ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two related aspects of Israel's territorial politics: borders and settlement landscapes. It discusses the ways in which Israel's outer configuration is determined its neighbors and focuses on settlement landscapes discusses the way in which the territory within the borders is controlled in terms of Jewish–Arab demographic and territorial objectives. Israel has five potential international borders—with each of the neighboring states—Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, and a potential boundary with a future Palestinian state. Of these five, only two—with Egypt and Jordan—have the status of internationally agreed lines, by virtue of the peace treaties with each of these countries, with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1995. The state would exist within borders which were significantly larger than those outlined in the original UNSCOP proposal. It is this border that has become accepted as the ultimate determinant of Israel's sovereign territory within the international community.
