A new poll finds that
a sweeping majority of Israelis – 63.5%, to be exact – think the Jordan valley is part of Israel; in other words, not part of the West Bank; or, in plain words, don’t understand why or how Israeli presence there is being called into question.
Arun With A View sees cartography as partly to blame:
After the 1967 war the Green Line disappeared from maps in Israel. When I first visited Israel in the mid-1980s the maps I got there—and all those I saw—showed no border between Israel proper and the West Bank-Gaza (or with the Golan heights). Moreover, Israeli maps from ’67 to the peace treaty with Egypt showed no border with Egypt either; Israel continued into the Sinai until the Suez canal (or to the buffer zone after the Sinai II agreement).
Similarly, Arab maps show no Israel at all. It's increasingly clear to me that a two-state solution is as far away as ever, so far as the Israelis are concerned. Greater Israel has been internalized as Israel. That's also why so many Jewish Americans are formally opposed to the settlements, yet manage always to prevent any serious action against them.
The Dish 