The International Court of Justice in The Hague is shortly to rule on the legality of the fence due to separate Israelis and Palestinians on the West Bank, and a debate in the U.N. is likely to follow—more an outcry than a debate, really

National Review, July 26, 2004

* The International Court of Justice in The Hague is shortly to rule on the legality of the fence due to separate Israelis and Palestinians on the West Bank, and a debate in the U.N. is likely to follow--more an outcry than a debate, really. Roughly one quarter of this fence is now in position, and the improvement in security is already remarkable.

For three months, there has been no successful suicide bomber. The line of the fence is particularly difficult to establish in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Lawyers representing 35,000 Palestinians from eight villages there went to court, claiming that the fence infringed on their rights and livelihoods. The Israeli supreme court found in their favor, ordering the army to reroute some 20 miles of the fence. Humanitarian considerations, in other words, have priority over security even when terror is on the loose. Israel's critics might care to ponder that.