'Monstrosity' fence has deterred terror against Israel

Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

A portion of the “Anti-Terrorist Fence” in Jerusalem – part wall, part fence – was erected to deter terror, Israeli officials say

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JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (FBW)—David Baker is a fast-talking Israeli transplanted from New York with the tough public relations task of making Israel's case to an often antagonistic foreign press sympathetic to the Palestinian cause in the intractable Middle East conflict.

BAKER

Convinced his cause is right, the senior foreign press coordinator for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office aggressively and passionately made that case Jan. 15 in Jerusalem to nine Southern Baptist newspaper editors who were completing a six-day tour of Israel as guests of the Jewish state's Ministry of Tourism.

The meeting took place only a few days after President George W. Bush had visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in an effort to re-start negotiations for a two-state solution to the historic impasse.

"Israel will always have the pictorial and editorial disadvantage in presenting its case as compared to the Palestinians," Baker said, noting that Israel is a "first-class, high-tech superpower" with a $150 billion a year economy, while the Palestinians are a "fourth- or fifth-world" economy with "raw sewage" in some of their neighborhoods and refugee camps.

Palestinians are clearly the "weaker party" in the conflict, Baker admits. They live in the West Bank—the 2,200 square mile area west of the Jordan River that Israelis prefer to call Samaria and Judea, using the biblical names—and Gaza, a 140 square mile strip of land on the Mediterranean coast bordering Egypt to the south.

Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza after it successfully repelled Jordan and Egypt from the lands in response to the Arab states' attacks on Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel also occupied the Golan Heights, land east and north of the Sea of Galilee, during the same war in hostilities initiated by Syria.

In spite of the Palestinians' weakness, Baker said the terrorist activities of radical Palestinians have done great damage to Israel, and the Jewish state has an obligation to its people to take any efforts it can to make peace with moderate Palestinians.

Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

Sign in Golan Heights warns about land mines in the contested area.

Such a peace will require painful territorial concessions on the part of Israel, giving land for an eventual Palestinian state.

"The status quo is something that we will not accept. And the status quo is this prolonged, unending conflict with the Palestinians, a people with whom we really have no beef. We want to be able to live with them," Baker said.

Although there will be "territorial compromise," that doesn't mean conceding the entire West Bank, he emphasized. "We see the land of Israel as belonging to the Jewish people as our birthright."

Those areas in the West Bank with large concentrations of Jews are envisioned as eventually becoming part of the State of Israel, he said, while areas where Palestinians are concentrated and sparsely populated areas would likely be part of a future Palestinian state.

Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

Baker was careful to note he was not talking about Hebron, a "special case" as the first capital of Israel dating back to King David.

Additionally, any settlement with the Palestinians must include their control of terrorism in the territories, including Gaza, from which the Israelis withdrew in 2005. The terrorist organization Hamas won elections in Gaza the following year and has subsequently bombarded southern Israeli cities with thousands of rockets and mortars.

Although the government regards Jerusalem as the "undivided capital of Israel" and sees it "continuing to be the capital of the Jewish state," Baker noted the prime minister has "questioned the wisdom" of the incorporation of "certain areas on the outskirts of Jerusalem" in places "the average Jewish Israeli is never going to find himself in."

Peace negotiations with Palestinians are a "sticky situation. It's very, very murky. It's really racking our brains to see how we can do this."

Still, "We want to be able to make a deal with the Palestinians," Baker said, noting that "a Palestinian state has to be economically viable. It has to be contiguous. It has to be geographically viable."

The father of two daughters—one a 19-year-old soldier in the Israeli army—immigrated to Israel 23 years ago from East Queens, New York, and has now lived more than half of his life in the Jewish state.

Noting that his daughters have never known a day of peace, Baker said such a reality was "unacceptable."

Although Israel is willing to take "calculated" and "educated risks" in pursuit of peace with the Palestinians, the Jewish state will not be "reckless," he said.

Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

This poster on a busy Jerusalem street offers an opinion of George W. Bush’s peace efforts.

Part of Israel's defense against terrorism within Israel has been the erection of its "Anti-Terrorist Fence"—a "monstrosity," according to Baker, that has nevertheless drastically reduced terrorism. While there was only one terrorist incident in Israel in 2007, before 2003 when the fence was begun more than 900 Israelis were killed in "scores and scores and scores" of terrorist attacks since 2000.

"That barrier, that fence, that wall - that's some monstrosity, that thing. And that's what we do to protect ourselves," Baker said. When completed in 2010 the fence will be 435 miles in total length at a cost of $3.5 billion, with 97 percent in the form of a fence and three percent a concrete wall as high as 25 feet.

Critics argue the fence is an attempt to annex Palestinian land, divides Palestinian communities and harms their ability to economically prosper, comparing it to apartheid in South Africa or the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Baker defended the necessity of the barrier, noting before it was built Israel lost 150 citizens due to terror in just one month in 2002.

"I call it the wall to prevent wailing. ... it's the lock on Israel's back door," he said.

"Every day in the Palestinian territories, every single day we're compelled to conduct military raids" against terrorist elements, Baker said.

In addition to the problem of Palestinian terrorists, Baker also spoke of threats from Syria and Iran, states which persistently call for the destruction of the state of Israel.

"Iran continues to be an implacable enemy because they've chosen to be," he said, adding that the Iranians are "whipping something up there which we view to be an existential threat to Israel." Although a close neighbor of Israel, Baker said Iran is a threat to the entire "free world."

Syria, which borders Israel in the north, "harbors 11 terrorist organizations, the most notorious terrorist organizations" meaning that "we don't find them to be a serious partner for peace," he asserted.

Still, Israel is "very safe" for tourists, said Baker, who praised evangelicals who continue to support Israel, especially those who traveled to the Jewish state at the height of terrorist attacks.

"I would like to officially ... express the thanks of the government of Israel to those Christian communities who have come, who continue to stand by Israel during our most turbulent times and who don't scare easily and stick by Israel."