Good Walls Make Good Neighbors

"We have started construction along our borders not to appease anyone but to protect our nation from terrorist plots..."

No, those words were not spoken by Janet Nincompoop or any living Democrat in Congress. Instead those are the words of President Mubarak of Egypt in response to their plans to further security on their Gazan border and to further restrict the smuggling of arms by the Bedouin tribes to the Palestinians.

These are not the Bedouins of Hollywood. These are simply Middle Eastern arms dealers whose services are sold to the highest bidder. They don't ride across the desert on camels, but rather in 4 wheel drive all terrain vehicles bristling with armament.

Recently they are starting to have a lot of heartburn with Egypt who is cracking down on the smuggling taking place across the border with Gaza. The Egyptians concerns are well founded since these arms find their way into the arms of the terrorists, who don't care who they attack, just so long as they kill something to justify their existence and manage to blame it on Israel.

"If a war ever happens between Egypt and Israel, you'll find us taking up arms against the Egyptians," adds another smuggler, Ibrahim. The others concur.

Most pop culture media try to portray these Bedouins as some sort of Robin Hoods of the desert, but that is just their attempt to romanticize the notion of wandering caravans of camels traversing vast expanses of the desert eking out a living.

"We like Israel more [than Egypt] because there's justice," says Ibrahim, a young cement smuggler. "If you are a person living inside Israel, you live better than you would in Egypt, without any smuggling," he says. "They don't let you just sit on the street ... And Israel would never arrest your wife and father if you are the one wanted by the state."