Thread: Israeli sees no need to arm border troops

This article is generating a lot of comments.

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http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/167326

Published: 02.02.2007

Israeli sees no need to arm border troops
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
"For us, it's mainly (to guard) against terrorist attack, and there isn't any price for human life.... Here, it's mainly I think for economic reasons. You have to calculate if it's worthwhile."
Gideon Biger
Tel Aviv University professor
The United States has an obligation to secure its southern border but shouldn't use armed soldiers as Israel does, said a leading Middle Eastern border expert this week in Tucson.
Having armed soldiers guard a border where the majority of illegal border crossers are coming for jobs would be overkill, said Gideon Biger, a professor of geography and human environment at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Israel uses its army to guard its border with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel also has multiple layers of fencing along much of those borders.
"For us, it's mainly (to guard) against terrorist attack, and there isn't any price for human life," said Biger, who was in Tucson this week. "If you spent a million dollars and you save one life of a person in Tel Aviv, it's really worthwhile. Here, it's mainly I think for economic reasons. You have to calculate if it's worthwhile."
In 2002, Biger drove along the entire Southwest border from San Diego to Brownsville to learn about the boundary as a scholar. He stopped at each port of entry, crossed into Mexico and walked for miles along the fence.
He observed how illegal entrants could climb fences or walk a few miles down the line to cross more easily, he said. He met Border Patrol agents who invited him to stay with them for four days andgave him a tour of their facilities. He learned from them that once illegal entrants reach the interstate freeways, agents no longer chase them.
Former Border Patrol supervisor Dave Stoddard doesn't agree with Biger's assessments. Not everybody who crosses illegally is harmless, said Stoddard, who retired in 1996 after 27 years in the Border Patrol. A longtime advocate for bringing the Army to patrol the border, he says its presence would serve as a deterrent for Latin Americans who fear the army.
"We have thugs and criminals and vandals and we're victimized every day down here," said Stoddard, who has lived five miles north of the border between Bisbee and Sierra Vista for 18 years. "As far as this being a peaceful invasion of hard-working lettuce pickers, the Israeli professor is totally wrong on that issue."
Biger's conclusions don't come as a surprise to Kat Rod-riguez, coordinating organizer for the Coalición de Derechos Humanos, a Tucson-based human rights group. Most of the visitors her group talks with from Europe and elsewhere are shocked by the measures the United States has taken at the border, she said.
Putting the army on a border between nonwarring countries would be a horrendous idea and make no impact due to the economic push and pull that drive international migration, she said.
"It seems extremely preposterous," she said. "And, apart from that it creates an atmosphere of fear and xenophobia."
The United States' efforts to seal its borders are not novel, said Biger, a member of the Association of Border Studies. Nations in Europe, and even the European Union, are trying to prevent illegal immigrants from entering. The increase in terrorists attacks have played a role in that, he said.
The U.S.-Mexican border and Israel's borders share similar geography and economic disparities, he said.
What could the United States learn from Israel about border security? If it wants to close the border, it can do it, he said. But, as Israel has learned, it must be prepared to look for tunnels and more closely guard its legal ports of entry.
Terrorists smuggle weapons through tunnels beneath the Israeli-Gaza Strip border and from Egyptian Sinai into the Gaza Strip, he said. Terrorists have been successful between Egypt and Gaza Strip where the terrain is sandy and easy to dig. Nobody has tried digging tunnels beneath the Israeli-West Bank border because it is limestone and difficult to dig through, he said.
Even though some would like to see soldiers guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, Biger doesn't think the United States should make the switch.
"A soldier by training is very easy on his rifle," he said. "He can see every intruder as an enemy and as an enemy, he would shoot it."
"For us, it's mainly (to guard) against terrorist attack, and there isn't any price for human life.... Here, it's mainly I think for economic reasons. You have to calculate if it's worthwhile."
Gideon Biger
Tel Aviv University professor

For us, it's mainly (to guard) against terrorist attack, and there isn't any price for human life," said Biger, who was in Tucson this week. "If you spent a million dollars and you save one life of a person in Tel Aviv, it's really worthwhile. Here, it's mainly I think for economic reasons. You have to calculate if it's worthwhile."
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Ohhhhhh, I see every Israli life is worth the armed guards on their border, but for a U.S. citizens life it just isn't worth it, what a damn fool.
This is why people from other countries should stay the hell out of our bussiness, they have not idea what they are talking about.
Biger, What about terroists, drug smugglers, illegal aliens who come here and refuse to obey are laws, kill our citizens, We do not want to live in chaos, we want to live in peace and we want armed military on our border and our fence,
GO HOME AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSSINESS!!!!

I almost think he was hired to say that from the business lobby of Corporate America!



I think now that their are possible terrorists training in S. America I think that rational can be kicked to the curb. Put the armed army on the border and the fence.