SOMETHING Had to be Done!

The past 3 years of violence resulted in some 900 dead and 6,000 injured Israelis. Each month yielded more casualties than the entire Lebanon war. The “Roadmap” has been held hostage by terrorism. The “Security Fence” is not an obstacle to peace, but rather the first step of disengagement and precondition to any political process, according to supporters of the project.

Natan Sharansky (who spent 9 years in Russian prison and is now Minister-without-Portfolio) told student activists gathered at a vantage point to view the progress of the fence, “As a representative of the Israeli government, I have been accused of doing something criminal by supporting the construction of this fence. I have been told that we are building another Berlin Wall; another attempt to build a wall in order to stop free dialect between the people, to divide into two worlds … But here, the idea is to prevent terrorists from reaching the free people, to prevent terrorists from killing us in the
buses, clubs and cafes. It is the
border between the free world
and the terrorist world. It is the
only way for us to defend our
democracy, our free world, from
the terrorists.”

In Defense of a Fence

Events are proving that the fence has been effective at saving Israeli lives. In December, Palestinian suicide bombers were prevented from reaching Israel from Jenin via the northern or western “West Bank”. The security fence helped the IDF prevent a mega terror attack on the ORT Allon School in the Northern Israeli town of Yokne’am, which is attended by 1,000 high school and junior high school pupils. The suicide bombers had planned to detonate the bomb near the entrance to the Yokne’am high school as hundreds of children were heading home.

Another simultaneous attack intended to occur in the town of Bet She’an was also halted.

Attempting to enter Israel from the northern side of the West Bank, via the northern Jordan Valley, the terrorists were impeded by the presence of the fence.