Israel intends to begin building a long-promised new fence along the border with Jordan in June, The Times of Israel learned on Monday. The work was expected to take three years. The fence will run from Hamat Gader at the southern edge of the Golan Heights to the Ramon International Airport north of Eilat. A 30-kilometer (18-mile) portion of the border with Jordan, from Eilat to Ramon Airport, was already upgraded in a similar fashion to Israel’s border barriers with Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the 2010s.
The new fence will cost NIS 5.2 billion ($1.4 billion). Israel will aim to build the fence as close as possible to the actual border with Jordan, keeping in mind security and topographical considerations. The current fence leaves some 170 square kilometers between it and the border. It also has plans to develop new towns along the border.
There is an aging chain link fence equipped with sensors along some of the border that Jordan shares with Israel and the West Bank. Other sections are only equipped with barbed wire. The border’s porousness has made it a site of frequent gun- and drug-running. Officials say that weapons that have made it over the border — likely tens of thousands over the past decade — have fueled a surge in violence in the Arab community in Israel, and have been used by Palestinian terrorists. (Ed note: Bill Salus and Hal Lindsey have well said that, "Israel's treaties with Jordan and Egypt are as thin as the paper they are printed upon.") (Read More)