Israel Builds Another Wall

In 2000 Israel was being assaulted by terrorists coming from the West Bank. It decided to build a 440 mile wall, cutting off the West Bank from greater Israel. The result: a precipitous drop in terrorist incidents.

There’s something to be said for building walls.

Now, Israel is building another wall, this time along its border with Lebanon. As you know southern Lebanon is infested with Hezbollah militants, who have tens of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel. Guess who helped pay for those rockets?

Anyway, beyond the threat posed by rockets, Israel has been vulnerable to cross-border incursions. It believes that the new wall will seriously diminish those.

Fox News reports:

Israel is building a massive wall along its northern border, saying the barrier is needed to protect civilians from Hezbollah attacks, but the project has raised tensions with Lebanon, which fears the fence will encroach on its territory.

The Israeli military insists the entire barrier is being constructed in Israeli territory, and the U.N. peacekeeping force in the area agrees. But Hezbollah has never fully accepted the border, and a senior Israeli military official stressed the need for the wall, saying that while Israeli intelligence closely monitors the militant group, "we are prepared for the possibility that they will surprise us."

For some reason, the Israeli nation is not tormenting itself about the injustice of setting down a clear border. Nor has it been tormenting itself over the best design. It has simply started to build the wall:

Brig. Gen. Eran Ofir, the commander in charge of Israel's border wall projects, said around seven miles of the 80-mile (130-kilometer) barrier has been built. The $450 million project is slated for completion in two years. Most of the barrier is a concrete wall topped by steel mesh, sensors and surveillance cameras. Steel fencing replaces the concrete wall in especially rugged areas.