Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Fence will save lives

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 8:39 a.m.

DO GOOD fences really make good neighbors?

With President George W. Bush's renewed efforts to not only present a road map to peace but encourage the parties to follow it, the attention of the world -- to the extent that it can be pried away from Iraq, Iran, Al Queda and others -- is refocusing on Israel and the Palestinians.

And with Yasser Arafat -- the man who talked peace but relished war -- moved up and, seemingly, out of the way by the United States and Great Britain, it appears that the PLO's new Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, is making headway following his visit to the White House and the American president, an event that did not go unnoticed in every nook and cranny on the globe. Well, it was televised and reported at least in every Arab country whose people's opinion counts for something in the public relations effort to win the peace by winning the hearts and minds of the people who will live with it.

And, now, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to Washington following so closely that of Abbas, and the need for Abbas to have something to show for his trip and his new found stature with the United States -- in stark contrast to Arafat's ignominy and America's practiced indifference and lack of deference -- it appears that prisoners may hold the key to better relations. Prisoners and a fence.

Israel is holding a few thousand Arabs in jail for suspected or actual participation in murderous suicide bombings and other random killings of innocent men, women and children. As a bone of political contention, the release of these bad actors has always been a condition of "normalization" talks between the two sides.

From the Palestinian perspective, if the leadership could get Israel to release back into the population known criminals, bombers and suicidal maniacs, that would be a sign of real progress. From the Israeli point of view, it seems pointless to even consider the possibility of letting known killers out of jail so they can regroup, re-plan and recommit themselves to the destruction of innocents within Israel. It would also be a dereliction of duty to let murderers back into polite society. Hence, a dilemma.

The news this week is that Sharon will release a few hundred of those held in Israeli jails, far fewer than the thousands of really bad people who are now kept safe from polite society and behind the sturdy walls of Israeli justice. My guess is that he picked the relatively modest malfeasors to fulfill his road map responsibilities. Whether the PLO can accept the fact that bad guys and murderers will not go free remains to be seen and presents a not insubstantial political problem for Mr. Abbas.

The other, more nagging question that needs to resolved before neighbors can act like neighbors is the question of the fence. Israel calls it a security fence and it is building it across the better part of the tiny state and the West Bank in order to keep the murderous ones on the other side. The Palestinians see it as a way to make land negotiations a fait accompli. Simply, if the fence already delineates portions of the West Bank which on one side will live Arabs and the other, Israelis, then what, they ask, is the point of arguing. The fence already exists!

On the surface, they pose a good question and in a perfect world their point would be hard to meet. In the real world, however, suicide bombers are routinely traveling from Palestinian neighborhoods in the West Bank to Israeli shopping centers, movie theaters and restaurants. There they blow themselves up and, often, take two or three dozen innocent Israelis with them.

It may not be pretty and it is certainly not original, but the fence will keep the bad guys on one side and innocent people on the other.

Even good neighbors argue about their fences from time to time. Perhaps that is to be expected. But, in this case, good neighbors can only be kept good as long as there is a fence between them to enforce the rules of civil and criminal behavior. With a lot of hard work and a great deal of luck and, perhaps, even some divine intervention, the people of that region will learn that killing each other can never be the answer.

In the legal profession, we are told that good fences make good neighbors because protecting against all the "what-ifs" will ensure against them happening. That's is why we get walls of paperwork from the lawyers. Those kind of walls are also expensive, which may be the real reason for such high and mighty wall-building.

In the peacemaking business, though, like the ongoing and almost never-ending effort in the Middle East, fences may not be the best way to make good neighbors, but they will keep the murderous ones from killing innocent people on the other side. And, with time, the people will learn that peace is in their interests, despite the Arafatian efforts to prove otherwise.

But, for today, they will help preserve life and promote peace. That is reason enough for them to be built and maintained. Tomorrow is always another day. Perhaps, then, the fences will come down.

That's because good neighbors really don't need fences.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.