The author, who appears to be anonymous, starts this one off by assuming that since it is an anti-Israel article he will be accused of anti-semitism - before he even makes his point:
In writing this, I’m bracing myself for being called an anti-Semite, an appeaser of terrorists and propagandist for the Palestinian cause.He goes on to describe the evils of the "wall", using the usual poor arguments. Noteworthy is how he dismisses the idea that Israel has gained any security from building it:
I’m none of those things. I say this simply because these days, it seems, anyone who dares criticise the policies of the Israeli government leaves themselves open to such accusations.
The compulsion to write something that would leave me prone to such an attack was instigated earlier this week by watching Berlin’s champagne and fireworks celebrations commemorating the fall of the Wall.
How strange it must be, I thought, for any Palestinian in the village of Abu Dis, sitting before a TV screen looking on as the world indulges in rapturous back-slapping over the restoration of freedom and human rights that came with the passing of the wall.
For Israelis such as these, there is simply no debate to be had. As far as they are concerned, the crushing effects of the wall on the lives of millions of Palestinians is a small price to pay for the relative – if somewhat imaginary – guarantee of their own personal security.Imaginary? The number of victims of suicide attacks on Israel decreased from 289 in 2002 to virtually none now. But don't take my word for it - ask the terrorists:
PIJ leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah told Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV that the terrorist organizations had no intention of abandoning suicide bombing attacks but that their timing and the possibility of carrying them out from the West Bank depended on other factors. “For example,” he said, “there is the separation fence which is an obstacle to the resistance [i.e., the terrorist organizations], and if it were not there, the situation would be entirely different” 1 (Al-Manar TV, November 11, 2006 ).The calculus is simple: the author feels that the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Israeli lives saved by building the barrier are worthless.
Mousa Abu Marzouq , deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau in Damascus , was asked by a group of Egyptian intellectuals and politicians why the suicide bombing activity had decreased during since the Hamas government came to power. He said that “ [carrying out] such attacks is made difficult by the security fence and the gates surrounding West Bank residents ” 2 (Abd al-Muaz Muhammad, Ikhwan Online, the Muslim Brotherhood Website, June 2, 2007 ).
I leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine if this opinion is anti-semitic or not.
UPDATE: For the terminally stupid, Meryl Yourish has a handy-dandy comparison between the Berlin Wall and Israel's security fence.