Mohammed Zuul, 23, blew himself up Sunday on a bus in the middle of Jerusalem, killing eight other people and wounding 50 more. The attack came on the eve of hearings in The Hague on whether Israel had the right to construct a fence to protect itself from assaults like these.
Zuul came from the village of Husan in the West Bank. His was the 10th "successful" suicide bomb attack from the Bethlehem area since violence began in the fall of 2000. Of those attacks, according to Israeli military records, nine have been directed at Jerusalem, which is approximately two miles away. Similarly, all the suicide bombing attacks against the Israeli seaside city of Netanya have come from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, which is seven miles away.
In all, Israeli military officials say there have been about 280 attempted suicide bombing infiltrations from the West Bank since the violence broke out. In at least 135 of these cases, the bombers successfully crossed into Israel. It is this toxic combination of frequency and proximity that has led Israel to build the fence.
But some Palestinians have tried to turn that argument around, saying it is the fence that is causing the violence. That's simply not true. Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which claimed responsibility for Zuul's attack, said it came in part in response to the fence. But in fact there is no completed fence between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where Zuul came through. And an overwhelming number of the 280 infiltrations occurred before there was a fence at all.
The fence is there only to stop the attacks. This is undeniably the fence that terrorism built; if there was no terror, there would be no fence.
The establishment of a fence is supported by an overwhelming 83% of Israeli Jews, buoyed by the 100% success rate of halting Palestinian infiltrations from Gaza since early 2001, after the fence separating Israel from Gaza was rebuilt.
There is some irony that it is Israel that stands in the docket at the International Court of Justice at The Hague this week for taking a defensive measure.
After all, what are the Israelis supposed to do? Palestinian critics say Israel should not expect the Palestinian security services to protect Israelis and that Israel should not target Hamas killers for assassination. Now it seems that Israel should not passively defend itself by building a barrier, either. What's left?
