Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel plans to erect another security fence — this time
along the border with Jordan.

Officials said the Defense Ministry has launched plans to establish a
barrier along a 100-kilometer stretch of the Israeli-Jordanian border. They
said the security barrier, estimated at about $170 million, would be
required to prevent smugglers, insurgents and other infiltrators.

“We envision increased infiltration of the southern Israeli border over
the next year,” an official said.

Officials said the Defense Ministry plan has been approved by Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They said Netanyahu agreed with an Israeli
intelligence assessment that Bedouin smugglers would expand operations along
the Jordanian border as Israel completes construction of a security fence
along the frontier with Egypt in 2012.

“Once the fence is completed, the terrorists will try to move east to
the Jordanian border,” the official said.

Officials said the military would also seek to maintain persistent
surveillance in the Gulf of Aqaba, the water that divides Egypt’s Sinai
Peninsula and Jordan. They said electronic sensors would be placed along the
Red Sea.

Officials said the intelligence community has determined that Bedouin
smugglers would be loathe to abandon their lucrative human trafficking
trade. They said the intelligence assessment envisioned that Bedouins would
bring Sudanese and other migrants by boat from Sinai to Jordan’s port of
Aqaba. From there, they would be led over the unfenced border to Israel.

“The Sinai could turn into a greenhouse for the flourishing of terrorist
groups,” the Defense Ministry said on Jan. 2.

On Jan. 1, Netanyahu said border fences would be required to stop
the massive influx of Sudanese migrants into Israel. Over the last year,
nearly 17,000 Sudanese were said to have infiltrated the Sinai border and
re-settled in the Jewish state, overwhelming Jewish communities in the south.

Sinai has also been deemed a launching pad for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and
Al Qaida. Officials said Bedouin smugglers were transferring hundreds of
millions of dollars in weapons, mostly from Libya, through Sinai and to the
Gaza Strip.

“With the border fence along Egypt, the terrorists could also be sent by
boat from Sinai to Aqaba,” the official said.

  Al Qaida, Bedouin smugglers, Defense Ministry, Gulf of Aqaba, Islamic Jihad, Israel plans security fence, Sinai Peninsula, this time on Jordan border