There are 32 miles of border separating Gaza from Israel. Since my first visit to that border in 1984, it’s been heavily fortified, with walls, fences, and surveillance systems backed up by soldiers and law enforcement. That system was overwhelmed in a matter of minutes in the early Sabbath hours of Oct. 7 as thousands of Hamas terrorists breached the border barrier in some two dozen places, pouring out to massacre, behead, rape, and capture hostages in an orgy of violence.
The number of civilians, including several Americans, Hamas murdered in Israel is proportionately more than 10 times that of those killed by al-Qaeda in its terror attack on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.
America’s border with Mexico stretches 1,954 miles, about 61 times longer than Israel’s frontier with Gaza. By comparison, the U.S. population is about 35 times that of Israel while its land mass is about 444 times that of Israel. Israel’s border barrier was swamped in a coordinated military attack, with the bodies of at least 1,500 Hamas terrorists found along the border so far. Meanwhile, the far longer and far more porous U.S.-Mexico border sees a constant stream of illegal migrants, often numbering more than 10,000 in a day.
Since Joe Biden became president in 2021, there have been 1.5 million known “gotaways” on the border, on top of 2.3 million illegal immigrants allowed into America, the majority of whom came over the southern border.
Among that flow of humanity are dangerous people who mean us harm. There were 15 suspects on the FBI’s terror watchlist arrested on the southern border in 2021, 98 in 2022, and 151 so far this year — and those are the dumb terrorists who got caught. In all likelihood, hundreds have eluded detection and are now living in America. Contrast that with 11 terror watchlist arrests on the southern border during the preceding four years under Trump.
Hamas and Hezbollah’s Funding and Attacks
Hamas is Sunni and Hezbollah is Shiite, and both have been designated terrorist groups by the U.S.
Both entities operate in the Americas, mostly to raise funds for their operations as well as to conduct influence operations. In 2002, it was revealed that Hezbollah had operated an extensive cigarette smuggling operation in the U.S., buying $8 million of cigarettes in low-tax North Carolina and reselling them in high-tax Michigan. Internet porn was also a profit center. Some of the profits went to Lebanon, other funds were used to purchase night vision equipment, global positioning systems, stun guns, naval equipment, nitrogen cutters, and laser rangefinders in Canada, which were then shipped to Lebanon.
Prior to 9/11, Hezbollah was the deadliest terror group aimed at America, responsible for the suicide truck bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, the Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, and the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984, as well as the hijacking of TWA 847 in 1985 and the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia in 1996. Its main sponsor is the Islamic Republic of Iran, with which it shares the Islamic Shiite sect in common. In fact, only a week ago, an Iranian official admitted that Iran provided the materials needed for the 1983 Beirut attacks that killed 220 Marines, 18 sailors, three soldiers, 17 American civilians, and 58 French troops. The statement was quickly removed from the official Iranian news agency.
Even so, one can readily assess that the leak, coming on the eve of the Iran-sponsored Hamas attack on Israel, was intentional — a warning to America that Iran has used Hezbollah before as its cat’s paw and will again if needed.
Hamas and Hezbollah Likely Crossing U.S. Border
Hamas and Hezbollah likely already have dozens of cells in the U.S., mainly for fundraising purposes, some here legally, but many illegally. But these are potentially subject to activation for bloodier assignments, such as attacking synagogues, large outdoor events, airports, and even the electric grid. And, if neither organization wants to blow the cover of their long in-place assets, they are both likely infiltrating terrorists across the border now.
It’s not as if our border with Mexico is off-limits to foreign threats. After America entered World War I, Germany tried to goad Mexico into action in 1917 and 1918, and even had agents on our border provoking conflict.
Our main geopolitical rival today is the People’s Republic of China, and we see its actions on our porous border. First, poisons, in the form of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors, have poured into Mexico from China, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Second, some 10,000 military-age Chinese nationals have reportedly crossed the border so far in 2023, a 300 percent increase from the year before. If even a fraction of these young men and women have arrived to fill out a sabotage force in concert with Chinese aggression against Taiwan, we’ll be in a for chaotic and deadly week on the home front at the start of any conflict with China.
The Biden administration’s lax approach to border security exacerbates these existing threats. While Israel adopts a zero-tolerance policy, unwilling to make compromises when national security is at stake, the United States, especially under Biden, has not demonstrated a similar commitment. In fact, the Biden administration has worked to undermine Texas’s efforts to secure the border, both in the courtroom and in the field where it’s ordered the Border Patrol to actively thwart Texas law enforcement and National Guard soldiers working to hold the line.
Border security is national security.
