"Israel is a tiny country, from tip to toe, it stretches three hundred miles long but is only seventy-eight miles at its widest point. Ever since the time the so-called Jewish State was established in 1948, the question of what its "defensible borders" might be has always been problematic. Yet considering the larger picture of what has happened in the Middle East over the last twenty-five years -- the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the weakening of Syria as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the smashing of Iraq by the United States -- Israel is, militarily speaking, stronger than ever before. The greatest remaining threats are terrorism and guerilla warfare, and those, Martin Van Creveld argues, are best dealt with by building a wall and getting out of the occupied territories. Based not on vague aspirations for peace, but purely on military and strategic reasoning, Defending Israel asserts that Israel can only be safe if it pulls out of Gaza and the West Bank entirely"--Front flap.
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