The Wall As A Barrier to Political Astuteness

Comedian Mark Thomas thinks the security barrier is funny?

Came across a report, Politics and performance with comedian Mark Thomas, which informs us that he has taken up the theme of the "separation barrier that encloses the West Bank in Palestine from Israel" of which he has said:

"I was shocked by the brutality of it. You cannot underestimate the affect it has on people's lives and their human rights. It's about life and death...It takes nine per cent of land from the West Bank. It was put up because of public pressure and the suicide bombings that were happening at the time. Originally Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, didn't want to build it. If you put a wall you create a boundary, if you create a boundary then you give up on the idea of the West Bank being part of Israel but public pressure was enormous...It takes water and land and effectively turns the area into a series of camp sites and destroys any future of a Palestinian state."

He even published a book on his expereince:

He visited and pulled up short at realiity:

"At one time we got stoned and that was terrifying as we got caught in a gully. Then we got covered in tear gas and we did worry that we may be jailed."  Thomas and his group were detained seven times by the Israeli authorities during his nine week journey..."We were walking past one checkpoint and a soldier says 'Oi! are you from London? I'm from Golders Green, come on You Arsenal'. You just think, what was that about?"

While on the walk Thomas witnessed Israeli settlers creating illegal outposts in the West Bank:

"Under Israeli law Outposts are illegal but they still get, telephone lines, sewage systems, electricity, water and protection from soldiers.  Palestinians are obviously fearful of Outposts because once they are set up it means there will be soldiers and it will bring a whole lot of oppression into that immediate area."

And the upshot of all this?  Thomas has turned his experiences into his latest show Extreme Rambling (Walking the Wall). Extreme Ramblings is on at the Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, Wednesday June 22. Call 01892 678678.

(More info here)


He also thinks that

"Israel is very frightened of the prospect of an international sanctions campaign. I think that would be a good non-violent way to challenge the oppression of the occupation."

I guess this is funny

A buffer zone exists on the Palestinian side of the barrier and the degree to which it varies in size, and the rigor with which it is enforced, depends on the mood of the soldiers. "You can not walk this near the fence, you must walk 300m away from it," says a soldier who detained me on the second walk. "But that's ridiculous," I exclaim, pointing at the crops all around us. "That would mean that farmers can't work here."

"OK then," says the soldier, "150m."

I appear to have bartered over the buffer zone and haggled the soldier down.

Well, at least he didn't use the term "Jew down".
As I can't find any text, it is a bit difficult to judge his art.  But "outposts" are not stirctly "illegal" rather they are unregistered and have not as yet obtained all necessary licenses.  "Oppression" is not some automatic activity.  And it is subjective: what an Arab might think "oppressive" could very well be protection of civil rights and personal security.  After all, Thomas does mention, in passem, something called "suicide bombing".

I just hope Thomas' show doesn't cause him to duck any eggs or rotten tomatoes.

^

Odd Comparison

Here's Dan Bilefsky's description of "a 500-foot-long, 7-foot-high concrete wall that separates a Roma ghetto from the neatly manicured homes of gadzos, or white people, on the other side" in Slovakia:

The gray barrier evokes the West Bank or cold war Berlin

Is there terror there?

If not, why should that barrier "evoke" a comparison with our security barrier?

Psssst! Wanna See An Apartheid Wall?

Click here.

Guess Who

Who said about the Gaza security barrier:-

"Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices . . . what matters is that ______ territory must be protected," ___________ was quoted as saying by _________ weekly magazine. "Whoever says _____ is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is ______'s full right."

That refers to Israel? Lieberman? Netanyahu?

Naw.

"Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices . . . what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying by Al Ahram al Arabi weekly magazine. "Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt's full right."

But then you have this:

"We can understand it when the Israeli government uses the same methods as the Nazis in transforming the Gaza Strip into a huge concentration camp," wrote the London-based pan-Arab daily Al Quds al Arabi. "But what we cannot understand or accept is that the Egyptian government -- and not the Egyptian people -- should take part in such a crime for fear of the Israelis, and in an attempt to appease the U.S., getting nothing in return except humiliation and dishonor."

I wonder what they say about the US?

Let's Let Peter Hitchens Speak

From here:

...I would add that I am always amused by the enthusiasm which Israel's enemies now show for the pre-1967 border of Israel. Their alleged enthusiasm for it now is a fake. Their real objective, as enshrined for decades in the policy documents and propaganda of the Arab world, (though in some cases tardily, reluctantly and insincerely shelved for Western consumption) is the end of the Jewish state altogether. Every Arab political figure in the area has on his wall a map of the region, a map from which Israel has entirely vanished. Hizbollah works for the extirpation of Israel, from just beyond its northern border. Hamas (a movement whose treatment of fellow Arabs who oppose it is extremely repressive and violent) continues to make no secret of this aim. Racialist filth and Judophobic slurry are taught to children in the Arab states and broadcast on Arab TV stations. And until they abandon this aim, and this muck, there can be no compromise. How can you compromise with people who teach tiny children to hate you, and whose aim is your utter destruction? Every concession would merely be a further step towards death, not a step towards peace.

I am old enough to recall that these enthusiasts were not so enthusiastic about the pre-1967 border before 1967, when it was the border of Israel. No Arab state accepted it as legitimate, let alone lawful. So why are they so keen on it now? I guarantee that if the 1967 border were to be restored tomorrow, the Arab campaign against Israel (backed elsewhere by our strange Israel-haters, who can only find one country on the map of the world to disapprove of) would continue unabated. At that stage, before 1967, the official policy of the Arab world was to 'drive the Jews into the sea'. The 1967 border itself, a militarily indefensible and impractical frontier, was the cease-fire line at the end of the 1948 War, not an internationally agreed frontier between peaceful sovereign states. For most of its existence it was repeatedly violated.

The 1948 war was itself caused by the Arab world's rejection of the 1947 partition plan, which allocated Israel a much smaller territory even than the land enclosed in the supposedly sacred 1967 border. That rejection itself followed the similar rejection of the partition proposed by the 1937 Peel Commission, which was even less generous to the Jews than the UN would be ten years later. All this in fact goes back to Sir Herbert Samuel's choice (into which he was manoeuvred by the interesting Ronald Storrs), against the opposition of the Palestine Arabs, of the appalling Haj Amin al Husseini as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921, which set the Arabs of the region on the path of war rather than the path of civilised compromise. Storrs was one of many in the British colonial service who sought to backtrack on the promise made in the Balfour Declaration, of a 'national home' for the Jews - and it was their tireless lobbying and dirty tricks which in my view created the mess we're now in. I am of course concerned by any injustice done to the Arab people of the Middle East, and readily agree that Israel has often behaved very badly towards many Arabs. I've written a lengthy article on their flawed and foolish treatment of the Bedouin in Israel, and of the Israeli Arab minority. But much injustice against Arabs is done by Arab states, Arab rulers and Arab movements, and I would be more convinced of the genuineness of the partisan passion of persons such as Mr Lawson and his band of inflamed supporters (who rushed in to back him without bothering to read what he and I had written, which small effort would have shown that he was basing at least part of his attack on a misquotation) if they ever concerned themselves with Arab injustice towards Arabs.

For instance, they might condemn explicitly the persecution of Arab Christians by Arab Muslims in Bethlehem, or the Syrian state's mass murder (by artillery) of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the city of Hama, or the discrimination against Palestinian refugees throughout the Arab world. But they never do. It is always Israel, Israel, Israel. My suspicion, until they show otherwise, is that they are more interested in attacking Israel then in defending unjustly-treated Arabs.

See, too, here and the comment of James Lawson at 04:26 PM.

What, This Isn't An Israeli Idea?

News:

Federal officials say they're ready to begin building a new "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border. The first towers holding sensors, cameras and communications gear to detect drug smugglers and illegal immigrants will be built along 53 miles of Arizona's border with Mexico. Towers on the remaining 320 miles of the state's southern border will follow.

Project director Mark Borkowski says New Mexico will get virtual fencing next, followed by California and most of Texas.

It's real, that virtual fence:

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?

The Christian Influence on Israel's Security Barrier

Col. (res.) Danny Tirza was in charge of planning the security fence between the West Bank and Israel, Israel's largest infrastructure project. Since 1994, Col. Tirza has headed a special staff in the IDF Central Command in charge of regional strategic planning. He has taken part in formulating Israel's security positions in negotiations with the Palestinians and has participated in various stages of the negotiations. Col. Tirza specializes in the geography of Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley, and Jerusalem.

He published as a Jerusalem Viewpoints Paper, No. 568

The Influence of Christian Interests in Setting the Route of the Security Fence in Jerusalem


Precis:

In September 2000, the Palestinian leadership initiated a terror campaign against the Israeli civilian population. From September 2000 to March 2005, 99 suicide bombings were perpetrated against Israel, in which 1,804 Israelis were killed...This meant establishing a physical obstacle and transit points that would permit proper security checks for those passing through. Even Israel's worst enemies confessed that the security fence saved Israeli lives.

Jerusalem's sanctity for Christianity and its historic and religious sites bring to the city hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims every year. The Christian communities residing in the city have established communal centers, educational institutions, hospitals, and guesthouses. Aside from monasteries and holy places, scores of Christian institutions that operate in Jerusalem have come to assist the local Muslim community in the context of their charitable work.

Great efforts were invested and solutions were provided to meet the unique needs of the Christian churches in the region to guarantee freedom of religion and religious observance, and free access to holy places. For institutions located on the seam line, decisions were necessary regarding the exact line of the fence and suitable passage arrangements. Thus, for example, the Rosary Sisters school in the Dachyat El Barid neighborhood north of Jerusalem, that serves 1,200 students from Jerusalem, was included on the Israeli side of the fence, in light of requests from the Mother Superior of the order, despite the vast attendant security difficulties.

With the intensification of Palestinian terror attacks against Israel and the weakening of central Palestinian rule, extreme Muslim forces have gathered strength and violence towards Christian communities has intensified within the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem, Beit Jalla, Beit Sahur, and Azariya. The result is that an appreciable portion of the Christian population has abandoned the region and taken up residence abroad. Harassment of Christians has also taken the form of land and property seizures and even damage to churches and holy sites.

The establishment of the security fence was a vital measure for the security of Israel's citizens and those members of all faiths visiting Israel. Only when visitors to Jerusalem enjoy a sense of security can there be normal life, religious observance, and pilgrimage to the holy sites.

The "Fence" - No, Not Israel's; America's

This is the situation in the beacon of Western democracy and civil liberties:-

New Fence Will Split a Border Park

...Friendship Park [Calif.] here has stood out as a spot where international neighbors can chat easily over the fence. Or through it, anyway. Families and friends, some of them unable to cross the border because of legal or immigration trouble, exchange kisses, tamales and news through small gaps in the tattered chain-link fence...

...But in a sign of changing times, new border fencing that the Department of Homeland Security is counting on to help curtail illegal crossings and attacks on Border Patrol agents will slice through the park, limiting access to the monument and fence-side socializing.

In addition to the fence, a second, steel mesh barrier will line the border for several yards on the United States side, creating a no-man’s land intended to slow or stop crossings.

...But Border Patrol officials, who regularly post agents there, said the park had an underside. Although much activity may be innocent, smugglers have taken advantage by passing drugs and contraband through openings. People have even tried to pass babies through ragged metal slats that mark the border on the beach, said Michael J. Fisher, the chief patrol agent in San Diego. The agency now operates a checkpoint to screen people leaving the park.

...“We cannot,” he added, “have it open, not at the expense of reducing the ability to patrol the border.”

The new fencing is part of a 14-mile project to reinforce and build new barriers from the ocean to areas east of the Otay Mesa port of entry. The project includes filling in a deep valley known as Smuggler’s Gulch, a notorious crossing point just east of the park, with tons of dirt, to the dismay of environmentalists...

So, why is Condi Rice, et al., always complaining about Israel harrassing?

GSS Goes Soft

Haaretz is reporting, from Reuters (who else?) a turn-about by Israel's security services regarding the effectiveness of the security barrier vis-a-vis Jerusalem:-

Shin Bet: Separation fence fueling attacks by East Jerusalem Arabs

The West Bank separation barrier is fueling attacks by East Jerusalem Arabs who feel isolated from fellow Palestinians and are increasingly likely to lash out independently, the Shin Bet security service said on Wednesday...The findings by the Shin Bet, which has usually championed tough tactics against a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000, appeared to dovetail with Palestinian arguments that a peaceful resolution of Jerusalem's status is key to addressing the causes of political violence in the city.

..."Awareness of the fence is creating a long-term estrangement between Jerusalem and the West Bank," the Shin Bet said in a statement, adding that some Palestinian attacks had been motivated by a grassroots desire "to ensure Jerusalem does not disappear from the political agenda".

But consider this in that story:-

"In the past, terrorists from East Jerusalem acted mainly as support units for attacks, usually under instruction by outside networks in the Gaza Strip (and) West Bank," the Shin Bet said.

So, let me think this through.

If in the past there were terrorists from the east Jerusalem neighborhoods, as support groups or whatever (and I would challenege the factual veracity of that statement), before the security barrier, why were they violent then? They weren't getting cut off. Doesn't sound logical.

If they get cut off entirely, what's to prevent them from still trying to kill Jews when they have no means of moving in and about Jerusalem? Will they be less motivated?

Moreover, before 1967, when all of Eastern Jerusalem was in Arab hands with no barrier between it and the areas of Judea & Samaria (the, shhh, "WB"), why were Jews getting shot at from the Old City walls?

A wall is a reason to kill Jews? The Pals. that dumb?

Or is someone in the Shabak, the GSS that dumb?

Halting Terror

I recently participated in a panel, moderated by Linda Gradstein of NPR, with Yariv Oppenheimmer of Peace Now, for the beneift of some 15 Hillel professionals.

One question that came up was the security barrier, the "Wall", as our Leftists prefer, and its advantages. As I am against it, I was pressed on the security issue. I insisted that beyond the zero effectiveness of a wall against mortars and rockets, the real reason for the relatively high prevention success level was hard intelligence work.

Today, I stumbled across an article which provided support:-

As we walked through the streets of Jerusalem on our final day, we wondered why Israel had been so quiet over the last year. This question went to the very heart of our counterterrorism tour: the notion that Israel has somehow figured out how to win, or at least hold at bay, the "war on terror." Over the course of the week, we had heard many explanations for the lull in attacks: the wall, the layers of security that protect key sites, and the legal system, which allows Israel to quickly lock up suspected terrorists.

But Roni Shaked, a former commander in Israel's Shin Bet, gave us what he felt was the real explanation behind Israel's success. "The main, main reason why it's quiet, I think, it's just because of the Israeli security service," Shaked had told us on the first day of the tour. "Because during those years, we understood how to fight against the new kind of terrorism, how to fight against the new phenomenon of terror, the suicide bombers who are in Israel."

According to Shaked, Israel's success rests on several decades' worth of experience infiltrating Palestinian society.

Not True

Shaul Arieli is a bit notorious as a former Gaza Brigade Commander who promotes the Geneva Initiative and is a member of the Peace & Security Council. Here are some of his musings (from 2004 and one on Jerusalem displaying outlandish impractical ideas and pseudo-intellectual thinking with no basis in reality.

Anyway, I caught him here saying something stupid:

Another factor contributing to the waste of taxpayers' money is the state's refusal to allocate resources to building checkpoints along the fence, despite having already spent billions on its construction. Arieli says that the traffic of settlers who cross the Green Line is heavy in certain areas, and that they refuse to undergo security checks. Today, vehicles carrying a yellow Israeli license plate can enter Israel proper through the fence - as did the truck with a bomb that reached Tel Aviv from Qalqilyah a year ago, but did not explode.

they refuse to undergo security checks???

Not true.

We are slowed down at all crossings, looked at and occasionally stopped for a check if something seems suspicious. That's it.

Another "Apartheid" Wall?

Trying to stem the infiltration of militia fighters, American forces have begun to build a massive concrete wall that will partition Sadr City, the densely populated Shiite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital.

Such Semantics!

What is this?

"physical infrastructure enhancements"

A fence.

What does "operational control" mean?

"the prevention of all unlawful entries...including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband."

What does "Reinforced fencing" mean?

"2 layers of reinforced fencing, the installation of additional physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors—

(i) extending from 10 miles west of the Tecate, California, port of entry to 10 miles east of the Tecate, California, port of entry;
(ii) extending from 10 miles west of the Calexico, California, port of entry to 5 miles east of the Douglas, Arizona, port of entry;
(iii) extending from 5 miles west of the Columbus, New Mexico, port of entry to 10 miles east of El Paso, Texas;
(iv) extending from 5 miles northwest of the Del Rio, Texas, port of entry to 5 miles southeast of the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry; and
(v) extending 15 miles northwest of the Laredo, Texas, port of entry to the Brownsville, Texas, port of entry.

Amazing, eh?

America is Apartheid Like Israel?

American military commanders in Baghdad are trying a radical new strategy to quell the widening sectarian violence by building a 12-foot-high, three-mile-long wall separating a historic Sunni enclave from Shiite neighborhoods.

Here.

(Kippah tip - IJM)