Posted on 12/10/2003 12:48:22 PM PST by anotherview
Dec. 9, 2003
Snap Judgment: The other side of the fence
By CALEV BEN-DAVID
Take a good look at the map below. Examine how madly its borders twist and turn in an effort to separate two hostile peoples. Look carefully at the isolated pockets of Muslim population completely cut off from their brethren. Ponder the hardships caused to the hundreds of thousands of families not lucky enough to be living in the areas assigned to their national camp.
Of course I'm talking about the UN and US-sponsored 1995 Dayton Accord settlement that ended the conflict in Bosnia-Herzogovina. Now compare it to the accompanying diagram of the planned route approved by the cabinet last month of the West Bank security fence. Even with its more controversial features intact (such as the part encompassing the Ariel settlement bloc), the fence doesn't even come close in creating hardships for the Palestinian public comparable to those imposed on the warring Muslim and Christian populations of Bosnia-Herzogovina by the Dayton Accord.
Yet it was the Israeli fence that, in a display of cynicism breathtaking even for that augustly cynical body, was condemned by the UN General Assembly this week and referred to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for judgment of its "detrimental implications and consequences."
It's certainly regrettable that as a result of the fence, a few thousand Palestinians face the loss of farm land and restrictions on their movement. But so far, not a single Palestinian home has been displaced by its construction, and there are no plans for doing so.
Presumably, the real "detrimental implications and consequences" referred to in the UN resolution has been the fence's proven ability to hinder the Palestinian attacks that killed hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians during the past three years. Imagine the frustration felt by the suicide bombers of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades as they gaze across the fence in the direction of Afula and Hadera, two towns whose women and children were once easy pickings for them, and now lie tantalizing out of their reach. It's inhuman, I tell you.
It's hard to think of a single facet of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more misrepresented abroad than the security fence. To start with, what to call it. In the international media and outside the country in general it's usually referred to as a "wall."
In fact, only about 3 percent of the finished barrier will actually consist of a concrete wall (to hinder snipers from shooting at nearby Israeli communities and roads), with the rest a chain-link fence equipped with monitoring sensors. And guess what - much of the small section that is a wall, usually the part photographed to accompany foreign news stories about the fence, was actually built back in 1995 during the good old days of Oslo, to shield the town of Bat Hefer from the Palestinian city of Tulkarm just across the Green Line.
So why a "wall" rather than the more accurate "fence"? Because it looks more forbidding, makes for nice comparisons with the Berlin Wall, and allowed the usually more perceptive New York Times columnist Tom Friedman (quoting left-wing political activist Yaron Ezrahi) to refer to it as Israel's "new Wailing Wall." The latter may be true - although the wailing you hear is more likely that of understandably frightened Israelis raising their voices in protest at the government's inexcusable foot-dragging in building the rest of the, errr, fence.
THE MAJOR misconception about the fence abroad is that it represents some kind of big-time land grab by the Sharon government and the Right.
If anything, the opposite is true. Support for the fence was strictly a grass-roots affair originating in communities most directly affected by the suicide bombers who simply strolled over the barrier-less Green Line and blew themselves up in their midst. The project was rejected by the both the far-Left and far-Right, the former opposed to unilaterally imposing any measures on the Palestinians, the latter out of fear that the fence might turn into a border that would lead to territorial compromise. It is the Israeli center, a solid majority of the population that doesn't want any part of ruling over the Palestinians, but sees no viable leadership among them ready to negotiate a real peace, that has pushed for the fence.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon only belatedly climbed onto the fence, and even now has not pursued its construction with the fervor it deserves. The far-Right continues to try and torpedo it, with National Union MK Uri Ariel acting unconscionably in trying to delay funding for it from his perch as head of the Knesset defense appropriations subcommittee.
To appease the government's settlement constituency, the cabinet last month unwisely approved the fence's extension around the Ariel settlement bloc before finishing long overdue work on its less contested sections. Shinui Justice Minister Yosef Lapid was right to call for that mistake to be amended, especially after US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer said Tuesday that the Bush administration has no quarrel with the fence as strictly a security measure.
The government should now move as quickly as possible in finishing the fence more or less along the route of the Green Line. It's true that it may create facts on the ground that will influence the political debate here - as it undoubtedly already has, as regards the recent calls by Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert and Sharon himself on the possibility of further unilateral measures.
That doesn't mean the fence itself will end up marking what will eventually become a permanent border. After all, nobody believes that the demarcation lines set up in Bosnia-Herzogovina represent a permanent solution to the Balkan situation. But that political arrangement saved lives - and so far, so has the fence. And that simple fact should be exhibit A, if the international court in The Hague finds itself sitting in judgment on the security fence.
calev@jpost.com
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