netanyahu hyped the “ISIS threat,” saying that it proved Israel needs to keep the West Bank-Jordan border to defend itself from any potential ISIS incursions from Jordan.

Though the border region is virtually bereft of settlements, Netanyahu and other hawks in the Israeli government have long opposed allowing the region to be ceded to an independent Palestinian state.

Without the Jordan border, “Palestine” would have no borders at all, and would simply be a walled in fraction of the West Bank set up as a Bantustan, eternally surrounded by Israel.

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.

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