פורום ארץ הצבי

The following statement by Abba Eban was cited in the Jerusalem Post of August 18, 1995 by Jerusalem Post columnist Moshe Kohn:

''We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz. We shudder when we think of what would have awaited us in the circumstances of June, 1967, if we had been defeated; with Syrians on the mountain and we in the valley, with the Jordanian army in sight of the sea, with the Egyptians who hold our throat in their hands in Gaza. This is a situation which will never be repeated in history.''
- Abba Eban, Israeli Statesman, in Der Spiegel, November 5, 1969
(with thanks to Dr. Aaron Lerner and to Clarence Wagner for locating this item)
http://www.mefacts.com/outgoing.asp?x_id=10191

There was a time when the mention of 1967 lines was met with nothing more than one version or other of Abba Eban's 1969 comment to the German newspaper Der Spiegel:
''We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz.''
Many of those who cite the ''Auschwitz borders'' quote as a bulwark against giving up all occupied territory, conveniently forget that Abba Eban was an outspoken and unabashed dove.
Many of those who oppose territorial compromise of all kinds turn a blind eye to Abba Eban's comment that an Israel which refuses to consider ceding land is ''tearing up its own birth certificate.
''Israel's birth is intrinsically and intimately linked with the idea of sharing territory and sovereignty,'' Eban declared.
It's important to note that in an era of land-for-Qassams in Gaza and deadly Palestinian internal strife, any accord over borders is a distant prospect at best.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:O02ad6VSxtsJ:www...

The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz.