108 years after the first Zionist
Congress in Basel, the exact borders of Israel still have not
been determined. The British offered Uganda and, when this was
rejected;
suggested the Sinai Peninsula. Then, 14 years later in 1947, the Balfour Declaration
offered Palestine as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Sinai and Palestine encompass nearly 200,000 square kilometers - a
territory that is about five times the size of Denmark. But the territory
of the Jewish state was decimated very quickly. The Sinai offer
was withdrawn. After World War I, Sinai suddenly became part of
Egypt - which it had never been before. In 1922, nearly 100,000
square kilometers were made the Kingdom of Transjordan, today
Jordan. And, in 1948, the rest of the territory was divided up
again, with the Israelis being offered 20,000 square kilometers.
Only in the past two decades has anyone finally gotten around to
trying to decide where Israel's borders actually will be. Only
one-tenth of the original area slated for the Jewish state is
under consideration.
The process of defining Israel's borders is a painful one that
is bringing long-buried difficulties and divisions to the
surface. But they will be overcome.
In the first days of the Jewish people, Abraham and his nephew
Lot returned to the Land of Israel from Egypt. Abraham's
herdsman began to quarrel with Lots' herdsman over water. "Let
there not be strife between us," said Abraham to Lot. "The whole
land is before you. Let us separate. If you go left, I will go
right, and if you go right, I will go left." Lot chose the
Jordan Valley and Abraham chose Canaan. "Lift up your eyes and
look north and south, east and west," God said to Abraham,
following the separation. "All the land you see, I will give to
you and your seed forever."
The borders of this land always
remained vague and general. "All the land you see," is one
definition, "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the
river Euphrates," is another. But the idea of a man of peace,
who has come to terms with his place in the lay of the land, is
part and parcel of our forefather Abraham and of Jewish
heritage. Hopefully, we have reached the point where we can
begin to come to peace with ourselves and define the borders of
this land that means so much to every one of us. |
