Strategic Assessment

This article presents two approaches regarding the status of the Jordan Valley in the framework of security arrangements for a possible Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. The stand-alone approach treats the security arrangements as an independent issue that is equal in importance to the political settlement. The integrated approach subordinates the security arrangements to the attempt to change the reality through the political agreement. The article concludes that while Israel must make every political effort to achieve a peace settlement, this drive must be grounded in Israel’s accumulated knowledge and experience and a clear observation of the surroundings, and these parameters provide persuasive reasons for preferring the stand-alone approach to the security arrangements. In principle, the security arrangements should provide for the scalability of the Israeli forces in the Jordan Valley according to Israel’s assessment of the situation, and should allow long term, continuous control of select key areas in both routine situations and emergencies.