A Fence a Wall or Not at All

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A Fence a Wall or Not at All?

By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Can you imagine a convicted murderer suing the government for putting bars on his jail cell so he can’t escape? Sounds preposterous?  Yet when Israel builds a fence to protect itself from suicide bombers and terrorists the world shouts foul. Even America, Israel’s only ally, calls on its  immediate halt. Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the security fence undermines Abu Mazen’s ability to bring peace. President Bush says that “it will be difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israelis with a wall snaking through the West Bank.”

Abu Mazen must be shown some “Good will gestures” so that he will be able to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. This means that Israel must immediately release all its jailed terrorists so that they can help Abu Mazen do his job. They must also be given weapons which he promises to use only against the terrorists. Notice that he is very careful not to define what he means by “terrorists.” However, anyone with a half a brain knows that he’s referring to the Israelis! And so while Purim is still many months away, we are already half drunk. We already don’t seem to know the difference between the evil Haman and the blessed Mordecai. We release the terrorists and jail the settlers instead. We take away the guns from those who need them to protect themselves and give them to the Palestinians so that they can chas v’shalom kill more Jews. They cry out “road map” even though the Palestinians put all sorts of detours and mines along the way.

For Israelis, the fence represents an admission that all the peace talks have failed and unless we are going to protect ourselves no nation in the world is going to lift a finger to help us. While the fence still wouldn’t keep all the terrorists out, at least it will make it harder for them to get in!