Bravo, Mr. Harper

Alone among G8 leaders, the Canadian Prime Minister refuses to embrace the U.S. President’s plan to begin peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of a return to Israel’s de facto borders as they existed before its 1967 war with neighbouring Arab countries – a precondition, accepted by Arabs and by many previous Israeli leaders and Canadian governments, that would be necessary to get Palestinians back to the table.

‘return to Israel’s de facto borders as they existed before its 1967 war’

Utter bunk. There were no ‘borders’ at all but rather these were the ceasefire lines after the Arab attack on Israel. The UN negotiated a ceasefire which constituted the armistice line in 1949 and which was not to be interpreted as a political or territorial border. Basically Judea and Samaria, the so-called ‘west bank’, were occupied by Jordan until 1967 when Jordan’s occupying forces were driven out by the Israeli forces.