[size=4]Israel Begins Work on West Bank Fence[/size=4]
Sun Jun 16, By By YOAV APPEL, Associated Press Writer
Israeli bulldozers flattened ground Sunday for an electronic fence that is planned to eventually run the entire length of the West Bank — a disputed project aimed at protecting Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers.
Those backing the barrier say it does not, in any way, stake out a final border between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Also Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected the idea of provisional Palestinian statehood that was aired by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and said to be under consideration by the Bush administration. Palestinians also are cool to the idea for different reasons.
Palestinian and right-wing Israeli politicians strongly oppose the fence, meant to replace a hodgepodge of barriers and fences erected over the past year, which have proved ineffectual.
The first length of fence will be built over eight months along a 75-miles from Salem Junction in northern Israel south to a point northeast of Tel Aviv.
Palestinians maintain the fence will take West Bank land they want for a state. Right-wing Israelis fear that what is being billed as a temporary "security fence" will evolve into a permanent border with a future Palestinian state. If that happened, many of the 200,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank would be left on the Palestinian side.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said a consensus is building among Israeli politicians in support of the barrier, which he has called necessary and temporary. Ben-Eliezer, who visited the construction site at Salem Junction on Sunday, said the fence isn't intended to be a political barrier.
"It has one and only one clear aim — to defend the lives of Israeli citizens," Ben-Eliezer said. "Every extra day that passes without the fence being built could cost us more victims."
At a meeting of Sharon's Cabinet Sunday, several ministers raised objections.
Sharon, an ardent supporter of Israeli settlement expansion for decades, opposes the barrier for ideological reasons. He reluctantly gave his approval this month.
Of the nearly 70 suicide bombings in Israel over the past 20 months, all have been launched from the West Bank, which has no barrier separating it from Israel.
Groups that have carried out many of the bombings, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are strongest in the Gaza Strip ( news - web sites). But no suicide bombers have come from Gaza, which is fenced in.
Ben-Eliezer said the fence eventually will stretch 215 miles, which is the full length of the "Green Line" — the Israeli border before Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.
It largely is to follow that line, but parts of it will veer into the West Bank to bring some settlements close to the border onto the Israeli side. Ben-Eliezer said that in some areas the fence will run on the Israeli side of the Green Line.
Separately, Israel already is building a fence and trenches around the borders of east Jerusalem to control the flow of Palestinians into the city from the West Bank. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians seek the eastern sector for a future capital.
See remainder of article at:[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20020616/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_4846[/url]
Eric The(GoodFencesMakeGoodNeighbors)Hun[>]:)]