Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel has prioritized a project to build a high tech barrier along the border with Jordan.
Officials said the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seeking resources to complete a barrier of some 400 kilometers that would block infiltration from the Hashemite kingdom. They said the barrier, equipped with thermal cameras, motion detectors and unmanned aerial vehicles, would be established in stages.

“The first thing we must do is build a fence in the east,” Netanyahu said. “While the fence doesn’t stop all infiltrations, gun and rocket fire though it or over it, or the digging of tunnels, it dramatically narrows down infiltration to Israel.”
In an address to the Institute of National Security Studies on June 29, Netanyahu said the Jordan barrier was vital amid the advance of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. The prime minister raised the prospect of ISIL infiltration from neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Israel has long maintained a low-tech fence along most of the border with Jordan. But officials acknowledged that the barrier, particularly in remote areas of the south, was easy to overcome.
“Our first challenge is to protect our borders,” Netanyahu said. “Extremist Islamic forces are knocking on our doors in the north and south, and we’ve set up obstacles against them, except for in one sector.”
Officials said the plan for a border barrier was led by the Defense Ministry and Finance Ministry. They said the government, delayed by the 50-day war with Hamas, wanted to draft and approve a budget for the project by the end of 2014.
“We’re talking about a budget that could run into the billions of dollars,” an official said.

  infiltration, ISIL, Israel plans high tech fence along Jordan border to degrade ISIL infiltration, Jordan, security fence, WorldTribune.com