Winston Churchill once famously claimed that he created Jordan with the stroke of a pen. Well, at least Jordan had the dignity of a pen. For Israel, there is only the indignity of lines drawn in different colors. Like an old Rodney Dangerfield comedy routine, only written with blood, when it comes to Israel’s borders, it gets no respect.

Joseph, the son of Israel, was known for his coat of many colors. The nation of Israel would soon become known by map lines of many colors. There were green lines, purple lines, blue lines, yellow lines and orange lines too. The lines, for all the good that came out of them, may as well have been drawn with children’s crayons. The first crayon removed from the children’s crayon box labeled, “Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?” was green, and it was used to draw what would become known as the Green Line.

But first some background. In 1947, there was a UN partition plan that called for the creation of two new nations, a “Jewish state” and an “Arab state.” The UN also provided a map showing the proposed boundaries of the two states. The Jewish Agency accepted the partition plan, but it didn’t matter, because the Arab leaders rejected the plan outright. So the UN maps and borderlines were never honored and the proposed borders for two nations sitting peacefully next to each other were never given a chance. The sequence is worth noting:

The British Mandate ended at midnight on May 14, 1948; earlier that day, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel; on May 15, armies from neighboring Arab states invaded. And so began the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War never ended with a peace treaty. But on February 24, 1949, Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement. By July of 1949, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria would do the same. These armistice agreements provided temporary ceasefire lines. They were not intended to establish permanent political borders, much less guarantee security for Israeli citizens.

The Green Line emerged from the 1949 Armistice Agreements negotiated between Israel and its neighboring Arab states, under UN mediation. The Green Line that accompanied the 1949 Armistice was simply a temporary demarcation line separating Israeli military forces—and the Israeli civilians they were fighting to protect—from a coalition of invading Arab armies of nations that would prefer to bide their time.

In 1967, war broke out with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan facing off against Israel. When the war ended, out came a purple crayon from the crayon box labeled, “Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?” This crayon was used to mark the ceasefire line established between Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights. This Purple Line was just another line in a history of ceasefire lines, this one following the 1967 Six-Day War. It was Arab aggression, and subsequent defeat, that led to the creation of the Purple Line. Another war, another line.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War saw another round of Arab aggression aimed at Israel. After the dust settled and thousands of lives were needlessly lost, the 1974 Syria-Israel Disengagement Agreement established a disengagement area that reaffirmed, with some modifications, the purple ceasefire line in the Golan Heights. Another war, the same line.

In 2000, out came the blue crayon from the crayon box labeled, “Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?”The subsequent Blue Line drawn was different from the Green and the Purple Lines that preceded it. The Blue Line was never meant to be a borderline between two sovereign nations; it was a line marking Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly said that its military actions in Lebanon were intended to protect its northern border communities from attacks by groups such as Hezbollah.

If only the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon would do their part. What exactly are they doing there stationed in southern Lebanon anyway — coloring?

As a consequence of the war in Gaza that followed the October 7 attack, in which approximately 1,200 people were murdered and about 250 were taken hostage, out came the yellow crayon from the crayon box labeled, “Does Israel Have the Right to Exist?” The Yellow Line is a demarcation line inside Gaza marked in some cases with yellow concrete blocks and various barriers. It is an area where Israeli forces remain deployed, with the expectation under the ceasefire framework that they will eventually withdraw. Hopefully not before Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction, surrenders its weapons!

There is an Orange Line too, extending farther into Gaza and communicated largely through digital maps provided to international aid organizations and humanitarian groups. Admittedly, it’s not the best form of communication, and certainly a sad situation.

However, the existential question—the elephant in the room that no one wants to think about—is this:

In this age of secret tunnels, ballistic missiles, nuclear weapons and drone warfare, where can tiny Israel (approximately the size of New Jersey) safely withdraw to when her enemies are so many and her demise is what they seek?

That answer will never be found in lines. Lines are something best understood when someone knows how to read between them. Israel has repeatedly been given map lines. No colored lines on a map will ever bring about peace. And neither will indefensible borders stroked with a black ink pen. You may as well be using disappearing ink. What Israel has not been given is security.

“Peace will come,” Golda Meir once said, “when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”