I did read an interesting article in a military journal that made argument that, politics and cultural aspirations aside, from a strictly defense point of view Israel would actually be better off with the '67 or even '48 borders - he quoted what's his name... famous military hoho, can't remember bastard's name... said something like 'he who attempts to defend everything ends up defending nothing' - words to that effect - anyway the point was Israel did much better in their wars before '67 because the territory they had to defend was much more manageable - the writer talked about defense in depth being an attractive thing, but also a problem if one lacks the resources to cover and hold extended lines - the writer also said an expanded Israel ends up too dependent on America and that such a dependency is eventually doomed to disappoint.
I saw the writer's point - but it's hard to factor in accurately whether military success from '48 to '67 was more about the manageable battle space or the incompetence of the opponent - if the latter, do you really wanna be in a position of hoping they're still that addled? And also hard to factor in the growing sophistication of asymmetric threats and the missile tech available to them - a lack of defensive depth could cause some serious problems in that respect - but by same token, asymmetrical swarming along extended lines could also pose some serious headaches. I also don't think the dependence on America is the huge problem the writer suggests - after all, every Westernized country in the world is ultimately dependent on America for its survival - and this dependency can bring benefits as well as liabilities - benefits both for America and Israel - I mean, would Israel actually be more secure if America no longer thought its support an absolute necessity and therefore disengaged? Can't see that - you may wanna argue America would be better off - Obama certainly thinks so - but I think in the end that dependency serves Israel well.
So, an interesting point of view, worth considering - but pursuing the logic of it would require accepting huge assumptions full of risk - no, the Yom Kippur War made defense in depth a fixed given in Israeli military thinking - they'll be holding onto as much land as they possibly can.
