Sharon Tells Bush Israel Won't Halt Its Fence Project

Right on Sharon! My only qualm with the fence is that in certain points it will extend Israel's borders. But I think Israel should do all they can to seal teh border. I'd eliminate border crossings completely.

Craven

Sounds good but considering that much of the Palestinian economy is based on their being able to work in Israel proper would seem to make it impractical. The difficulty of getting across the border and being able to work in Israel is in good part responsible for Palestinian poverty. That I why I could never understand the prolonged intafada. It seemed like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

When the final settlement has sunken in then things can be normalized.

Were I the Israeli PM I'd close every single border crossing until peace is finally negotiated.

Good fences make good neighbors










Fences work. That's why they're built. The barrier between Israel and the Gaza Strip, for example, has kept untold numbers of Palestinian suicide bombers from boarding Israeli buses. The wall that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is putting up between Israel and the West Bank will keep many more murderous goons on their side of the street - and save many more Jewish lives.
Ah, but the fence is "racist," grumbles Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. This is the same man who has not yet disarmed and dismantled those bomber gangs whose continued existence is what makes the fence necessary.

Let him sputter. Abbas is no longer even bothering to pretend that he is independent of terror chief Yasser Arafat - quite candidly acknowledging that he must seek Arafat's approval for his every action. This means Abbas is rather less than wholeheartedly committed to his specified obligations and duties under the terms of the White House-brokered road map to Middle East peace.

Arafat's Palestinians have made one absurd demand after another as a condition of their ceasefire agreement. They say Israel must free thousands of prisoners, many of them rabid killers who would cheerfully kill again the minute they're loose. Now they're offended by this fence. They can't be expected to keep up their ceasefire forever, they hint. Patience has its limits, they warn.

You bet it does. Sharon's patience is strained. The fence will stay where it is, as well it should, considering that Israeli intelligence suggests that the ceasefire is nothing but a cover for the terrorists as they regroup and arm themselves afresh and churn out whole arsenals of bombs in their little living-room weapons factories.

Let the point be made again and again: The road map did not detail Abbas to arrange a ceasefire pledge from his murderous masters and keepers - not even a real one, much less a phony one. It required him, in fact, to dismantle the terror organizations.

This he has not done. This he clearly does not intend to do. What he does is piteously wail that it is "racist" of Israel to take steps to guard itself from the depredations of the very beasts he has failed to cage. It's not racist, it's realistic. It's required for self-preservation.

Powell's not on the fence


By DEBORAH BLACHOR in Jerusalem
and CORKY SIEMASZKO in New York
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Secretary of State Powell said yesterday the U.S. won't take no for an answer and pressed Israel again to stop building a security fence through Palestinian areas in the West Bank.A day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rebuffed President Bush's pleas to halt construction, Powell warned that the fence is endangering the peace process."If the fence is constructed in a way which continues to intrude on Palestinian land, even if it's compensated for, in a way that makes it harder to go forward with the additional elements of the road map ... that is a problem," he told Reuters.Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas also weighed in, calling the fence a "racist" land grab.It "has little value from a security point of view, and the Palestinians reject it because it is being built on their lands," Abbas said, according to the official Jordanian news agency Petra.But the Israelis insist the fence is needed to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers and are pushing ahead with construction of the barrier.Troop pullback talksThe dispute overshadowed a fresh meeting between Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to discuss Israeli troop pullbacks from more West Bank cities.The Bush-backed peace plan calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.The Palestinians fear the Israelis are building the fence to predetermine the borders of the fledgling state - and to incorporate illegal Jewish settlements into greater Israel.In Jerusalem, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has been critical of the President's road map for peace, told the Knesset that he has little faith in the truce by Palestinian militants and said they must be disarmed if the road map is to succeed."Murderers who take 90-day vacations are still murderers," said DeLay (R-Tex.)"Terrorism cannot be negotiated away or pacified," he added.Likening the Israeli struggle with Palestinian militants to America's fight against terrorism, he vowed, "Israel's fight is our fight. And so shall it be until the last terrorist on Earth is in a cell or a cemetery."DeLay is an evangelical Christian who believes that Jews have a biblical right to settle the West Bank and Gaza - lands that Bush says is the future Palestinian state."The Likud is nothing compared to this guy," said former Mossad chief Danny Yatom, referring to the right-wing ruling party headed by Sharon.

Originally published on July 31, 2003

I liked the first two sentences.

Bush administration officials are considering a reduction in loan guarantees to Israel as a penalty for constructing a security fence to separate Israelis from Palestinian areas. Congress authorized more than a decade ago cuts in U.S. aid to Israel by the amount the Jewish state spent on settling Jews on the West Bank and in Gaza. The dollar-for-dollar formula now might be applied to the $9 billion in loan guarantees over three years and $1 billion in military aid approved last spring to help compensate Israel for the economic impact of the war with Iraq.

Commentary > Opinion
from the August 06, 2003 edition

A fence to make good neighbors

By Amitai Etzioni

WASHINGTON – Instead of chiding Israel for building a fence between its territory and the land on which the Palestinian state is to be formed, the United States should welcome it. Indeed, it should offer to cover a good part of the cost involved in building the fence, about $600 million, to rush it along. Historically, some fences can make good neighbors. While not a panacea, solid walls can at least offer temporary relief from situations of drastic conflict. So far, few have noted the fact that the Sharon government's agreement to build the fence sends a clear signal - better yet, creates facts on the ground - that most Israeli settlers will have to leave the West Bank. These settlers are on the "wrong side" of the fence.
Theoretically, they could live under Palestinian rule, the way millions of Palestinian Arabs live in Israel, but the settlers are very unlikely to do so. They are hard-liners who view the West Bank as God-given Israeli territory. If Palestinian rule commenced, these hard- liners would surely leave for Israel proper.
There are those critics who argue that the fence amounts to an Israeli land grab. Actually, it follows fairly closely the Green Line, the one road map champions envision as the future border between Israel and Palestine. In other parts, one can argue it should be built a few miles to the West - without needing to oppose the whole thing.
But why should Israel or the US support the fence? First and foremost, it will serve as an effective barrier against terrorism. The fragile current cease-fire rests on the notion that Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas will be able to disarm Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These militant Palestinian groups openly declare that they will not settle for any "peace" that stops short of Israel's destruction. Hamas states in its charter:
"[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith...."
This is a line that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have consistently maintained - from their viewpoint - for good reasons. To assume that these groups would give up on their goals if only Israel would extend some gestures of good will, or because of some meetings in Washington, is a dangerous mistake.
There are those who argue that extremists merely mouth these statements to keep their base. This may be the case, but right now no one can tell for sure. The fence will help ensure that whatever is behind the hot statements will not lead to renewal of violence. The fence would slow down the operation of these groups, and it will maintain the conditions essential for nurturing the cease-fire, allowing time for tempers to cool off and for both sides to learn to enjoy the fruits of the current respite from violence.
The promise of the fence is far from a theoretical notion. When a fence was built in Cyprus, separating the Greeks and Turks in 1974 after years of bloody fighting, the hostilities subsided. Indeed, the two groups have since moved toward reconciliation. A fence helps to maintain an uneasy truce on the northern border between Israel and Lebanon, despite the fact that there are several thousand Hizbullah terrorists in the area. And the fence that surrounds Gaza is the main reason very few terrorists reach Israel from that region.
Critics say that the fence now being built does not follow the precise line of demarcation which this or that party favors as the border between Israel and Palestine. True. But it is no Great Wall of China. It can be quite readily relocated when a peace treaty is forged. Critics say that the fence inconveniences some Arabs because it falls between some of their villages. True. But this is a small price to pay for what I claim can be a major contribution to making peace. Critics say it will prevent Palestinians from working in Israel or tending to their land on the other side of the fence. Like the fence around Gaza, however, the new fence has plans for dozens of gates, allowing workers and farmers with permits to travel through. Indeed, one day - hopes spring eternal - it can be removed.
It is no cure-all. There is no agreement where it should or could be built in Jerusalem. Terrorists can attack by sea and air and Israel can respond in the same way. And fences can be breached, although this one will be secured by the Israeli army, using both troops and various sensors. Still, when all is said and done, the fence could do much to facilitate a cooling-off period for both sides, without which the cease-fire is unlikely to last.
• Amitai Etzioni is University Professor at the George Washington University and author, most recently, of 'My Brother's Keeper: A Memoir and a Message.'

Clearly the "neighborly" behavior is lacking on BOTH sides. Squeezing Palestinians even more into a desperate corner is hardly a recipe for success.

Insert here the obvious that blowing up civilians is disgusting, as is taking target practice on innocent farmers and their kids.

Good fences make good neighbors, but not if one neighbor is building the fence across the other's yard and through the kitchen, and snaking through and putting the neighbor on the other side of their own orchard.

One could begin considering the Robert Frost poem of a "good fence" if Israel were building a fence along the green line (delineating Israel proper and post-1967 Israeli-occupied Palestinian land)

Of course, in reality such a fence would strand all the (illegal) Israeli settlements on the "wrong" side of the fence, the construction of which originally was causing dismay for the Israeli ministers and their hard-line supporters.

Now, this Fence/wall/mote/barrier creates cantons (polite word for ghettos) where Palestinians are, on about some 40% of post-1967 Palestinian land (and almost none of its watering holes, or hilltops), supposed to atone for their "sins" and become good little neighbors.

The fact on the ground is therefore being dictated (not negotiated) by Israel. Building a separating "fence" that costs $2M a kilometer , and likely will become the de-facto "new" boundary between Israel "proper" and a poor, densely populated cluster of Palestinian cantons.

We can pacify our sensibilities by changing words from Wall to Fence or from Ghetto to Canton, but the realities on the ground stays the same: a desperate, cornered people with no representation in the government that holds power over them, being pushed to the extreme (and extremists) while an unyielding, un-neighborly Government pushes its agenda at their (and Israeli people's) expense.

You can refer to this page for some of the info I posted earlier:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3111159.stm