The Wall

Ariel Sharon is now talking about building a buffer zone in the Jordan Valley which would encroach into the West Bank. This has the pro-Palestinian side up in arms, as one might expect.

Israel is claiming the fence is needed "to prevent infiltrations by Palestinian suicide bombers." The Palestinians, of course, claim that it is "a ploy to shrink the space allotted to their future state."

I'm sorry, but when I read stories like this, I can absolutely understand the Israeli need for the fence.

A second senior Palestinian militant was arrested at Nablus's Rafidia hospital where he ran a cell of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from the hospital's basement, the [Israeli security] official said, adding the man was armed and ''in perfect health.''

So the Israelis are going in to take one of the members of that charity known as Hamas, who was accidentally injured while attempting to donate a bomb to the Israeli military, and they come across an armed and healthy militant from the Al-Asqa Martyrs Brigade. Now maybe it's just me, but if I found members of Hamas and the Al-Asqa Brigade, sitting around with a gun, I'd start to think that there was some kind of terrorist planning going on there.

Hamas has been a busy bunch of little charity bees lately. In addition to holding talks with the Al-Asqa people, they have also agreed to "enhance 'field cooperation'" with Islamic Jihad. I'm guessing that they're not trying to increase donations to their latest clothing drive.

Israel is under attack, face it. The terrorist attacks at home and terrorist threats overseas. The Israeli people don't feel safe. So their government is responding to the needs of its people to satisfy that safety need.

The wall certainly won't be perfect. It won't keep out all the terrorists; it won't help with missile threats in Toronto. But it will help much more than the current system. It might even make the sight of Israeli tanks rolling through Palestinian towns less common.

So why do the Palestinians object so vehemently? And why does the US object?

The Palestinians don't fear the fence or the separation per se. They fear the loss of access to success much, much more. They fear that the fence will make impossible the dream of driving Israel back into the sea. The fence would become a symbol of their failure.

The Palestinians know that they have yet to build anything, other than a terrorist network. Oh, they can destroy stuff real well, but they cannot build, they cannot create, they cannot maintain. Without access to all the prosperity that the Israelis have built, Palestine is doomed to failure. Do they have people who are intelligent, hard-working, and prosperous? Some, sure. But the government and the majority of the people are not. They are a people who live in the cult of vicitimhood. They are jealous of the success around them and like petulant children can only scream and throw temper tantrums. It's just that their tantrums include bombs.

I really have problems with our objections to the fence, also.

Washington has criticized the barrier due to its intrusion on territory Palestinians plan for their state.

That completely ignores reality. The Palestinians plan on using all of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza for their "new state." To think, assume, or wish otherwise is the ultimate in blinkered vision. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority itself are all dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the dispersion or murder of the Jews currently living there.

So why are we insisting on preventing the Israelis from taking steps to defend themselves. We tell them they have to find non-violent means of controlling the problem. The wall is non-violent. And yet we complain that it might intrude on the land the Palestinians want to use for setting up their new state. Well, so does every house that gets built, every synagogue, every office building - they're all intrusions on land the Palestinians want to use for their new state.

Israel has a right to defend itself. If they think the wall will further that endeavor, more power to them.