Israel to build 2 fences on boarder to keep illegals out.

[Danno 1,228]

How come they don't get called dirty names when they do it?

Israel to build 2 fences on porous Egyptian border

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jan 11, 12:56 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister has ordered the construction of two massive fences along the long and porous southern border with Egypt, saying he wants to stem a growing flood of African asylum seekers and to prevent Islamic militants from entering the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the structure would help preserve Israel's Jewish majority, while providing a layer of protection along an open border with an area suspected of having an al-Qaida presence.

"I decided to close Israel's southern border to infiltrators and terrorists after prolonged discussions," he said in a statement. "This is a strategic decision to ensure the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel. Israel will remain open to war refugees but we cannot allow thousands of illegal workers to infiltrate into Israel via the southern border and flood our country," he said.

The two fences will cover nearly half of the 150-mile (250-kilometer) border. One section will be near the Red Sea port of Eilat. The other will be in southwest Israel, near the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said government ministers approved the plan Sunday evening. He said a date hasn't been set for construction and it is unclear how long it would take to complete the fences.

The project is expected to cost about $400 million, according to local media reports.

The structure would come in addition to a massive fence surrounding the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, as well as a separation barrier that snakes along parts of Israel's more than 400-mile (680-kilometer) frontier with the West Bank, biting into chunks of the territory as it runs. Egypt has its own fence along Gaza's southern border, and is reinforcing the area with underground metal plates to shut down tunnels used to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.

The planned Egypt fence, like the West Bank and Gaza barriers, is rooted largely in security concerns, along with efforts to keep illegal migrants out, Israel says.

The military began planning the fence in 2005 after Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip, fearing that militants would freely travel to Egypt and sneak into Israel. These concerns were underscored in early 2007, when a Gaza suicide bomber sneaked into Eilat through Egypt.

But the massive influx of African migrants into Israel in recent years has given the project added momentum. U.N. officials and human rights workers estimate some 17,000 to 19,000 people have poured into Israel through the southern border since 2005, most of them from Eritrea, Sudan and other war-torn African countries, searching for a better life in Israel's relatively affluent Western-style society.

Most of them live in crowded slums in Tel Aviv or Eilat, where many work as dishwashers and hotel bellboys.

The new arrivals have created a dilemma for authorities. On one hand, they strain Israel's social service system, and officials fear they could upset the country's demographic mix, possibly tilting it away from a Jewish majority. About three-quarters of Israel's 7 million citizens are Jewish.

On the other hand, Israel is a country created in large part as a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution, and many feel they cannot turn their backs on the Africans, believing the government must be more sensitive to their needs.

Advocacy groups also note that the asylum seekers are far outnumbered by foreign workers who have flown into the country legally and overstayed their visas.

Israel's policy toward the asylum seekers has been muddled, with frequent changes in rules and procedures.

At present, Africans who cross into Israel through Egypt are detained for several months in a nearby prison while their applications are processed.

Most are eventually given one-month visas to stay in Israel that they must renew every month, said Yonatan Berman of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, an advocacy group that helps the asylum seekers. They are not allowed to work, but the government turns a blind eye.

Israel requested Egypt tighten its border patrols. Amnesty International says Egyptian security forces have killed 39 people, mostly Sudanese and Eritreans, trying to cross into Israel between 2008 to mid-2009. More updated figures were not immediately available. Both countries have been criticized by human rights groups for their approach to the problem.

In Cairo, Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said his government had no objections to the fence, as long as it is on Israeli territory. "This is a matter which concerns Israel. This is something which Israel is building inside its territories, so let it be," he told reporters.

Security and crime concerns have also prompted Israel to erect the fences. Israeli officials frequently issue warnings urging citizens to avoid travel to the neighboring Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. The area is believed to be a stronghold for al-Qaida-inspired extremists who have aligned themselves with lawless Bedouin tribes in the area. In 2004, a total of 32 people were killed in a pair of hotel bombings in the Sinai.

Smugglers use the porous area to traffic women into Israel's prostitution trade, and it's also a main conduit for drugs entering the country.

But its many walls illustrate Israel's sense of isolation in a largely hostile region. The West Bank barrier in particular has sparked international criticism because it frequently juts into the West Bank, drawing accusations that Israel is using it to gobble up land claimed by the Palestinians.

There are also fences separating Israel from hostile Lebanon and parts of the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed after seizing the Syrian territory in the 1967 Mideast war.

"Defense against terror activity clearly requires a fence," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio Monday. "Good fences make good neighbors," Barak said, noting only Israel's western border — the sea — did not need to be blocked off. "Along the sea we don't need a fence," he said.

[Danno 1,228]

no one wants to touch it?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

no one wants to touch it?

I think we'd all rather talk about the illegal immigration problem afflicting the country we actually live in and call home.

[scandal 951]

Danno, I care about this, for obvious reasons.

I think it's a fine thing.

[Chris_Жанна 11]

Can't comment on stuff I know nothing about. I don't live there, how should I know whats best? Israel is it's own sovereign nation and will make rules, policies, walls, as they see fit.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Can't comment on stuff I know nothing about. I don't live there, how should I know whats best? Israel is it's own sovereign nation and will make rules, policies, walls, as they see fit.

Here's where I think Danno is going with this. If American liberals will support Israel building a fence with the openly-stated intention of preserving its Jewish majority, why won't they support America building a fence with the openly-stated intention of preserving its Caucasian or English-speaking majority?

To which my response is, American liberals should butt the fuсk out of having positions at all on Israel. It's their country.

[scandal 951]

Here's where I think Danno is going with this. If American liberals will support Israel building a fence with the openly-stated intention of preserving its Jewish majority, why won't they support America building a fence with the openly-stated intention of preserving its Caucasian or English-speaking majority?

To which my response is, American liberals should butt the fuсk out of having positions at all on Israel. It's their country.

If I thought building a fence along the US/Mexico border would be a cost-effective (and otherwise effective) means of securing the southern border, I'd be all for it. I am in favor of any reasonable technologies or perimeter patrols that secure the border. It has nothing to do with language or skin color. It has everything to do with sovereign nations having the right to decide who gets to cross their borders. Period.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

It has nothing to do with language or skin color. It has everything to do with sovereign nations having the right to decide who gets to cross their borders. Period.

In the case of America, I agree. But in the case of Israel, the Prime Minister himself has stated that preserving the Jewish-majority is the intent. I don't believe that's a mindset we need here in America. We're better than that.

[Danno 1,228]

Danno, I care about this, for obvious reasons.

I think it's a fine thing.

I agree 100%, I think it's a fine thing too, I'm hoping you or someone might give insight why it's good for them but not us?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I agree 100%, I think it's a fine thing too, I'm hoping you or someone might give insight why it's good for them but not us?

For the most part, Mexicans don't lob indiscriminate missiles our direction, engage in suicide bombing, our situations differ in other ways as well... The size of the respective fences needed, and costs involved for us to build a much larger wall for one thing...

Edited January 13, 2010 by ready4ONE

[Chris_Жанна 11]

I agree 100%, I think it's a fine thing too, I'm hoping you or someone might give insight why it's good for them but not us?

Because every country next to them wants to destroy Israel more or less. I don't think we've had to worry about the Mexican army raiding our towns since around the time of the Alamo.

Edited January 13, 2010 by Chris_Жанна

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

For the most part, Mexicans don't lob indiscriminate missiles our direction, and our situations differ in other ways as well... The size of the respective fences needed, and costs involved for us to build a wall...

Not to mention that Israel was founded to be a nation for the Jewish people. Nothing similar can be said about America.

[scandal 951]

Not to mention that Israel was founded to be a nation for the Jewish people. Nothing similar can be said about America.

Well, America was founded to be a nation for the American people, after all.

[Danno 1,228]

Here's where I think Danno is going with this. If American liberals will support Israel building a fence with the openly-stated intention of preserving its Jewish majority, why won't they support America building a fence with the openly-stated intention of preserving its Caucasian or English-speaking majority?

To which my response is, American liberals should butt the fuсk out of having positions at all on Israel. It's their country.

Your in the ball park but not quite.

We have a unique American Culture and that includes more than just white folk.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Your in the ball park but not quite.

We have a unique American Culture and that includes more than just white folk.

I said Caucasian or English-speaking. I am guessing you're more about the latter.