The issue of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and settlements in Jude and Samaria has put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a historic crossroads of a strategic position, one of the most difficult in the history of Israel. At a strategic junction, decisions are always complicated. Netanyahu's dilemma is many times more so.
From the Left, with support from former IDF commanders and public officials, he is being presented with a list of risks so long it would appear to contradict the assumption that we even have an opportunity. From the Right, representatives of the settlement enterprise are presenting not only security risks, but also a concern about a step that cannot be walked back that would transfer about half the territory currently under Israeli control in Area C to the Palestinian Authority.
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Netanyahu has enough public support to deal with the Left's calculations of the risks, including support form a growing group that represents an alternative stance on security issues. His toughest problem is coming from the representatives of the settlements.
David Ben-Gurion faced a similar dilemma in 1937, when he agreed to the Peel Commission's partition plan. "The Jewish state offered to us now … is not the goal of Zionism, but it could serve as a decisive step on the path to fulfilling the great Zionist dream," he explained. These words express his strategic reasoning of working step-by-step in a pioneering struggle that does not end. It's unlikely that this is Netanyahu's approach, and this is an issue that should be examined in depth.
But when it comes to the security aspects of the sovereignty plan, there are things that must be clarified immediately, with a focus on the issue of control of major roads. The prime minister is promising that even when the Trump plan is implemented, the IDF will remain in charge of security, and certainly when it comes to the key highways. But security control in and of itself is not enough. If a road is under the authority of the Palestinians, Israel will not be able to prevent dense construction on either side of it. Israel's "security control" would be virtually ineffective.
This is what the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin understood when he conditioned progress in implementing the Oslo Accords on the construction of bypass roads leading to Gush Etzion and the Ramallah bypass route. These routes weren't paved solely to make it easier for the residents of Ofra and Gush Etzion to get to Jerusalem. They were laid as a key operational condition that provided IDF forces with a "defensive shield" that allowed them to move between operational arenas in Judea and Samaria.
Therefore, the major roads, as well as highways 5 and 35, must remain under full Israeli control. The same applies to Highway 60 north and south of Jerusalem, which functions as a critical link between Jerusalem and the settlements that surround it – the Eli-Ariel bloc to the north, and the Kiryat Arba bloc to the south. Without Highway 60, Jerusalem will be cut off from fulfilling its role as a metropolis and will continue to function as a border town.
Despite the risks, the application of Israeli sovereignty is indeed a historic opportunity. We must implement it with the mindset of being part of an endless process of redeeming the people and the land.
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