Michael Anbarae

There is lots of talk in Israel about building a physical protective fence between the Jewish and Arab territories. However, the separation �fence� advocated by Amram Mitzna as a magic way to prevent terror, including the most recent bombing in Tel Aviv that killed some 22 Israelis, is a political gimmick but not a political nor even an effective military solution to avoid terror in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Such a fence would not protect Israel more than the French Maginot Line protected France from German aggression or the Chinese Great Wall protected China from the Mongolian barbarians. This fence may make it easier to prevent infiltrations by foot or by all-terrain vehicles and it is up to the IDF to decide its potential cost effectiveness. However, this fence will not prevent mortar and missile attacks on Israeli towns and cities, as we witnessed in Shderot and the Upper Galilee (which was just a beginning, Jerusalem, Netaniah, Hedera and Afula might be next). It will also not prevent suicide gliders to hover over it. It will not stop infiltration of terrorists through international checkpoints, as was demonstrated in the 9/11 atrocity in New York City and Washington DC, or in the 1972 Ben-Gurion Airport massacre perpetrated by Japanese allies of the PLO. It will not prevent attacks on Israelis abroad as we saw in Munich in 1972 and in Kenya just last month. In brief, as long as the current ideology and policy prevails in the Arab nation, aimed at eradicating the homeland of the Jewish people, Jews will continue to be killed by Arab terrorists in Israel and elsewhere with and without the proposed fence. The fence will not change the strategic decision of the Arabs (not just the �Palestinians�) to deny the existence of the ancient Jewish homeland, and to destroy the Jewish state.

Amram Mitzna�s doctrine advocates unilateral withdrawal of the Israelis from some of the Jewish villages in the �disputed territories�. Mitzna seems to have forgotten that the unilateral withdrawal of the IDF from South Lebanon encouraged the Arabs to launch the September 2000 terror campaign against Israel. One does not have to take my word for this � just read the communiqu�s of the Hizballah. Since that �victory� over the IDF, prompted by shortsighted Israeli internal politics, that notorious Iranian and Syrian backed terrorist organization has continuously encouraged the �Palestinian� Arabs to follow in its footsteps and drive the Israelis into the sea. The unilateral retreat from the Tomb of Joseph only encouraged the Arabs to attempt to do the same to the Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. It is well known that the Arabs view any retreat as a sign of weakness, inviting more aggression. Like the Americans during the Korea and Viet Nam wars, Israeli politicians who advocate unilateral withdrawal behind fences fail to take into account the different mentality and value system of their adversary. In brief, Mitzna seems to be hiding behind a fence of ignorance.

However, there already exists another much more formidable, probably insurmountable fence. This one does not consist of trenches, barbed wire and electronic devices. It is the fence between Jewish and Arab values and aspirations. It crosses the �Green Line� back and forth, separating Jews from the great majority of Muslim Arabs. The Arabs are hiding behind this fence, throwing across it propaganda grenades of Arab misery to demoralize the Israelis and to gain sympathy from Western liberals. Misery is not distinctive of the Arabs in Gaza or Nablus, it is endemic all over the corrupt, despotic Arab world (in the Sudan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, etc.), but it is repugnant in Israel and in the rest of the Western world. That misery is being thrown like stink bombs across the inter-cultural fence, causing more political damage to Israel than explosive bombs loaded with screws and nuts. The Israelis cannot retaliate in kind because the Arabs interpret any non-violent response as weakness and readiness to surrender. For sure Israeli grief for its victims cannot be thrown back across that fence because it just evokes joy and celebrations among the Arabs, as did the 9/11 atrocity.

This inter-cultural fence is, therefore, a frightening unilateral, unmatched Arab tool of psychological warfare. Since an imminent change in Muslim values is a very remote possibility, there is only one way to overcome this Arab decisive advantage � to immunize the West against its potentially devastating effects. Like smallpox this psychological warfare agent is contagious, and like smallpox it incapacitates those affected, breaking down their resolve. However, unlike smallpox or any other contagious biological agent, the Muslims are naturally immune to it because they have an utterly different value system. To neutralize this psychological warfare bug by adopting the Muslim value system � what the Islamists are hoping for -- is, obviously, asinine. We must get immunized against it. Immunization means, first of all, realizing the existence of this tall inter-cultural fence and of the potentially evil people hiding behind it. Second, we must reject the Arab propaganda about the dying children in Iraq, the Sudan and Gaza, not by denying the facts but by recognizing the true causes of that misery. Muslim apologists are trying to deny the existence of this inter-cultural fence, making it much harder to put up defenses against this dangerous mode of Islamistic onslaught. Those apologists are hiding behind a fence of Western public�s apathy and ignorance.

In the long run the inter-cultural fence will have to be dismantled in order to avoid an ominous devastating clash between civilizations. Unlike Mitzna�s suggestion, peace with Arabs requires dismantling of the cultural barriers and not construction of physical ones. That dismantling may take generations, associated with unthinkable bloody wars with tens or hundreds of millions of human casualties. This could be avoided, however, if the Muslims are decisively defeated soon, starting with Baghdad, so that Islamism and Pan-Arabism go the way totalitarian Nazism and Communism went before.