(Ynet Editor-I hope you do not strip out paragraph spacing-it makes layout & reading difficult) For those who have never been closer to a real border than the “Immigration Queue” at an airport, or seen a rugged natural border, defined by geographical features & centuries of tribal “negotiation” (warfare): I, too would love to have it as it always was: raw, wild, open, dusty, undeveloped, historical… but that is not life, or the current reality of security threats, 1000’s of illegal immigrants (not “refugees”, estimated @ ~1000 per month), human trafficking; arms & drug smuggling, contraband, & possible terrorist infiltration. It is not about some “Café cosmopolitan” singing Kumbaya & moaning about how he wishes for global peace & a borderless world, where everybody loves each other & happily exchange bodily fluids. Anyone who loves the desert; knows the geography, topography, & history of the area wants to preserve it untouched. Go to Google Earth, & have a look over the Northern Sinai & Southern Negev. BTW, those numbskulls who seek to somehow associate the Egyptian border with “Palestinians” or “brutal Israel” are just demonstrating how lacking in knowledge they are, in their usual blind hatred & blaming of Israel for everything. From the peace treaty with Egypt in 77-80, back to the Gaza & Rafah battles in 67, & the Paratrooper’s advance through Abu Ageila; the Battle of A-Rouefa Dam in 56; isolated pre State kibbutzim at Ktzeiot, Be’erotiyam, & Shivta; the nascent German railway building from Damascus to Cairo through Sinai circa 1900’s; Bir Hasna, Wadi El Arish & the failed British attempts to develop the area as a health spa for tuberculosis sufferers (like Arizona); back to Biblical mention of Ktzeima (just across the present border) as one of the stops during the years of Israelites wandering in the desert, or seeing scattered prehistoric remains of villages, it is a beautiful area, & has great historical & political significance, across a wide range of periods. I can reel off 10 more fascinating spots, tracks, trails, wadis, defiles, mountains, oasis’s, & Biblical references in the area-& I haven’t even started on the next 200 km south to Eilat. In my eyes, even the newer paved border roads are a travesty, albeit a necessary one. It will inevitably change. So did Sharm & Dahab. Roads & crossings are already built from Rafah to Nitzana. The REAL question is political-dealing with the ridiculous, provocative intrusion of a tiny (360 km/2), lawless, unjustifiably autonomous terror enclave, stuck between 2 countries-aside from the smuggling & human trafficking. Human history is a story of movement people: war, conquest, building, & development; lost battles, failure, death, destruction & regeneration. That is just the way it is, in nature & biology. Yesterday, it was the Irish, German, & Italians to America; today, it is Africans & Arabs to Europe, & Hispanics to the US. It is like bacteria to a wound, & thieves to an open door-they migrate to the easiest point of entry-just like terrorists. It is part of nature. If you want to preserve & protect yourself, you have to put up barriers-tangible & intangible. That is life. I would dearly like to preserve the natural & historical aspects, but Haber’s "Universalist" moaning is emotional masturbation.

and yet it was Sparta (and Rome) that answered the call of the Maccabees and entered into a military alliance with them to fight against the imperialist forces of Hellenistic Syria. Even Rome, despite its wars with the ancient Jews, was identified by the rabbis as descended from Esau, Jacob's twin brother, hostile to Israel at times, but always reconcileable and a people aware of its national mission and destiny for greatness. But Hellenism, especially in its more extreme form, was always seen as inimical and spiritually opposed to Judaism, and traditional Jews always felt it was an alien threatening philosophy. The liberal-Leftist Jews who dream of being "like Athens" are lying to themselves. Hellenism is fine in small doses, but beyond that it runs counter to Jewish traditions.

Rambling on and on, tweaking the facts, spinning lies as truths, and presenting half-truths without the other half does not add to your credibility, BSNews. The Winograd Report concluded the evidence shows that the Israel Defense Forces did not target civilians, in contrast to Hezbollah and to the false allegations by NGOs, and terms like “war crimes” are without basis. As for Israel losing the war and Hizbullah's "Divine Victory", it is funny that Nasrallah himself announced he would never have initiated the 2006 conflict by staging that rocket diversion-capture-kill mission across the border into Israel, had he anticipated that Israel would have responded as it did.

extremely literate and informative post. You presented the case for manmade barriers even while ruing them due to the effect on the primal landscape.

BUILD MORE FENCES to strategically isolate the so-called "palestinians" without bothering the Israelis. BUILD HOMES TOO. Israel is still a baby country that needs to continue building its "bones" in order to become strong. BUILD, ISRAEL, BUILD.

Sparta was a military state and this fence has nothing to do with military issues. The purpose of this fence is to prevent illegal immigration and smuggling. As far as we know, Spartans had not to deal with one of these issues. Haber columns are one more reason, if any was needed, to prevent the Left from ruling Israel.

no good Israeli leadership none got vision anymore just monkey bussines, the quition is you as Israeli, what r you going to do about it, I think Israelis should take a stand be more involved withtheir gov and make and new order in the gov, cause too much money goes to toomuch ministers that do nothing, they invented a special comeety to improve Israeli PR, and by that collect emore money than improve or sake the forign ministry? and until this far no Israeli said no but more of about time, about time for what? about time they take more tax money of you to give to people who does nothing? since you countying on god save the nation rather than you yourself will save the nation, I find it shoking how clueless people in Israel r, just because you pay somebody to be in your parliament and run your state for 4 years it doesn't mean you can't be involved directly in his way of conduct and when he doesn't do his job properly give him or her the boot. that simple no excusses.

...if you haven't already, drive down and take a day tour-the area is, at most, a few hours away. Better yet, find one of the local Field Schools (Beit Sefer Sadeh), and join some of the guided tours. It is stunningly beautiful, and amazing how much life, history, and current significance there is in a supposedly "desolate" area. More importantly, it provides perspective-there is nothing like trekking the desert to give a different perspective on urban life! Thanks again.

I can't believe that any Jew could openly admit to aspiring to emulate Athenian culture. What the hell do you do on Chanucah - light the menorah with a lit pig? I am not a religious militant, but when you go on record as wistfully wishing to be hellenistic, it is not hard to see the obvious blackcoated retort that you need the fences because you deserve them. The only way the Arabs will ever accept Israel is if it is properly framed in the authorised biblical and koranic context. No wonder they reject Haber's aspirational state of Leftis Israelos.

that's right, and if the Spartans didn't get lazy (like the Athenians) and fallen pray to internal strife, perhaps they would have been strong enough to have prevented the brutal Roman annexation of Greece! When Sparta was strong, she was the one who defeated the Persian barbarians... Israel is surrounded by some of the most backward, viscously oppressive, and hostile regimes on the planet!! Of course it has to build fences to keep them at bay. Perhaps if there were fences around Gaza and with Lebanon, our boys wouldn't have been kidnapped! If it takes fences to bring peace (good fences make good neighbors!) then so be it. I'm all for it and so is everyone else in this country!

actually it was athens who contributed the most to defeating the persian hordes. their navy and experience at marathon gave them the upper hand. sparta, at one point, wanted to abandon the hellenic league to protect their homes. oh, and yes the persians were barbarians-- a word that simply translates as "foreigner" in greek. to be compared to sparta seems like a compliment through modern, hollywood tinted glasses. but in fact the spartans were slave owning nobles living in a socially stagnant world. powerful, yes. like israel, hopefully-- for their sake-- not in the least.

Sir, If you don't like fences so go live in Australia,no fences there ,just surrounded by ocean and Sharks which kill men (and women.) I personally adore fences...they keep the scum out.

Haber's problem ,like so many Israelis,is that he is spoiled.Perhaps he needs a wake up call ,like thousands of africans knocking on his door and Hizbullah terrorists.BUILD MORE FENCES.

While the world says Israel should not fence out the terrorists, most of the united states is demanding a border fence with mexico to prevent undocumented workers and terrorists from entering. Israel needs to protect itself from the terrorists. Even egypt is fencing them off. It's common sense to fence your borders to prevent enemy infiltration.