Most residents of Israel live within a short drive of a frontier. The longest drive an Israeli can take without encountering a border runs from the country's northern tip to the south, and takes about eight hours.
With their barbed wire coils, hills scarred by patrol roads and weather-beaten guard posts manned by young soldiers, the borders are perhaps the most dominant single feature of the landscape.The question of the border between Israel and the West Bank has riven Israeli society to the point of violence."Between me and you, between us and them," one contemporary songwriter wrote, "without a border, there are no limits to anything."