Feb
The contentious borders of the Middle East
PHOTO: Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem. flickr user FabioHofnick.
A suicide bomber blew himself up and killed a woman in the southern town of Dimona, where Israel’s secret nuclear reactor is housed. Some American news reports say he killed three people–that would include the bomber himself and another bomber who failed to detonate.
Israel suspects that the bomber accessed the area via the Sinai desert after Palestinians in Gaza were able to cross the border to Egypt for a short period of time recently.
This is the first suicide bombing in over a year. It’s not clear if the bombing was directed at the nuclear reactor.
In unrelated news, Israeli troops shot down a man in Lebanon for suspected drug smuggling. Hezbollah has issued a stern warning to Israel indicating retaliation might be possible for the shooting. Hezbollah and Israel Defense Forces had a nasty war in summer of 2006.
These two unrelated incidents point to a deeper issue: Borders and respecting them. Israel shares very unstable borders with Syria and the Palestinian territories. The border with Lebanon is set, but it’s not a happy one. One of the main reasons why instability plagues this region is because there are not set borders, as these two incidents demonstrate.
