Ehud Barak thinks that mobile checkpoints will do the job that stationary checkpoints are doing.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants to replace permanent checkpoints in the West Bank with mobile ones, to ease restrictions on Palestinian traffic while still safeguarding Israel’s security. However, he believes that such a change cannot be implemented immediately, as the Israel Defense Forces must first train a sufficient number of troops in the new methods, which is likely to take some time.
Barak held his first meeting with senior defense officials on the checkpoint issue last week.
[…] While Barak says he favors improving Palestinians’ lives, his overriding commitment is to Israel’s security. Barak fears that if a suicide bombing were to originate from an area where checkpoints had been removed, this would stymie further progress; he would therefore like to ensure that a workable alternative is in place before removing any checkpoints.
Gee, ya think?
I’m not getting how mobile checkpoints are going to be any more secure. Any way you look at it, they seem less secure. Once again, instead of removing the checkpoints by having the Palestinians cease terror against Israel, Israel is bending to the needs of the terrorists. Unbelievable.
The article is very low on detail. What exactly is a “mobile checkpoint”? If it simply means that the IDF can move checkpoints in response to the latest intelligence, that sounds positive.
The problem with fixed checkpoints is that they can’t move, which means terrorists know exactly where they are at all times, and the time and money they invest tunnelling under or otherwise circumventing them pay off in being able to eventually make it useless.
The problem with mobile checkpoints is that they are less able to resist being broken through by brute force (say, APCs loaded with suicide bombs), and may also be easier to slip through. It depends, though, and being able to throw up a checkpoint wherever needed (and take it down the moment journalists and/or UN observers are called) could help greatly.
Who gives a shit about inconveniencing
the Paleos?
Another problem with mobile checkpoints is that one Arab will call his terrorist cousin and tell him where the checkpoint is now so that Abu BooBoo can sneak through where the checkpoint was yesterday.
As far as inconveniencing today’s Philistines, tough. Stop blowing up Israelis. They find that inconvenient.
chsw
What a sad predicament the Palestinian people have put themselves into…or have allowed themselves to be laced into.
f only there were a way to inconvenience ONLY the terrorists/and evil/wrgdoers, while not incnveniencing innocent Israelis and innocent Palestnians.
We hear much about how *harsh* the checkpoints and closures are on the general Palestinian population, and how *wrong* it is. But you know…how often do we hear about the numerous inconveniences the terrorism has caused on Israelis….the security guards and checks of personal, private bags and backpacks throughout Israel to ensure there are no bombs contained in them, and other inconveniences. Yet how often do we hear the general Israeli population complain about this to the media?
What the Palestinian people need tod is become more self empowered and start taking control of their own situation to stop the terror attacks,etc.
Sadly though, the palestinian people gt caught between a rock and a hard place…if they disagree with the terrorist du jour they get beaten, tortured or killed…. Sadly, the people living on West Bank in the mid to late 80’s and to a great degree, since then have been living under a political/violent regime not too dissimilar from Hitler and the nazis. The one difference is Hamas and ther ilk don’t have the power to kill the Jews. They do, however, seem to have the power to bully their own people into the stuation we find them.
Unfortunately, their propaganda machine has portrayed Hamas as *really peace loving * people. scary, that.
Mark-
Mark, the security checks Israelis & foreigners (especially those of Jewish extraction) undergo in Israel are not comparable to checks Palestinians & Israeli Arabs go through.
Don’t get me worng, I’m in total support of the security checks and they are a neccesity – but we shouldn’t talk ourselves out of reality.