Ex-Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Dayan. Photo: Screenshot.

To protect itself, the Jewish state must always retain control of the Jordan Valley, a former Israeli national security adviser explained in a newly-published video.

The concept of “defensible borders,” Maj. Gen. (ret.) Uzi Dayan said in a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs clip, was based on three key components — “strategic depth, [the] ability to defend yourself from an attack from the outside and…fighting terrorism effectively.”

Against threats Israel faces from the east, “the Jordan Valley is the best line that you can rely upon,” Dayan noted. “There is the Jordan River, there is the ridge overlooking the Jordan Valley, [and there are] only five strategic passages. And [there are] actually very few Israelis and almost no Palestinians in this strip, so it’s enough to deploy, for example, two divisions in a crisis time if needed.”

Also, Dayan pointed out, “we know that if you don’t control the envelope of the region, very quickly some terror groups like Hamas will take over, and they invite the Iranians and, all of a sudden, you have an Iranian outpost. There is an outpost in Lebanon, there is a partial one in Gaza, we don’t need another one in…the West Bank and near Jerusalem.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated publicly, as recently as earlier this month, that Israel would not give up military control of the Jordan Valley in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Watch Dayan’s remarks below: