Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wants a security fence constructed in the Jordan Valley. Work is to begin immediately upon completion of the fence being constructed along the Egyptian border in the Eilat area. The prime minister has also ordered speeding up the fence along the Golan Heights border. The prime minister told a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee about two years ago that experts fear a new wave of infiltrations into Israel, from Jordan into areas of Yehuda and Shomron.

Relevant government ministries have already begun probing what will be involved in the construction of the Jordan Valley are fence.

The prime minister’s decision appears to be related to the dead end in negotiations between Israel and the PA (Palestinian Authority) as well. It is being reported that the sides cannot reach agreement on the matter of a military presence in the Jordan Valley. The prime minister wants to build the border fence to send a clear sign to the PA regarding Israel’s intention to remain in that area, unwilling to give it away to become part of a future Palestinian state.

In addition, Maariv reports the two reasons for the Jordan Valley fence are to close all of Israel’s borders and because an estimated 700,000 Syrian refugees fled to Jordan during that country’s ongoing civil war and Israel does not want to see a situation in which they begin spilling over into PA autonomous areas.

Another reason appears to be the prime minister’s desire to send a message to the PA (Palestinian Authority), that Israel plans to defend the Jordan Valley border and Israel has no plan to give away the area in the ongoing talks.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is set to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Beit Lechem later this week, at which time it is expected the PA leader will complain about ongoing Israeli construction in yishuvim.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)