Another reason to build the fence
Separating Israel from the West Bank will help
prevent attacks such as yesterday´s bus bombing

National Post
Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Since Israel began building a security fence to
protect its citizens from terrorists based in the
West Bank, Palestinians have labelled the project
an "apartheid wall." According to the Electronic
Intifada, a popular Web site for pro-Palestinian
activists, this is because the fence is "a
colonial project that embodies within it the
long-term policy of occupation, discrimination and
expulsion."

Of course, the accusation is nonsensical. If
Israel really wanted to occupy the West Bank
permanently, the last thing it would do is draw a
steel and concrete line separating the territory
from Israel´s pre-1967 land mass. (Indeed, this is
why Jewish settlers in the West Bank -- who
comprise one of the most militant Jewish
constituencies -- oppose the idea of a fence.) As
various commentators have noted, the charge of
"apartheid" makes as much sense regarding Israel´s
fence as it does regarding the wall protecting the
United States from illegal Mexican immigrants.

The real reason Israel is building the fence is to
prevent acts of terrorism -- such as yesterday´s
brutal suicide-bomb attack on a Jerusalem bus.
Every nation in the world has the right -- and, in
fact, duty -- to protect its citizens, and Israel
is correctly asserting that right. Since the
current intifada began, more than 800 Israelis
have been killed in terrorist attacks and more
than 5,600 injured. Though the number of attacks
fell once the "road map" peace process began, they
have not yet dropped to zero -- thanks to the
Palestinian Authority´s refusal or inability to
confront terrorist groups. And as we have noted in
this space before, there is no "acceptable" level
of terrorism, and Israel should not be expected to
act as if there was.

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