IDF To Follow NY/NJ Model For Making Tunnels Impassable

Tel Aviv, September 20 – The congestion and delays inherent in the system of tunnels connecting Manhattan with New Jersey and the outer boros of New York lies at the center of a new Israeli strategy for neutralizing the threat of underground infiltrations from the Gaza Strip, IDF sources reported today.

During the recent round of fighting between Israel and militant groups based in the Gaza Strip, the danger of terrorist attacks conducted via tunnels hundreds of meters long, extending into Israeli civilian areas, caused Israel as much worry as, if not more than, the bombardment of rockets. The several attempts by Hamas fighters to conduct such attacks during the conflict resulted in no civilian deaths, but the remains of two fallen soldiers remain in Hamas hands. Extensive tunnel excavations formed an important element of Hamas’s strategy both within the Gaza Strip and beyond, playing a role in the 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit and in the smuggling of arms.

Israeli defense experts noted the efficiency with which the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a related agency, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, stymie commuters’ attempts via tunnels to reach Manhattan each morning, and to return in the afternoon or evening. The Holland, Lincoln, Queens-Midtown, and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels all effectively keep hundreds of thousands of commuters from getting to their destinations with any kind of predictability or reliability, a statistic that the IDF aims to replicate in frustrating potential infiltrators from the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, or, according to recently voiced concerns, Lebanon.

“No one stops up tunnels better or more often than New York and New Jersey,” said Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon. “The variety and efficiency of the techniques employed in blocking people seeking to traverse those tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers looks to be a good model for Israel to emulate. If we can engineer lane closures, weather-related mishaps, hyper-congestion, or any of the other myriad techniques at their disposal, half as well as New York and New Jersey do it, we’ll have a much easier time keeping Israeli communities secure.”

Already, teams of Israelis have begun studying the Manhattan tunnel model in depth, with particular attention given to the Hudson River crossings. The combined annual traffic for the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels exceeds 60 million vehicles, and account for nearly 50% of the daily frustration, cursing, despair, and failure of New York-New Jersey commuters.

Yaalon admits the model cannot be duplicated wholesale, but will require tweaking. “An important difference we must address is the contrasting motivations of the people using the sets of tunnels,” he explained. “Whereas the ones infiltrating Israel from the Gaza Strip are actively trying to get into Israel, the ones entering Manhattan are simply trying to get the hell out of New Jersey.”

“We might not need as strong a deterrent policy as Manhattan does,” he concluded.