34. #20, Michael, your comments are simply wrong
East Jerusalem simply cannot be fenced off. I had the opportunity to speak once to the former Police Chief of the Jerusalem Municipality. He said, purely from a practical point of view, it is impossible to fence off East Jerusalem, short of turning the city into two armed camps, and dividing the city would make make policing and prevention of terror near impossible. It would prevent Israeli police and security apparatuses from operating in Arab areas in and around Jerusalem, but it would not prevent an Arab terrorist from entering West Jerusalem. Also, even if one were to run razor wire through the heart of Jerusalem, don't forget that the Jerusalem periphery in the East, North, and South is best desribed as a patchwork quilt of Jewish and Arab villages. Arab Sur Baher is a neighbor to Jewish Ramat Rachel. Fencing off East Jerusalem would not prevent a terrorist outrage there. Despite everything, keeping the Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods plugged into the Israeli system appears to have worked. They were relatively unaffected by the intifadas, and even the terrorist attack from yesterday appears to have been the work of an individual, not carried out by a Hamas, al Aksa, or IJ cell with orders from above.
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