Israeli Envoy Slams 1967 Border Proposal: Says No One But Israel Can Set Israel’s Borders

Lauds 'Courageous' Netanyahu, Rules Out 'Peace at Any Price'

In what appears to be the first official response to last week’s Palestinian calls for a peace deal along the 1967 borders, Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren slammed the notion, insisting Israel would never allow anyone else to “dictate out borders” and that the borders could only be determined by Israeli officials as a result of negotiations.

Israel invaded and occupied broad swathes of territory during the 1967 war. Since then the Israeli government has heavily subsidized efforts to move roughly half a million Israelis into those regions to establish a permanent claim over them.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted in an interview with Israeli TV on Sunday that the return to the 1967 borders would end all historic claims against the Israeli government.

But the 1967 border had repeatedly been denounced by Israeli officials, who insist that there are both religious and security reasons for a permanent occupation of parts of the region. Instead they appear reluctant to hand over anything but a nominal portion of the occupied territories as a marginally independent Palestinian state.

Oren praised Netanyahu’s stance on the matter as “courageous” and insisted that Israel would not accept “peace at any price.” The most recent peace talks ended in September, when Israel allowed its freeze on settlement expansion to expire.

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.