At the end of May 2011, US President Barack Obama issued a statement calling on Israel and Palestine to conclude a peace treaty in which both states recognize the 1967 Israeli borders. Such a statement by the American president caused a shock in Tel Aviv, as this would result in the state of Israel not only territorial, but also large political losses. After all, after 1967, borders have repeatedly changed and expanded, especially on the West Bank.
Over the past decades, many large Jewish settlements have been created in the new lands, which have now grown significantly. The cities of Hebron and Nablus, located on the West Bank, have, along with Jerusalem, great religious significance for the Israelis. Therefore, despite the borders of Israel in 1967, many families of rabbis and traditional Jews moved to the West Bank despite the fact that this territory was Palestinian. Currently, more than 500,000 Jews live in 121 settlements.
If you restore the borders of Israel in 1967, you will need to not only freeze all construction, but also to demolish all the settlements that already exist. But an even bigger problem will be the need to resettle more than half a million of their citizens who currently live in this territory. But not only settlements in the West Bank become a stumbling block, an even greater loss for Israel will be the division of the historically important city of Jerusalem along the former borders of 1967. The authorities of the Jewish state do not want to divide this city under any circumstances.
Back in 1980, the Knesset passed a very important law in which Jerusalem received the status of a "holy city." However, the Palestinians insist that East Jerusalem become the capital of a Palestinian state. And since East Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan until 1967, the border of Israel and Jordan was also affected. Based on all these considerations, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu will have to accept substantial losses, and this is a fundamentally important issue for him.
The authorities of the Jewish state have always believed that the borders of Israel in 1967 are not safe and opposed the Palestinians gaining their statehood due to the loss of Israeli territory. If the current borders have to be moved, not only the Likud party may lose its political face, but the independence of Israel may also be called into question, since such an act could become an automatic recognition of an independent Palestinian state.
Since Israel controls the bulk of the disputed territories, and Palestine is critically short of land, this provokes and makes possible the development of further conflicts. But the Israeli government, not without reason, fears that, if the borders are moved in favor of Palestine, the presence of Hamas in this insecure region will certainly increase. Therefore, Israel demands that the Palestinian state be demilitarized and at the same time that Israeli troops be stationed in the border areas of the Jordan River.
In addition, the official recognition of the territories of Palestine will entail the receipt of exactly the same requirements from other neighboring states. In particular, during the 1967 war, Syria lost the territory called the Golan Heights. Because of this, the situation in the region is such that there can be no successful peace negotiations until the borders of Israel in 1967 are restored, and it is precisely against this that the Jewish state opposes. Moreover, Israel refuses to grant territorial sovereignty to the Arab state of Palestine.