What Are American Interests in the West Bank?

Rick Richman sounds a warning about imposing a peace deal on the Israelis and forcing them out of their West Bank settlements:

The U.S. has formally promised Israel support for “defensible borders” because such borders are both an American and an Israeli interest: otherwise, the U.S. would have to guarantee indefensible borders with troops on the ground, in a militarily untenable position. Israeli retention of the large settlement blocs is part of “defensible borders” (since the blocs are in militarily strategic locations), and the U.S. explicitly backed them in the 2004 Bush letter. The U.S. cannot honorably renege on that commitment, nor would American interests be served by doing so.

It would certainly not be in the U.S. interest to place troops between Israel and the Palestinians, and any U.S. pressure on Israel for a peace settlement that holds out the promise of using American troops to secure it would be a mistake.

But I think it takes a fairly expansive view of the American interest to argue that it hangs on the precise location of West Bank settlements. The location of those settlements impact American security to the extent that we're involved in subsidizing their construction or urging their dismantlement. But is there anything intrinsic to the question of who lives where on the West Bank that really impacts the national security of the United States?

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