If one were to only read Ha’aretz they might just agree. According to the Newspaper:

"There has been a dramatic drop in the number of attacks in Israel over the past several years, a decrease security experts attribute to the barrier, Israeli and Palestinian Authority security steps and a change of tactics by some militant groups.

No suicide bombers have struck this year. In 2008, one person was killed in Israel by a bomber whom authorities said infiltrated from the West Bank through an area where the barrier had not been completed."

Though the numbers may be accurate, the casual assumption that the Wall has played any role is far too simple. Attributing credit to a drop in violence due to the presence of a hideous 10 meter concrete, unfinished, monster scarring the land both sides love is not only fool hardy, but dangerous. It gives Israelis a false sense of security while undermining the ongoing efforts by the PA to provide the situation in which the Wall would not be needed for physical and psychological protection.

To prove the first point, we will add in some numbers to those provided by Ha’aretz. [1]

At the end of 2008, 57% of the Wall had been constructed, 9% was under construction, and 34% of the construction had not been completed. However, the wall is twice the length of the international recognized border. It is so much larger because, the rest annexes land, settlements and resources from the West Bank.

86% of the wall, when completed in its planned trajectory, will be in the West Bank – the remaining 14% will be on the Green Line. When completed, nearly 250,000 East Jerusalemites will be severed from the West Bank, along with a further 35,000 West Bank Palestinians caught west of the Wall.

These are big numbers, but they are back by countless individual stories of the carnage wrought by the Walls construction. It has literally cut cities, villages and homes in two. In its wake it tends to leave economic devastation, more restrictions and an uglier view.

Whether Israelis like it or not, this Wall is not keeping them safe. Besides the obvious anger it brings out form your neighbors (the very thing feared) is the painfully more obvious fact that it does not work.

 34% of the Wall is incomplete. Unless the would-be attacker were to hypothetically 'break his wheel chair’ in the middle of the night with no help, he would be able to enter into Israel from any number of unfinished parts of the wall.

 I use the phrase 'breaking one’s wheel chair’ in jest, but also in all seriousness. The existing Wall, even the biggest ugliest ones built in the West Bank, are no match for an able bodied human being – much less one as prepared and determined as the would-be attacker/boogey man.

 Palestinians interested in attacking Israel have developed methods which do not require scaling walls in the first place. Rockets, of apparently increasing strength and accuracy, are manufactured in the Gaza Strip each day. The idea that these same crude weapons could not be manufactured or smuggled into the West Bank and launched into major population centers in Israel is a bit naïve.

 The last few attacks within Israel proper emanated from East Jerusalem (west of the Wall) into the West. They appeared uncoordinated acts of anger or terror if you will, but not ones that were likely premeditated. This is evidenced by the personal stories of the assailants not matching the MO, and the fact that no Palestinian militant factions claimed responsibility – where usually they clamber to.

As mentioned above, the fence only provides a false sense of security to Israelis. To the Palestinians on the other hand, the fence is a very real and physical fact on the ground. It has not prevented West Bank Palestinians from not attacking Israel, and this is probably the greatest tragedy of Netanyahu’s remarks.

The Palestinian Authority, with the will of the people and following on their requirements under the Road Map, have prevented attacks against the State of Israel – not the Wall. Not giving credit where credit is due will undermine the last years of hard work. The constant insults from Netanyahu to the PA (the refusal to recognize a state or halt settlements) are only making it harder and harder to hold a democratic election here that the international community will 'accept’.

Despite the knowledge of the PA’s performance over the last two years in maintaining Israel’s security (even throughout the height of the massacre in the Gaza Strip), Israel continues blaming Palestinians so that the world does not recognize the Wall for what it so obviously is: A Land Grab that tries to capture as many illegal settlements as possible.

If the world, and especially Israelis, were not so occupied were not so occupied with the would-be wheel chaired terrorists they would take the time to glance at a map. At first it appears to complex to understand, blotted with Palestinian communities, illegal Israeli settlements, hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks, and finally the Wall.

When the map slowly starts to make sense, it is not hard to see why the Wall is typically prefixed by Apartheid or Racist by those living on its eastern side.