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Originally Posted by Aranthus
Let's start with the claim that the Palestinians can't recognize Israel because the borders are not defined. Tell that to the Japanese and the Russians (still disputing the border in the Kurile Islands), India and Pakistan (Kashmir) several South American countries, etc. All those governments recognize each other. Recognizing a sovereign government doesn't mean recognizing the borders of a state. The argument is simply false.
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I'm afraid there's a logic problem in the above passage.
The various countries mentioned above have disputed boundaries, but each side in each dispute has at least
defined their boundary claim. I can flip open my atlas and see the dotted lines reading "border claimed by India, border claimed by China," and so forth.
The sides might completely disagree with each other's claims, or they might even hate each other's guts, but the claims themselves are known and can serve as some basis of negotiation or arbitration.
The point made by the article posted by Ray was that Israel has apparently failed to even define its boundary claim. If this is true, then nobody can know what Israel is claiming--where's the limit? And how could you really negotiate it?
Again, if this is true, then it becomes more understandable that almost all Arabs suspect Israel of having expansionist ambitions. And the Palestinian stonewalling over negotiations also becomes more understandable, because it would appear that Israel will not put its ultimate demands on the table.
Looking at Israeli internal politics, I think I can see why Israel might have problems trying to formulate a boundary claim. One problem that is immediately apparent is that about 20% of their parliament is occupied by hardline parties that are in favour of further territorial expansion. Because coalition governments are almost always necessary in Israel, due to its proportional-representation electoral system, quite often the support of these parties are necessary to form a governing bloc. Therefore, if a government attempted to define Israel's final borders, they might lose the support they need to keep office in the first place.
Then it becomes easier to understand why the only Israeli leaders who have managed to make territorial concessions and survive politically have been men of unimpeachable hardline credentials, such as Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon. And these men have done so only toward the end of their political careers.