The Wall Street Journal-20080212-Sealing Off Terrorists

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Sealing Off Terrorists

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Thank you for acknowledging the moral, legal, and tactical successes of Israel's anti- and counter-terrorism measures ("The Israeli Lesson," Review & Outlook, Feb. 5). Hamas, Fatah, and Egypt facilitated the barbaric slaughter in Dimona. Even before Hamas terrorists destroyed the border wall, the Mubarak government permitted the construction of tunnels between Egypt and Gaza through which Fatah and Hamas openly smuggle explosives, ammunition, and operatives -- including agents of Hezbollah and al-Qaida. The killers likely would never have reached Dimona without Egypt's blind eye in Rafah and help from Bedouins in the Sinai Peninsula who earn enormous income from the cross-border smuggling of everything from drugs and guns to prostitutes and terrorists. With the de facto opening of a "free trade" crossing by Hamas and Egypt, Israel should seal its entire border with Gaza and construct anti-terrorist barriers along the Sinai frontier. That would encourage the Palestinians and their freely- elected terrorist leaders to buy their necessities entirely through Egypt -- thereby ending the need for Israel to subsidize its enemies with food, fuel, electricity, water, and medicine. Such actions are fully justified, if by nothing else, by the recent rocket attack on Sderot that knocked out power to 24,000 Israelis.

Sheldon M. Stern

Irvine, Calif.