Strengthen, fortify, develop
The new reality requires not only a security concept for the border, but also a civilian one: strong communities, agriculture, education, employment, and stable civilian presence. A border is not just a line to be defended; it is also a space where people live.
In recent months, a legislative struggle has been taking place on both sides of the ocean in an effort to abolish the term "West Bank." Before it was dissolved, the Knesset approved the proposal in its first reading. Meanwhile, in the USA, Republican members of Congress are promoting similar initiatives. This politicization does not stop at legislation. Every media outlet has a reporter covering the same area with a different job title. In one newspaper there is a territories correspondent, in another a settlements correspondent, and on television — also a territories correspondent. These are not neutral job descriptions, but editorial choices that signal to the reader what kind of story they are about to receive. The struggle over terminology sometimes makes one forget the geography itself, and with it the ability to speak about the space as it is.
The term perhaps most identified with this controversy is "West Bank." It became established after the War of Independence in 1948 and Jordanian rule, as a description of the area west of the Jordan River and opposite the East Bank, in the territory the Hashemite Kingdom received from the British. However, there is a historical irony here: as early as 1929, Ze'ev Jabotinsky used the same geography when he wrote "Two banks has the Jordan - this one is ours, and that one too," expressing through it a Jewish national vision on both sides of the Jordan River. The term "Judea and Samaria" was also not born after 1967; these served as geographical names for the regions of the country even before the establishment of the state. Over the years, that same geography has thus received different names, and each of them carried a different perspective: "West Bank" as a description of the space in relation to the Jordan River, "Judea and Samaria" through historical geography, and "the territories" through the political dispute that developed after 1967.
Israel and Jordan have a long common border. For a long time, it was perceived as a quiet border, but in recent years, weapons smuggling from Jordan, attempts to breach the border, and the fear of hostile elements establishing themselves from the east are bringing it back to the center of the discussion. Historically, there is also an echo of another era in this. In the years after the Six-Day War, the Jordan Valley became the "land of pursuits." Mainly between 1967 and 1970, the IDF dealt with Palestinian squads from Jordan. The pursuits, the ambushes, and the fighting along the Jordan shaped the perception of the valley in those years as a security border space.
Now the political and security context is completely different, thanks to the peace treaty, but the smuggling and infiltrations of recent years remind us that the geography itself has not changed. In early 2026, a smuggling attempt from Jordan was thwarted using a drone that carried 36 pistols. The meaning is clear: one cannot treat the area between the countries as a matter-of-fact "quiet border." It must be remembered that a significant part of Jordan's population is Palestinian, and the country itself is in a space that has undergone deep turmoil since October 7. In February 2025, a network was exposed that smuggled dozens of pistols and four long guns from the Jordan border into Judea and Samaria.
A view from east to west changes the map. The Jordan River is not only the reference point from which the term "West Bank" is derived; it is also part of our eastern border. The Jordan Valley, accordingly, is not only part of the territory known as the "West Bank," but part of a larger geographical sequence of the eastern border space, extending north and south along the border with Jordan. The new reality requires not only a security concept for the border, but also a civilian one: strong communities, agriculture, education, employment, and stable civilian presence. A border is not just a line to be defended; it is also a space where people live. The resilience of the communities along it is part of the resilience of the entire eastern border.
