Friday, November 21, 2008

Don't Fence Me In; Failure-Risk Too High

In an Haaretz article by Amos Harel, intended to attack the existence of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria - probably the raison d'etre of that paper -, I found this:-

The construction of about 60 percent of the fence has proven an effective aid in the war on Palestinian terror, as well as IDF detentions and good intelligence the Shin Bet gets from interrogations.


That statement, I would presume, sounds quite convincing.

But let's pick it apart.

Anyone reading the reports on the issue of Israel's fight against Arab terror, even those in Haaretz, know that anti-terror activity is a combination of many factors, most of them actually non-dependent on the fence. So, let's ask some questions to help us refine our thinking, shall we?

1. If only 60% of the fence is up, why isn't there a continuance of 40% of the terror? What else stops terror and what percentage is its contribution vs. the barrier? Are not, for example, most of the captures of terrorists at army checkpoints, which are nowhere near the barrier?

2. If the fence is 100% complete, can Israeli troops act freely on the other side, as they do now?

3. If they cannot act freely, and therefore cannot detain (check the news: every night, on the average, a dozen or so suspects - or sources - are arrested), how bad is the fight against terror to be? What is the percentage of the then failure-risk?

4. If they cannot detain, then they cannot interrogate. If they cannot interrogate, how can they get information and intelligence on terror? And since there have been multiple attempts at getting suicide bombers in to Israel, can we at that future time receive real-time information?

5. If the fence is 100% constructed and Israel gives in to international pressure to withdraw and permit a Pal. state to be established, who will guarantee that what has happened in Gaza won't happen in Samaria and Judea? Will Haaretz guarantee a continued Fatah-led government, as bad as it is, and not a Hamas takeover?

6. And, finally, what fence/barrier do you know that will stop a mortar round, a Qassam rocket or a Grad missile?

2 comments:

Batya said...

And my favorite point:
If the fence is the reason for the reduction in terror, why hasn't the terror continued unabated on our/the Shiloh side of the fence?

YMedad said...

because the real and true goal of the Arabs and the reason for their terror is the elimination of the State of Israel with an interim aim in weakining the support we derive from our fellow citizens on the other side, In pre-67 Israel which is one very good reason not to separate ourselves from them: physically, ideologically, sociologically.