Israel's new National Bird?
Posted on 07/28/2005 12:47:02 PM PDT by SJackson
Matt Spetalnick
URIM, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is rushing to complete a three-layer-deep barrier of fences and walls on its border with Gaza to keep Palestinian infiltrators out after it pulls out of the territory, military officials said on Thursday.
The army insists that, unlike Israel's internationally condemned West Bank barrier, the new project will not cut into Palestinian land. But the Palestinian Authority said such Israeli measures could keep Gaza sealed up like a giant prison.
The plan calls for adding two new fences parallel to the border fence that already surrounds the Gaza Strip and putting up seven-metre (23-foot)-high concrete walls in several places, a senior official said. He put the cost at $220 million (125 million pounds).
Israel is beefing up its border defences to compensate for losing its military presence in Gaza after it removes all 21 Jewish settlements from the occupied strip in mid-August.
Security officials worry that even after the withdrawal, Gaza militants will try to infiltrate gunmen and suicide bombers into the Jewish state and fire rockets across the border.
"Our purpose is to protect our citizens and soldiers. We have seen ... that we need something other than the existing fence to have security," the senior official told reporters.
He said, however, that even the triple fencing of Gaza might not be enough to stop militant attacks, and the army might have to mount incursions back into Gaza after the pullout. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has billed the withdrawal as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.
"Instead of building bridges with the Palestinians, Israel insists on building walls and fences of suffocation," said Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Echoing Palestinian concerns, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week the United States wanted to make sure Israel did not keep Gaza isolated after its withdrawal.
LESSONS FROM LEBANON
The military official said Israel had learned lessons from its Lebanon withdrawal in 2000, when it left a single fence line where the army has clashed regularly with Hizbollah guerrillas.
The army is putting up two new fences that will extend about 60 km (37 miles) along its entire border with Gaza, he said.
One, made of metal and razor wire, is being installed a few dozen metres (yards) closer to the Gaza boundary line than the existing electronic fence, the official said.
The other, embedded with sensors and equipped with surveillance cameras, watchtowers and remote-control machinegun emplacements, will lie 70 to 150 metres east of the existing border fence on the Israeli side, he said.
A one-km (half-mile)-long wall will be erected on Israel's border with north Gaza and two smaller walls will be built where Israeli towns are vulnerable to Palestinian gunfire, he said.
Israel has said it will keep control of Gaza's air and sea space after the pullout for security reasons, although troops are expected to leave the boundary with Egypt.
Palestinians welcome any withdrawal but fear Israel is trading tiny Gaza, where 8,500 settlers live isolated from 1.4 million Palestinians, for a tighter hold on the occupied West Bank, where the majority of 240,000 settlers live.
The World Court has declared Israel's West Bank barrier illegal for intruding on occupied land. Israel says the planned 600-km (370-mile)-long structure keeps out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a grab for land they claim for a state.
"The new fence is in our own territory," the senior official said of the Gaza barrier. He said the fencing would be finished by October and all of the infrastructure by mid-2006.
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Since our foreign aid money is helping to pay for this triple-fencing, maybe some money should be used to triple-fence our own southern border.
Didn't the Israeli's ask the US to pay for the settlement withdrawl?
Did we agree?
The policy of "Israel's best friend ever" is to echo the "Palestinians".
Memo to President and Congress:
We, the Citizens, demand one also. OK, skip the machine guns but pre-wire for expansion if needed.
Israel's new National Bird?
Good fences make good neighbors.
We already have a perfectly good fence :<( 
No bias in that title, eh?
When they get done, would they come over here and put up a 23 foot high concrete fence along the U.S. - Mexico border? That would sure be more effective than the 4 strands of barbed wire we have now.
Got to hand it to the Israelis, they know how to do fences.
> Didn't the Israeli's ask the US to pay for the settlement
> withdrawl?
Help pay a portion, yes.
> Did we agree?
No
To echo your point, see this thread.
If you act like a million mad dogs, consider yourselves lucky if you only get kenneled.
Mine fields in between the fences will slow them down a bit more.
Illegal aliens reportedly cost Americans $41 billion annually. A four lane highway costs about $13 million/mile. If we invest the same amount we'd spend on a four lane highway to construct and secure 2000 miles of the southern border, it'd pay for itself in eight months.
Eight months.
Any business person who's worth one single damn knows an investment that'll pay for itself in under a year is a no brainer. A border barrier couldn't be built fast enough if I were calling the shots.
The correct analogy is "a giant insane asylum for criminal psychopaths".
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