The foregoing discussion indicates that the real question related to the annexation of territories seized by Israel in the SixDay War is not why it has not annexed all of the territories, but, rather why it has not annexed the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in view of the facts that it has declared that (1) the West Bank is an integral part of the State of Israel, and (2) Israel will never relinquish control over the Gaza Strip. In the remainder of this research, both the internal factors and the external factors which may explain Israel's decision to, thus far, not annex the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are examined.

FactorsInternal and ExternalAffecting

Israel's Decision, Thru 1990, Not To Annex the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

The internal factors affecting Israel's decision, thus far, not to annex the West Bank and the Gaza strip a

Newman, D. (1982). Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Durham, England: Centre for Middle Easter Studies, University of Durham.

United Nations Resolution Number 242 calls for the return by Israel of the territories in occupied as a consequence of the SixDay War. The Resolution also calls for the Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization to recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist. The United States officially supports Resolution 242. In actual practice, however, the United States has usually supported Israel in that country's attempts to maintain control of the territories. American policy in the ArabIsraeli conflict since 1967 has been neither restrained nor balanced (Green, 1988). Rather, American policy toward the conflict has provided for an intensive American involvement, with a solid preference for Israel (Wingerter, 1985). In the early1950s, "Israel was a small, struggling country. Survival was really an issue . ., and American foreign policy in the Middle East was to achieve peace in order to assure that survival" (Green, 1988, p. 1). Contemporary Israel, however, has "the fifth or sixth most powerful army in the world, the third largest airforce, and nuclear weapons with five or six different delivery systems, all provided directly or indirectly by the United States" (Green, 1988, p. 1). No longer is Israel, within the context of American policy, viewed as a refuge or homeland for Jews; rather, it is viewed by the American government as a "strategic asset . . . a huge docked aircraft carrier pointed at the Soviet Union," which, in "the process, . . . had made Israel an immediate, serious threat to the national security of each of its Arab neighbors" (Green, 1988, pp. 12).

Tartter, J. R., & Mason, R. S. (1990). National security. In Metz, H. C. Israel: A country study. Washington: United States D