Defending Fences: Israel’s Security Barrier Saves Lives
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Palestinians hurl stones onto the Israeli side of the separation barrier
Photo Credit: Issam Rinawi/ Flash90
More concerned with the inconveniences caused by this barrier than the mounting death toll of Israelis, the hypocritical world body, the U.N., and just about everyone else – including the Assads of Syria -lambasted the government of Israel for erecting the fence; a barrier of separation, the sole objective of which is to prevent the uncontrolled entry of killers from Palestinian population centers into Israel proper; a barrier that is – by all measures – successfully achieving that objective.
In most places, the impediment is comprised of an electronic fence with dirt paths, barbed-wire fences, and trenches on both sides, at an average width of 60 meters. In some areas, the defense establishment decided to build a concrete wall six to eight meters high in place of the barrier. The length of the system already built, under construction, or in planning is 709 kilometers, a distance twice as long as the Green Line.
“Apartheid! Apartheid!” the sanctimonious bleeding hearts around the world cried and are still crying. From the hallowed hallways of the U.N. you can still hear the echoes of reproach being hurled against Israel for supposed human rights violations. But nowhere in the din of this outrage is any thought given to the death and maiming of thousands of innocent people, murdered in cold blood for no other reason than that they were Jews. On buses, on trains, in Day Care centers and schools, eating in restaurants, or celebrating weddings, Bar Mitzvahs or the birth of children at a catering hall, the homicide bombers did not -and do not- discriminate; they seek to kill as many Jews as possible. With unfortunate exception, the security barrier has been an unmitigated success in thwarting these goals.
In fact, between September 2000-2007 alone, 1,218 Israeli people were killed; 8,341 were wounded. Interestingly, out of this number, 5,676 were civilians, less than half, 2,665 were security forces, proving Jewish civilians were mainly targeted.
Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism
Suicide Attacks 2000-2007
As the graph in the above graph indicates, the need and efficacy of the security fence is evident by the decrease of homicides from bombings in 2002 (220 deaths), to only 3 deaths in 2007. This has a direct correlation to the progress made during the fence’s construction. However telling these statistics are, they don’t begin recognize the real human suffering and anguish victims of terrorism have gone through before the security fence was built.
Analogous to reading about the number 6,000,000 million being killed during the Holocaust, the number is so big, we tend to forget that everyone of those six million had a family and friends that mourned their individual death. So is true of the victims of Islamic terrorist attacks in Israel.
To put a human face on these latest victims of Jewish hatred, I urge you to look at the ADL’s documentation of major terrorist attacks in Israel and read some of the stories of innocent people murdered for no other reason than being Jewish.
Has the fence stopped all terrorist attacks? Absolutely not. Israel is faced with a dogmatic, cowardly enemy driven by a cultist mandate to kill and maim as many Jewish innocents as possible. This past year alone:
March 11, 2012 – Udi Fogel, 36, and Ruth Fogel, 35, along with three of their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and 3-month-old Hadas were stabbed to death by terrorists in their home in Itamar, in northern Samaria.
March 23 – One woman, identified by the police as a 56-year-old British tourist, was killed and about 50 people wounded when a bomb exploded across from the Jerusalem Convention Center, near the Central Bus Station. The bomb had been placed near a telephone booth at a crowded bus stop next to Egged city bus #74.
April 24 – Ben-Yosef Livnat, 24, of Jerusalem was killed by a Palestinian policeman at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.
September 23 – Asher Palmer, 25, and his year old son Yonatan of Kiryat Arba were killed when their car crashed on Route 60 near Hebron, after being struck by stones.
Attacks such as these are sure to occur notwithstanding the security fence. But most assuredly it has saved hundreds if not thousands of lives of not only Jews but Palestinian Arabs which may have suffered the collateral damage of more frequent IDF pursuits and capture of terrorists throughout Judea and Samaria had it not been built.
Despite their railing and howling against Israel, the U.N. seems to agree, in the face of a dastardly enemy, security fences save lives. Following a deadly attack against their Baghdad offices, the U.N. began building a $21 million dollar barrier fence in and around their New York City headquarters. I guess when it comes to their own territory, they’re not as worried about inconveniencing people to protect their premises and people.
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