A notorious Middle Eastern country is actively in the midst of settling a decades-old border dispute through the construction of a high, concrete wall along its long-disputed border with a neighbor. Despite vigorous protests from this affected neighbor, the project goes on without hitch, construction having been underway for weeks now.
The builder insists that the wall is designed to stop the infiltration of terrorists. The neighbor, allegedly victimized, insists that this wall is being built upon disputed territory, further insisting that the transgressor must build it ? if at all ? outside of the parameters of the area in dispute. The concern is that constructing the wall in its present location will result in the de facto seizing of disputed land, and the unilateral imposition a new border. This would negate any rudimentary gains made heretofore in the long, tortuous, ongoing effort at a negotiated border settlement.
Tensions are rapidly escalating between these two neighbors, and area observers are seriously concerned that the possibility of all-out war is becoming more likely.
This wall, however, is not one being built by the Israelis ? it is the product of Saudi Arabia's effort to seal its frontier with Yemen.
Moreover, what makes this news even more shocking is that this ongoing construction could not possibly have escaped knowledge or detection by any of the various intelligence agencies and news services of the many powerful nations that have more than ample economic and political interests in the area, the United States included. However, not so much as the merest scintilla of news about this offending wall has made it into the coverage of any mainstream news bureau. Passing notice, in one or two short paragraphs buried in their less-important news areas, appears in the Arab media ? Gulf News, Al-Jazeera, Arabic News. A few other sites parroting these same insignificant blurbs is all that can be discovered.
Indeed, despite a total scouring of news sources, not even a bit of information is available regarding the height, length, or breadth of this wall on what is a 1,350-kilometer border. There is some slight mention that a German firm, which had been retained to survey and demarcate that border, has been sent packing in the midst of its work ? an ominous sign.
Nowhere is there any public international outcry, or even the least glimmer of indignant criticism. No country ? beside Yemen ? is so much as whispering in protest at all. Not one nation has asked the U.N. to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. No one is raising the shrill shout of condemnation. What is all too noticeable is the booming volume of absolute silence on the issue upon the world stage. The U.N. Security Council is quite obviously far too busy using Israel as its whipping boy to give any consideration at all to what is a clearly parallel issue involving the construction, over vigorous protest, of a terror-barrier wall. Credibility is an absent commodity amongst the members these days, and it may long have been so.
This does not, by any stretch, imply that the Saudi wall should be inspiring, in equal share, the magnitude of obsessive, vitriolic opposition to that which is being hurled at Israel from nearly all quarters. Indeed, that a sovereign nation has the duty ? the primary raison d'etre ? to protect its citizens is self-evident. That included in the exercise of that duty is putting a stop to catastrophic assaults by the ideologically deranged with their nail-bombs, guns and love of murder, is equally fundamental. Israel has the inherent, inalienable right to seal its border in self-protection ? as does the house of Ibn Saud ? without being pilloried for doing so. However, Israel alone is condemned for choosing self-preservation over political appeasement.
It is well past the time that Israel was accorded the same international understanding and deference, when its government exerts its sovereign rights, that all others seem to enjoy without exception in the community of nations. Nevertheless, what is clearly obvious is that the team sport of nations and news media ? near-reflexive Israel-bashing ? just might stem from motives less than honorable.
The Arabs can't be that much better at presenting their "victim" status than the Israelis are. Nowhere after the murder-bombing on a rush-hour Jerusalem commuter bus was there any news coverage of the joy and pride openly articulated after the carnage by both beaming parents of the PA policeman who carried out the crime. That it was cause for a general public celebration in the Arab streets around his home was ignored. That his equally proud uncle was one of those deported by the Israelis after last year's siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, during which the altar was used as a commode, also escaped mention. This, despite the images of street-dancing, singing, candy-distributing support for the September 11 massacre, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and others, which have managed to flicker briefly upon our TV news screens.
That the so-called human rights organizations count as civilian "Palestinian" deaths those who are killed while engaged in armed combat, those murdered without any due process by the PA for any perceived offenses of "collaboration" ? some as small as daring to sell their own land to Jews ? and even the murder-bombers themselves, is information nowhere provided in any mainstream medium.
Where the media bias lies is obvious, from the placement of stories in major newspapers and television newscasts, to the language chosen to describe the news, to the images that accompany that news. Israel is demonized relentlessly. It is high time that some basic fairness was instilled back into the process.
Israel cannot be expected to just wring its hands whilst the Arabs continue to ignore, support, or lionize the murderers in their midst and do nothing to impede their heinous mission. That Israel restrains itself to its own detriment in asserting its right to protect the safety of its citizens is painfully and sanguinely obvious, or else the demographics on the ground would have changed significantly long ago, and there would be no need for a wall.
© 2004 Russell Grayson
The builder insists that the wall is designed to stop the infiltration of terrorists. The neighbor, allegedly victimized, insists that this wall is being built upon disputed territory, further insisting that the transgressor must build it ? if at all ? outside of the parameters of the area in dispute. The concern is that constructing the wall in its present location will result in the de facto seizing of disputed land, and the unilateral imposition a new border. This would negate any rudimentary gains made heretofore in the long, tortuous, ongoing effort at a negotiated border settlement.
Tensions are rapidly escalating between these two neighbors, and area observers are seriously concerned that the possibility of all-out war is becoming more likely.
This wall, however, is not one being built by the Israelis ? it is the product of Saudi Arabia's effort to seal its frontier with Yemen.
Moreover, what makes this news even more shocking is that this ongoing construction could not possibly have escaped knowledge or detection by any of the various intelligence agencies and news services of the many powerful nations that have more than ample economic and political interests in the area, the United States included. However, not so much as the merest scintilla of news about this offending wall has made it into the coverage of any mainstream news bureau. Passing notice, in one or two short paragraphs buried in their less-important news areas, appears in the Arab media ? Gulf News, Al-Jazeera, Arabic News. A few other sites parroting these same insignificant blurbs is all that can be discovered.
Indeed, despite a total scouring of news sources, not even a bit of information is available regarding the height, length, or breadth of this wall on what is a 1,350-kilometer border. There is some slight mention that a German firm, which had been retained to survey and demarcate that border, has been sent packing in the midst of its work ? an ominous sign.
Nowhere is there any public international outcry, or even the least glimmer of indignant criticism. No country ? beside Yemen ? is so much as whispering in protest at all. Not one nation has asked the U.N. to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. No one is raising the shrill shout of condemnation. What is all too noticeable is the booming volume of absolute silence on the issue upon the world stage. The U.N. Security Council is quite obviously far too busy using Israel as its whipping boy to give any consideration at all to what is a clearly parallel issue involving the construction, over vigorous protest, of a terror-barrier wall. Credibility is an absent commodity amongst the members these days, and it may long have been so.
This does not, by any stretch, imply that the Saudi wall should be inspiring, in equal share, the magnitude of obsessive, vitriolic opposition to that which is being hurled at Israel from nearly all quarters. Indeed, that a sovereign nation has the duty ? the primary raison d'etre ? to protect its citizens is self-evident. That included in the exercise of that duty is putting a stop to catastrophic assaults by the ideologically deranged with their nail-bombs, guns and love of murder, is equally fundamental. Israel has the inherent, inalienable right to seal its border in self-protection ? as does the house of Ibn Saud ? without being pilloried for doing so. However, Israel alone is condemned for choosing self-preservation over political appeasement.
It is well past the time that Israel was accorded the same international understanding and deference, when its government exerts its sovereign rights, that all others seem to enjoy without exception in the community of nations. Nevertheless, what is clearly obvious is that the team sport of nations and news media ? near-reflexive Israel-bashing ? just might stem from motives less than honorable.
The Arabs can't be that much better at presenting their "victim" status than the Israelis are. Nowhere after the murder-bombing on a rush-hour Jerusalem commuter bus was there any news coverage of the joy and pride openly articulated after the carnage by both beaming parents of the PA policeman who carried out the crime. That it was cause for a general public celebration in the Arab streets around his home was ignored. That his equally proud uncle was one of those deported by the Israelis after last year's siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, during which the altar was used as a commode, also escaped mention. This, despite the images of street-dancing, singing, candy-distributing support for the September 11 massacre, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and others, which have managed to flicker briefly upon our TV news screens.
That the so-called human rights organizations count as civilian "Palestinian" deaths those who are killed while engaged in armed combat, those murdered without any due process by the PA for any perceived offenses of "collaboration" ? some as small as daring to sell their own land to Jews ? and even the murder-bombers themselves, is information nowhere provided in any mainstream medium.
Where the media bias lies is obvious, from the placement of stories in major newspapers and television newscasts, to the language chosen to describe the news, to the images that accompany that news. Israel is demonized relentlessly. It is high time that some basic fairness was instilled back into the process.
Israel cannot be expected to just wring its hands whilst the Arabs continue to ignore, support, or lionize the murderers in their midst and do nothing to impede their heinous mission. That Israel restrains itself to its own detriment in asserting its right to protect the safety of its citizens is painfully and sanguinely obvious, or else the demographics on the ground would have changed significantly long ago, and there would be no need for a wall.
© 2004 Russell Grayson