ERETZ Book Subscribe Jerusalem Issue Gift Subscription Sample Issue Customer Service

Departments

Terms of Use

ERETZ SURVEY

 

Borders and Frontiers

ERETZ 99 - July-August 2005

108 years after the first Zionist Congress in Basel, the exact borders of Israel still have not been determined. The British offered Uganda and, when this was rejected; suggested the Sinai Peninsula. Then, 14 years later in 1947, the Balfour Declaration offered Palestine as the homeland of the Jewish people.

Sinai and Palestine encompass nearly 200,000 square kilometers - a territory that is about five times the size of Denmark. But the territory of the Jewish state was decimated very quickly. The Sinai offer was withdrawn. After World War I, Sinai suddenly became part of Egypt - which it had never been before. In 1922, nearly 100,000 square kilometers were made the Kingdom of Transjordan, today Jordan. And, in 1948, the rest of the territory was divided up again, with the Israelis being offered 20,000 square kilometers. Only in the past two decades has anyone finally gotten around to trying to decide where Israel's borders actually will be. Only one-tenth of the original area slated for the Jewish state is under consideration.

The process of defining Israel's borders is a painful one that is bringing long-buried difficulties and divisions to the surface. But they will be overcome. In the first days of the Jewish people, Abraham and his nephew Lot returned to the Land of Israel from Egypt. Abraham's herdsman began to quarrel with Lots' herdsman over water. "Let there not be strife between us," said Abraham to Lot. "The whole land is before you. Let us separate. If you go left, I will go right, and if you go right, I will go left." Lot chose the Jordan Valley and Abraham chose Canaan. "Lift up your eyes and look north and south, east and west," God said to Abraham, following the separation. "All the land you see, I will give to you and your seed forever."

The borders of this land always remained vague and general. "All the land you see," is one definition, "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates," is another. But the idea of a man of peace, who has come to terms with his place in the lay of the land, is part and parcel of our forefather Abraham and of Jewish heritage. Hopefully, we have reached the point where we can begin to come to peace with ourselves and define the borders of this land that means so much to every one of us.



To view the full size map


© ERETZ Magazine 2016