Over the weekend, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen called for the UN to endorse a 'two-state solution' based upon the June 4, 1967 borders between Israel and Jordan and between Israel and Egypt. I have pointed out many times that UN Security Council Resolution 242 does not call for a return to the 1949 armistice lines that were in effect on June 4, 1967. Rick Richman does a good job of summing up the promises that have been made to Israel regarding its eventual permanent border.
The Roadmap calls for final-status negotiations in Phase III “based on UNSCR 242.” It does not mention the June 4, 1967, lines, much less endorse them as “borders.” The U.S. has at least three times formally assured Israel of “defensible borders” as the outcome of the peace process: (1) in the January 16, 1997, letter from Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; (2) in the April 14, 2004, letter from President George W. Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; and (3) in the January 16, 2009, Memorandum of Agreement between the U.S. and Israel. Only such borders meet the Resolution 242 requirement that Israel’s borders be not only recognized but also secure.
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