Neighbors

Memorable lines come flying unbidden …

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

Writing at Slate, Shmuel Rosner shares some thoughts about the proposed fence along the US–Mexican border drawing on the Israeli experience with their own 400-mile wall. He properly focuses not on the technology but on the human relations:

When Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano declares, “You show me a 50-foot wall, and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border,” the answer is fairly straightforward: You show me a 51-foot ladder, and I’ll show you a guardsman standing on the other side of the wall waiting to arrest the person using it. The fence is not the only thing keeping people from entering. The fence has just two objectives: slowing the intruders and making them visible to members of the border patrol. The rest of the work is done by human beings.

And generally speaking, this is the biggest lesson. It’s not the fence, stupid—it is the decisions that the planners make. How tough are you willing to be with illegals? How much money do you want to spend? How important is it to maintain good relations with the towns on the Mexican side of the border? How sympathetic are you to would-be border crossers’ needs and desires?

The more you answer these questions the Israeli way, the more unbeatable your fence will be. But don’t forget: Years of terror attacks hardened Israelis’ hearts toward their neighbors (just as years of occupation hardened Palestinians’ hearts toward Israelis). This brought them to a point where they were ready to do whatever it took to make the bloodshed stop. So, here’s an easy way to figure out if an American fence will work: Measure the anger and despair. Has it grown big enough to make that same commitment?

Back to our friend Bob Frost:

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

Soon the talk passes from trees to cows, and then to elves—things that perambulate and might justify a wall. But still—Bob was being ironic. Wasn’t he? Are Canadians bad neighbors?