I usually say that the Israeli-Muslim conflict (falsely suggested to be the Israeli - "Palestinian" ) issue is not a real estate problem.
Frum picks up on that theme and says that it is not a border issue.
The issue is jihad, dar-al-Islam versus dar-al-harb and whether or not to destroy Israel now or later.
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Yeah, I don't particularly care much for David Frum either, but, like Conservative, I agree with his analysis of the Moslem-Israeli conflict (though, really, an intellect of the caliber that Mr. Frum attributes to himself is not necessary to see that it has always been about the very existence of an Jewish state, not about its geographical boundaries).
Those who imagine that an Israel shrunk to its pre-Six Day War boundaries will satisfy her enemies have to ignore, willfully or not, the history of the Palestinian partition. If the Arabs were not satisfied with the pitiful patchwork of Jewish enclaves that came out of that deal, and launched the war of extermination that resulted in the pre-1967 borders (with the big westward bulge marking the furthest advance of the Arab Legion in trying to break through the Israeli defense lines), only a leap of faith that would strain the credulity even of Western Leftist intellectuals (where designated "people of color" are concerned) would suffice to believe that any territorial concessions would satisfy them.
For what it is worth, I do not for a moment believe that Obama has taken that leap of faith. He knows full well that a 9-mile-wide Israel shall prove indefensible militarily; Moslems might be slow in adapting to modernity, but they have learned a lot about how to improve their military capabilities. Remember that the Yom Kippur War was a "near-run thing," even though Israel had post-1967 territorial buffers in the Sinai as well as the West Bank. My own reading of the big O's motives is that he sees the Moslem-Israeli conflict through the lens of American race relations, with the Israelis playing the part of "honkies" while the Palestinians et al. are virtuous "people of color." He is pushing for an Israeli return to pre-1967 borders precisely because he realizes that such an Israel would be militarily indefensible under the present "correlation of forces," if I may be permitted the Marxist trope. The low-level military struggle between Israel and the terrorist proxies of her Moslem neighbors would almost immediately intensify following such a retrenchment. Obama's next demand would be that Israel should accede to the Palestinian "right of return," which would of course be tantamount to national suicide. But, by that point, Israel would have no choice but to commit suicide literally by "doing a Masada" or by capitulating to its Moslem enemies and depending on their good offices for the humane treatment of the Jewish population of Palestine.
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