Don't Fall in Love With Abbas Yet
Visiting Israel last month, I ate in crowded restaurants and shopped in crowded malls. Most tourists may not have gotten the message yet -- Jerusalem's Old City was almost empty just a week before Christmas -- but it is clear that the 4-year-old intifada has faded into insignificance. Life in Israel has returned to normal, or at least as normal as it ever gets in a country that has faced threats to its existence from day one.
Conventional wisdom holds that it is almost impossible for a democracy to defeat a determined insurgency -- an impression strengthened by recent events in Iraq. Israel provides a contrary case. Suicide attacks in 2004 were down more than 40% from the year before. And not for lack of trying on the part of Palestinians. It is simply that "martyrdom" operations are being stymied by a combination of defensive and offensive measures.
Most of these are fairly innocuous, such as the security guards posted in front of every restaurant and shopping center who search purses and operate metal detectors. More controversial is the security barrier, tendentiously characterized by Israel's enemies as "the Wall," that is being completed between Israel and the West Bank.
I drove about 10 miles out of Tel Aviv to see the barrier separating the Israeli town of Kfar Saba from the Palestinian town of Kalkilya. There was a small stretch of concrete wall to protect the highway from snipers, but the barrier I saw was mostly a chain-link fence. On either side of it was a dirt strip that is kept clear to show footprints of infiltrators. A sophisticated system of electronic sensors and cameras provides constant coverage.
At a nearby Israeli army base, a roomful of college-age intelligence specialists -- all women -- sit before banks of video screens and computers monitoring the fence. If the alarm goes off -- in the form of a tune from the 1970s British rock group Queen -- a patrol is sent out to investigate.
The erection of this barrier has actually meant a decrease in disruption in the lives of the residents of Kalkilya, who no longer have to pass through an Israeli checkpoint when they travel to other parts of the West Bank. A checkpoint still exists for entry to Israel, but traffic was moving briskly when I was there.
