FOR FIFTY-SEVEN years Israel has justified its control over the territories it captured in 1967 with a combination of historic, legal, diplomatic and security arguments: The eastern part of Jerusalem and the west bank of the Jordan river were inhabited by Jews from biblical times; Israel had not captured the territory from a sovereign country but from an illegal occupation by the Jordanian kingdom, which attacked Israel first in 1967; as a small country surrounded by enemies, it needed to hold the territory to protect itself and besides, the final status of the area would be decided through negotiations.