[size=4]Israel Begins Work on West Bank Fence[/size=4]
Sun Jun 16, By By YOAV APPEL, Associated Press Writer

Israeli bulldozers flattened ground Sunday for an electronic fence that is planned to eventually run the entire length of the West Bank — a disputed project aimed at protecting Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers.
 
Those backing the barrier say it does not, in any way, stake out a final border between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Also Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected the idea of provisional Palestinian statehood that was aired by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and said to be under consideration by the Bush administration. Palestinians also are cool to the idea for different reasons.

Palestinian and right-wing Israeli politicians strongly oppose the fence, meant to replace a hodgepodge of barriers and fences erected over the past year, which have proved ineffectual.

The first length of fence will be built over eight months along a 75-miles from Salem Junction in northern Israel south to a point northeast of Tel Aviv.

Palestinians maintain the fence will take West Bank land they want for a state. Right-wing Israelis fear that what is being billed as a temporary "security fence" will evolve into a permanent border with a future Palestinian state. If that happened, many of the 200,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank would be left on the Palestinian side.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said a consensus is building among Israeli politicians in support of the barrier, which he has called necessary and temporary. Ben-Eliezer, who visited the construction site at Salem Junction on Sunday, said the fence isn't intended to be a political barrier.

"It has one and only one clear aim — to defend the lives of Israeli citizens," Ben-Eliezer said. "Every extra day that passes without the fence being built could cost us more victims."

At a meeting of Sharon's Cabinet Sunday, several ministers raised objections.

Sharon, an ardent supporter of Israeli settlement expansion for decades, opposes the barrier for ideological reasons. He reluctantly gave his approval this month.

Of the nearly 70 suicide bombings in Israel over the past 20 months, all have been launched from the West Bank, which has no barrier separating it from Israel.

Groups that have carried out many of the bombings, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are strongest in the Gaza Strip ( news - web sites). But no suicide bombers have come from Gaza, which is fenced in.

Ben-Eliezer said the fence eventually will stretch 215 miles, which is the full length of the "Green Line" — the Israeli border before Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.

It largely is to follow that line, but parts of it will veer into the West Bank to bring some settlements close to the border onto the Israeli side. Ben-Eliezer said that in some areas the fence will run on the Israeli side of the Green Line.


Separately, Israel already is building a fence and trenches around the borders of east Jerusalem to control the flow of Palestinians into the city from the West Bank. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians seek the eastern sector for a future capital.

See remainder of article at:[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20020616/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_4846[/url]

Eric The(GoodFencesMakeGoodNeighbors)Hun[>]:)]

I wonder if it will be more effective than China's Great Wall?

[img]http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20020616/i/1024266965.3087130648.jpg[/img]

Caption: An Israeli border police jeep patrols the fence in the area of the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin June 16, 2002. Bulldozers were clearing the way Sunday to build a security fence along Israel's porous West Bank frontier, which Palestinians said effectively canceled out peace deals with the Jewish state. Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters

[size=4]Why? Because...[/szie=4]

[img]http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20020616/capt.1024256402.palestinians_mother_farewell_xed101.jpg[/img]

Caption: Mahmoud el Abed kisses his mother Naima in an image from a video made Friday, June 14, 2002, in the Gaza Strip the day before he embarked on a suicide attack against the Jewish settlement of Dugit. When news arrived that her son had died in an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, Naima el Abed celebrated by [b]ululating[/b] and clapping her hands, her friends said. (AP Photo/APTN)

[img]http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20020616/capt.1024236248.mideast_israel_palestinians_gaz101.jpg[/img]

Caption: Naima, the mother of Hamas militant Mahmoud el Abed, shouts Islamic slogans over his body at her home in Gaza City, Sunday, June 16, 2002.

Eric The('CheckIsInTheMail,Mama!')Hun[>]:)]

Man,   what took so long????

Good!!   Now we need to start the "South Wall"  from Brownsville to the Pacific..

I was going to suggest the same thing.

I still dont understand why Israel gives the bomber's remains back, seriously thats pretty dumb, considering all the parades and crap the terrorist's families do for them.  They should consider just throwing the body into a trash can, driving it out into the desert, and throwing the remains into an unmarked grave with a freshly slaughtered pig (make sure the remains get covered in gore).  Once word of such actions gets around, suicide bombers will stop lining up to die for Allah.

Kharn

I patiently wait for Hannah, Kar98, and DaMan.

Or, the Maginot line.

Posted by bigyeti...


Don't forget the moat, alligators, boiling oil, land mines, and intersecting fields of fire!  [}:D]

We need all the help we can get!  

And GUESS who's picking up the bill for this operation? That's right folks, it's US - as in the US taxpayers. That's why Humpty-Dumpty was here just the other day for another handout.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea - but it should have been done nearly two years ago when the suicide bombing started up again.

Because if they didn't the Palestinians would parade more "dead" bodies that get out of the coffins after the rally. [:)]

Caption: An Israeli border police jeep patrols the fence in the area of the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin June 16, 2002. Bulldozers were clearing the way Sunday to build a security fence along Israel's porous West Bank frontier, which Palestinians said effectively canceled out peace deals with the Jewish state. Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters

Oh yeah babe...That fence should keep um out for the time being....the color alone might do it..[:D]