The Green Line is the border

[bemildred]

With one stroke of a pen, Education Minister Yuli Tamir managed to restore to the public agenda the basic question that should not have been marginalized in the first place on the validity, significance and legitimacy of the Green Line. The decision is an ideological one, as was the decision to erase the 1949 cease-fire line from textbooks.

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A country needs recognized and agreed-upon borders, and in their absence, it would be sentenced to generations of war. One of the sources of the disasters that befell Europe in the 20th century is the 100-year war for political and cultural reunification of Germany, which ended in the strongest country in the heart of the continent not having borders it considered final.

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From its inception, the Jewish nationalist movement was guided by the feeling that the earth was burning beneath its feet. In order to save as many people as possible it was necessary to conquer the land. Building a national home and establishing independence served this basic goal, and until 1967 it was proved possible to achieve all the Zionist goals within borders that existed until then. There was no need to move eastward: The territories are a burden, a moral, political and financial millstone around the neck of Israeli society.

The disengagement from Gaza showed most Israelis shared this opinion. And in spite of the personal pain they felt over the expulsion of people from their homes, the majority understood that the occupation is unnecessary and unjust. Who knows this as well as the education minister? She is working within her province to implement principles and policies for which she was elected. If only the same could be said of the entire government.

Haaretz