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Published: 02/11/04, 11:01 PM

Wall of Silence
by Russell Grayson

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