| Submit your comments on this article |
| Middle East |
| New security fence to rise soon |
| 2002-06-07 |
| Construction of the long-awaited security fence between Palestinians and Israelis along the Green Line is slated to begin within a month, with preliminary work starting within days, a senior Defense Ministry official said yesterday. But while most Israelis distraught by the ease with which Palestinians infiltrate the country support the building of the fence, defense officials and analysts caution that it is no panacea. They also warn that, at least until the fence is completed, it will at best limit the number, frequency, and possibly the severity of terror attacks. More than anything, they say, the sophisticated fence will bolster Israel's ability to quickly detect infiltrators. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's 110 km. fence from near Megiddo (the site of Wednesday's deadly bombing) to Kafr Kasim is the latest version of a security fence to be proposed. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has in recent months initialed several such plans, none of which has come to fruition. One of the first of such proposals was drafted by Yitzhak Rabin's internal security minister Moshe Shahal in 1994. According to the Defense Ministry source, the fence will combine sensitive electronic fences, barbed wire, certain obstacles, and a patrol road. The fence, which will hug the Green Line, will resemble both in structure and technology the 70-kilometer fence along Israel's border with Lebanon. According to Ben-Eliezer, it will cost about $1 million per kilometer to build. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |