Posted: 04/08/08

Of Fences and Double Standards

By Jan Markell

www.olivetreeviews.org

We are in pretty strange times where double standards abound.  A fence is going up.  You'd love to hear that it is across our southern border.  It isn't.  Your tax dollars instead are going to a fence that the U.S. is helping to build to create a better Egypt-Gaza boundary. 

As for progress on a fence in America, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act two years ago requiring nearly 800 miles of double fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Congress further appropriated (on a bipartisan vote) the money to build it. Benchmarks in the Act required 670 miles of the double fence to be completed by now. To date, less than 10 miles of the double fence have been built. 

As Roger Hedgecock says in World Net Daily, "Recently, the State Department announced that the U.S would allocate $23 million dollars (your money) to Egypt to help build a border fence between Egypt and Gaza!  Wait, there's more … the announcement committed the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with new tunnel detecting technology to help stop Palestinian smugglers from crossing underneath that border."

As a recent immigration official said on my radio program, "Understanding the Times," we need high technology along our southern border as well as fence. Also in World Net Daily, press accounts described new tunnel detection technology deployed on a UAV, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which in an August 2006 test successfully detected a known smuggler's tunnel under the border near Douglas, Ariz. This technology has not been seen since then on the U.S.-Mexico border, but apparently will now be deployed to the Egypt-Gaza border.  This falls under the category of "where is the outrage?"

While many who love Israel are not opposed to this fence that will work in Israel's favor in the long run, it should also be mentioned that Israel has had a fence (or wall) to protect itself from homicide bombers. She has gotten world pressure to tear it down. Why this double standard? Homicide bombing is down enormously since the construction of this fence/wall.

Additionally, Egypt countered that it did not have the capability to "detect" tunnels under the border with Gaza, whereupon the Bush administration committed $23 million of military assistance money to deploy cutting-edge tunnel detection technology only recently developed by the U.S. military.

As Hedgecock states, "So, desperate taxpayers, the good news is that the Bush administration is finally exhibiting the will to control a border and developing the technology to 'detect and destroy' border smuggling tunnels. The bad news is it's on the Egypt-Gaza border and not also along our own open border with Mexico."

There is enormous turmoil in the Middle East region as this is written. Rumors of war abound. There are drills, gas masks, warnings, and all signs of impending war. Please keep this all in prayer.  The term "nuclear war" is even being used.

How about some progress on the fence on the U.S. border and how about backing off of Israel and condemning her for protecting her citizens particularly at this time of extreme tension?

By Jan Markell Click here for bio and archived articles