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By Micah D. Halpern
June 18, 2002
To put it mildly, there's been quite a bit of talk lately about a fence around Israel. Unbelievably, it's been headline news.
At first glance the idea sounds attractive, the perfect alternative to a peaceful solution. But in actuality, this fence idea is a dismal solution to an already difficult reality.
I have heard all the arguments on both sides. Yes, I know that good fences make good neighbors, that's the argument posed most often by the international community. But the argument doesn't hold, not in this case.
This fence is untenable and totally impractical. A fence is only workable when both sides want to maintain a sterile separation. Both sides. In this case, neither side can survive a total separation. On the Palestinian side, separation will be tantamount to creating huge ghettoes resulting in the starvation of the population. On the Israeli side, there is no way to create a fence and without isolating the settlers living over the Green Line. No way at all.
In practice, it will isolate nearly all of the 200,000 Israelis who live outside the fence and leave them totally at the whim of the terrorists.
The political ramifications of erecting the fence are enormous. Consider this one. By creating a defensive fence Israel would - undoubtedly - be creating the new boundaries of the Palestinian State. And in the creation of this fence, she would be leaving out the protection of her own citizens, all those who live in the settlements of Judea and Samaria, the West Bank. Israel would de facto be setting the boundaries of the new state of Palestine, and all of those Israelis outside the fence will be held hostage by a hostile Arab State. Israel setting the boundaries of the Palestinian State! No one could ever have dreamed of a scenario as amazing as this potential reality. And that new state will include all the area on the other side of that fence.
The biggest problem with the fence, however, has nothing to do with politics but rather, with defense. The fence comes too late in the game of defense. Erecting a fence now is like closing the barn door after the animals have left. It is equivalent to giving guns and knives to stewardesses. Once the hijacker is on the plane, it is too late. It is even too late once they are in the airport. The only effective way of fighting terror is with intelligence and with the cooperation of all security services. And that means cooperation on all sides.
And then there is the practical. The fence will only stop those terrorists on their way to perpetrate an attack.
It is more than just a simple chain linked fence; it is a high tech boundary. The cement walls will be as high as 30 feet. There will be barricades, deep ditches and gullies, electrified fences and infrared sensors, razor-blade coils, spot lights, video monitors and more.
The fence will go up hills and down valleys Politicians will argue for months over which tree is in and which tree is out. It will, more or less, follow the Green Line of the pre-Six Day War of 1967; that explains why West Bank settlements will be excluded. All this for a cost of $2 million per kilometer. The first stage is to construct a 115-kilometer fence just inside the West Bank, not even to the north or south. It is estimated that, in the end, the total length of the fence will be more than 3 times the length of Israel. Do the math. The dollar cost alone is astronomical.
Every security expert in the world will tell you that no border, no fence is impenetrable. The longer and more crooked the fence the harder it is to patrol. Terrorists will get through. There is no question about it.
And the fence will not solve some of the biggest defense problems that developed during this Intifada.
Take, for instance, the sniping of the Jerusalem neighborhood Gilo from the neighboring Arab village Beit Jalla. The two sites are separated by a valley that is one hundred yards deep. You cannot, simply cannot, build a 100-yard high wall to protect the citizens of Gilo.
Now let's look at Gaza. Most people see Gaza as an example of the success of the fence. The entire Gaza bloc is encircled by a fence and each settlement is, additionally, surrounded by two fences. But Gaza - is flat. Judea and Samaria are hills and mountains.
True, no terrorist has gotten out of Gaza to blow himself up or to attack a metropolitan Israeli city or center. But Gaza is only forty miles long and five miles wide and one side boarders the Mediterranean Sea.
So there you have it. Politically, defensively, historically, ultimately - building a fence will not make the problem go away. Building a fence is, in effect, creating an economic blockade. It will hurt the innocent, destroy the weak.
To root out terror Israel must hunt terror down and destroy its foundations. The Palestinians must work to do the same on their side. That is the only way to solve the problem called terror.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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