MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Andrei Murtazin) - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last Sunday approved a draft project to build a border barrier with Egypt, worth approximately $300-$400 million, to thwart migrants and arms smugglers.

The cement barrier, which will have advanced surveillance equipment, including radars, is similar to the one Israel built last decade on the West Bank. It will run around the Gaza Strip and near Eilat, a resort city on the Red Sea.

The prime minister's idea for a new wall on the border with Egypt is nothing new. Back in 2002, under Prime Minister Ehud Barak and subsequently Ariel Sharon, Israel started building a wall to isolate several Palestinian cities and villages on the West Bank.

The Israeli military later said the wall had not fully resolved the security problem. Only those Palestinians and foreigners who are blacklisted by the Israeli security services are forbidden from crossing the border. Other Arabs, including potential terrorists who have genuine documents, can easily pass through checkpoints into Israel.

"I took the decision to close Israel's southern border to infiltrators and terrorists," Netanyahu said, adding that he was especially concerned about illegal migrants from Africa.

Most of the 250-km (155-mile) border between Egypt and Israel runs through the Sinai Desert, and is a route favored by those who seek to cross illegally into Israel. Hundreds of illegal migrants from Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States, many with criminal records, cross that part of the border every year.

Hamas' suicide bombers also use the porous Egyptian-Israeli border to get into Gaza via Eilat. In January 2007, a suicide bomber used that route to get into Eilat, where he detonated his bomb in a bakery, killing the three men employed there.

Israel's fears are well grounded, but will the new wall be effective in a desert where the Egyptian and Israeli nomad tribes, the Bedouins, move around freely, and often serve as guides for illegal migrants?

Egypt has also recently started building an underground metal barrier to stop Palestinian smugglers from moving through tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. The smugglers became noticeably more active after Israel blockaded the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave. The underground 10-km (6-mile) wall will run along Egypt's border with Gaza.

The BBC has reported that the wall, which was designed by U.S. military engineers, will reach about 18 meters into the ground in order to block as many as 1,000 tunnels that now allow goods and people to flow from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Egyptian sources said the wall will go 20 to 30 meters into the ground.

It is also expected to prevent the digging of new tunnels. But pessimists say smugglers will then only go deeper, digging their tunnels at depths of 50 meters.

Since both Egypt and Israel suffer human and material losses from terrorist attacks, Egypt's response to Israel's decision to build a barrier, has been mild. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry described it as an internal matter for Israel. For the past three years, Egyptian mediators have been trying to reconcile the warring Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas and to revive the Palestinian-Israeli dialog. Therefore, the decision to build an underground metal wall is a sign that Egypt has lost patience with the Islamist leaders, who will now have less room for political maneuver.

Their opportunities for military action have also been limited since Israel's Operation Cast Lead, a three-week military conflict between Israel and Hamas that took place in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel last year.

However, new military engineering barriers such as a wall, be it above or below ground, are unlikely to provide effective protection for Israel and Egypt from terrorists and extremists. The problem requires a political solution, but the Netanyahu government is not ready to compromise with radical Hamas or even with Mahmoud Abbas's moderate Fatah.

The continued construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories in the West Bank, despite the international community's objection, and the blockade of Gaza will only spur confrontation. As for a Middle East peace process, the current Israeli government is unlikely to resume it.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.