Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the Separation Barrier, also known as the security fence or wall, surrounding many parts of Israel. In particular, I visited the border gate of Palestinian village of Sheikh Sa’ed, in East Jerusalem. Sheikh Sa’ed is part of the larger city of Jabel Mukaber. Jabel Mukaber is inside the area of East Jerusalem that the wall goes around. Sheikh Sa’ed is currently set to be outside of that border - but right now the construction of the barrier has stopped, because the residents of Sheikh Sa’ed (along with a thousand of its Jewish neighbors) want Sheikh Sa’ed to be able to be connected to Jabel Mukaber. The decision, which is in the hands of the High Court of Israel, the legal body that is trusted most by Israelis and Arabs alike, for its history of social justice, will decide the outcome. To many, the answer is clear - either include Sheikh Sa’ed inside Jerusalem, or leave Jabel Mukaber out too. Either way, don’t separate the two. After finding out that Thursday night’s terrorist (who shot up a school and murdered eight students) came from Jabel Mukaber, and probably had a blue identity card, making it legal for him to roam freely around Israel - my answer is clear. Leave both neighborhoods outside the security barrier. Clearly they do not want the security and protection of the State of Israel. And while we care about their welfare, we don’t need to care that much about it, if caring produces terror attacks.

Interestingly, the architect of the barrier, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was originally dead-set against it. He was actually forced to move ahead with the plan due to political pressure from, get this, left-wing peace-niks who feared for their lives! The origin of the barrier was to prevent terror. It was never intended as a land-grab, and in fact, most settlers were vehemently against the construction of the wall! In their minds, to construct a barrier around the borders of Israel would both cut the settlers’ dreams in two (leaving some of their homes inside the wall and some of their homes outside the wall) and would pre-maturely decide the borders of Israel (which were not the borders that many settlers hoped for). When faced with no choice but to build the barrier, Sharon decided to build it where he wanted - as close to the border of Israel that he intended to be the final border when the peace agreements are eventually made.

Not everyone in Israel agrees with the route of the barrier. In fact, there have been many court cases brought (by Israelis and Palestinians alike) to force the army to change the route - and they’ve won. The barrier has been moved. But the vast majority of israelis agree with the concept of the barrier, even if they disagree with the location, because the fact of the matter is, the barrier has cut the number of suicide bombers down to almost none.

The two major terrorist attacks that we’ve had this year have come from East Jerusalem, that place where the wall has not been completed. That seems to only further the argument that the security barrier works. Let me say that again, just for emphasis. The purpose of the security barrier is just that - SECURITY. And IT WORKS.

The idea of the barrier may have been hijacked, so to speak, for political purposes by PM Sharon, but he wasn’t alone. The Palestinians have done a great job of using the barrier to serve their own cause too. Instead of using this time to build up an infrastructure that could take care of its own people (hospitals, a transportation system, schools, garbage pick-up, etc.), they have squandered in their own filth, producing pictures of themselves living in a disgusting fenced in area, to show the world and to gain pity.

Yasser Arafat and the PA pocketed millions upon millions of dollars in aide money that was intended to go towards building up Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The world goes up in arms (as it should) when a legitimately sick person is denied entrance into Israel to get medical care. Why hasn’t the world gone up in arms about the fact that the Palestinians have refused to build their own hospitals?! Or when they staged a black-out in Gaza last month?! The Palestinian people are not stupid. They are fully capable of producing brilliant doctors and nurses of their own. And they are apparently more than capable of pulling a PR stunt to gain world pity. But instead of becoming self-sufficient, they chose to be lazy and let Israel take the blame. I think its high time they step up and take some responsibility for their own destiny. And that doesn’t mean blowing themselves (or others) up. That means producing teachers, doctors, bus drivers, garbage collectors, bankers, and postal workers. That means creating malls, video arcades, youth programming, and TV sitcoms. That means producing a self-sufficient society. That means not celebrating when others die. Until they can do that, they are clearly not ready for their own country.

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