tel aviv with the country planning to build more and offensive walls including in the disputed golan heights artie's alexei yourself ski reports. if you were allowed to invest your money into israel's construction companies those supplying materials for defensive walls you would have probably made a hefty profit government decision suggests they will never run out of business but we can do and we intend to erect a fence along the golan heights we know that on the other side of our border with syria today the syrian army has moved away and in its place global jihad forces have moved in therefore we will defend this border against both infiltration and terrorism. that would make a third defensive wall in less than twenty years along with the one in jerusalem and on the border with egypt barriers with lebanon and jordan are also being discussed all have the same just a fixation security reasons israel built the concrete wall in the west bank more than a decade ago to protect itself from palestinian terrorism years on not only it is still dividing the land and the people but the opinions as well

we intend to erect a fence along the golan heights we know that on the other side of our border with syria today the syrian army has moved away and in its place global jihad forces have moved in therefore we will defend this border against both infiltration and terrorism. that would make a third defensive wall in less than twenty years along with the one in jerusalem and on the border with egypt barriers with lebanon and jordan are also being discussed all have the same just difficult security reasons israel built a concrete wall in the west bank more than a decade ago to protect itself from palestinian terrorism years on not only it is still dividing the land and the people but the opinions as well supporters of the defensive beriah pointed to a decreased number of attacks while its opponents say that its existence in the first place is creating more grounds for instability political writer michael believes the west bank barrier may have been a temporary solution years ago but it's no longer proving effective just as the march braced friends with the sea knight peninsula that eventu

>> bret: leland vittert in golan heights. thank you.a hot button top take potentially will lead to heated te bait with congress in president obama's second term. chief washington correspondent james rosen looks at the initial flash points. >> reporter: when the new rule takes effect in march, those who came to the u.s. illegally but who say married an american citizen have a clean critical record to prove hardship by extended absence will no longer have to leave the u.s. for both staples for the application for green card. they can complete stage one applying for a waiver of inadmissibility in the u.s. however, they will still have to return to the home country for interview by the state department. >> so you have people waiting for years and years or even afraid to go back to the own country to be unified with their immediate family members. so it's a compassionate way to deal with this law. >> officials at the department of homeland security said upward of 25,000 illegal ail yeps a year will seek to take advantage of the change in rul

the last several wars have been over the golan heights.hey can not iran to use its cat paws on the golan heights to have chemical weapons. you remember in the october, gaza on the west of israel, iranian scud missiles being reink forced and put there. the israelis attacked those. a week before that, there was a weapons plant in sudan, in africa, presumably the israelis hit. that was a plant making weapons on their way to gaza. this is all heating up. bill: all of our discussions over the past month or two you consistently come back to that sinai peninsula. >> yeah. bill: you say at the moment it is like the wild west. >> yeah. bill: how? >> it is an area very sparsely populated. who lives there? bedouin tribesmen live there. the sinai peninsula, in the '67 war the israelis fought against the arabs and the '73 war, that was the crucial area. that was the area israelis moved in, egyptians moved in, they fought over that for years. in 1973 my boss, henry kissinger, made a deal. the deal was with the egyptian, you have peace treaty with israel

israel has only intervene once before, in november, shelling a target in the golan heights. just a few days before the airstrike into syria, israel moved some of its missile defense batteries to the north. it has reflected rising concern that if the syrian regime is collapsing, they could transfer missiles and even chemical weapons to its hezbollah allies in lebanon. >> syria is disintegrating. nobody knows what will happen next. they have a huge mass of unconventional weapons. it is happening right on our borders. we are taking action on a daily basis to reduce the immediate threat and increase our ability to win future wars when the app and. -- when they happen. >> the rising tension has prompted many israelis to equip themselves with gas masks just in case. if the regime's grip is slipping, the fear is that anything could happen. bbc news, beirut. >> let's join our correspondent in jerusalem. as we heard in that report, there is still plenty of argument about exactly what the target was inside syria. >> in deed. don't expect any confirmation or denial of what happened, as

. >> warner: the sweeping vistas of the golan heights plateau and the bucolic life of the israelis wholive here bear quiet witness to the strategic importance of this area which israel captured from syria during the 1967 arab-israeli war. but after four decades of quiet along this border, israel, just like syria's arab neighbors, is increasingly worried about the unpredictable spillover from the civil war there. this cease-fire line between israel and syria has been maintained for nearly 40 years by their armies and u.n. troops as well. but with conflict raging inside syria, israel is taking no chances. it's now fortifying the security barrier behind me to guard against any dangers that may arise. here are the fence adjoining a united nations' observer force outpost. u.n. officials voiced concern this month that the syrian conflict could threaten the longstanding separation line between the two countries. is. >> what we can see here is the military has strengthened the barrier. they have strengthened the gate that we see here. and the military is also introducing new technology devices

workers there were eager to portray the golan heights as a bucolic destination, not a spot close to awar zone. you can read about that online. >> woodruff: now, to mali, where government troops claimed major gains against islamist rebels linked to al-qaeda. th army entered the ancientth city of timbukto, a day after taking the town of gao. both had been held by the militants for months. in support, french forces were air-dropped north of timbukto overnight. along with french helicopters, they helped drive the rebels north. >> there is a general movement of retreat so we can't exactly know what their plan is. i'm not sure they have a plan. it looks like they are heading north and trying to be where operations are taking place. >> woodruff: the militants had systematically destroyed ancient cultural sites in tick buck due. timbuktu. and before they retreated, they burned a library that held scrolls dating to the middle ages. it was unclear how many were destroyed. meanwhile, the people of gao celebrated after the rebels were routed there on sunday. lindsey hilsum of independent televisi

workers there were eager to portray the golan heights as a bucolic destination, not a spot close to awar zone. you can read about that online. >> woodruff: now, to mali, where government troops claimed major gains against islamist rebels linked to al-qaeda. the army entered the ancient city of timbukto, a day after taking the town of gao. both had been held by the militants for months. in support french forces were air-dropped north of timbukto overnight. along with french helicopters, they helped drive the rebels north. >> there is a general movement of retreat so we can't exactly know what their plan is. i'm not sure they have a plan. it looks like they are heading north and trying to be where operations are taking place. >> woodruff: the militants had systematically destroyed ancient cultural sites in tick buck due. timbuktu. and before they retreated, they burned a library that held scrolls dating to the middle ages. it was unclear how many were destroyed. meanwhile, the people of gao celebrated after the rebels were routed there on sunday. lindsey hilsum of independent television

israel has announced it's going to build a new bahrain along the occupied golan heights the reason it says is to protect its citizens from the ongoing violence is syria said your state has completed the bulk of the work of a fence separating itself from the egypt from egypt aimed at rooting out illegal migration and earlier my colleague bill dog spoke to activists jamal zuma who believes these actions have nothing to do with the safety. israel has to recalculate what they are doing in the middle east israel dealing with the middle east as a dominating power and they try all the time to build walls around them themselves claiming that the people is hating them and they are targeting israel has been harmed the whole region region and the area around they are building the wall around the palestinian areas the clean that is for security but at the end one of the worst apartheid systems and get around the palestinian people that looked the palestinians in forty percent of the land they built around gaza and they turn goes into a jail the biggest prison in the world and you know we know how

remind you that the syrian opposition has already thought of the radar station on the edges of the golan heights last year so this comes as a continuation of the effort to destroy the syrian army by the opposition and now by the monsters themselves by the israelis so what we are witnessing now is a reflection of the political impasse that the syrian opposition as suffering from being able to achieve anything significant on the ground they have resorted to help from the zionists directly i don't think that the israelis have a policy of making public comments of strikes be it sussan nations or strikes that they launch outside the boundaries of international law officials in the u.s. say the attack was actually carried out to stop illegal supplies of weapons to hezbollah is it justified a is this the case. well i could barely hear the question but the five got it right you are asking about a convoy of a shipment of arms to hizbullah and fucked we do not know of this is true we know what the syrian government has said. basically a stationary target was was thought to get that by israeli planes and w

that is not far from the golan heights region. leland? >>reporter: some of the israeli outposts we were in today you could hear the fighting raging on in the villages with a couple of hundred yards away. right ne syria are deteriorating. the israelis who have enjoyed quiet on the northern border now need more than barbed wire. >> al qaeda sympathizers account for the rebel fighters in the well documented takeover of army bases are getting more and more sophisticated weapons. from the quiet israel-syrian borders officers war the civil war rage. the area near the border is a no man's land explained an army lt. colonel. all kinds of militants can enter. this is the old syrian border fence and they are working to try to reinforce this area at break net speed. the ground is still muddy and this is the tank trap they put in, a concrete wall underground steel reinforced to prevent vehicles from crashing through and they are very worried about people. that is where this comes in, a lot bigger than the old fence at 25' tall and reinforced with lat

there was also gunfire that ended up in the golan heights as well. there were no injuries, but a lot of concern, not knowing exactly where that might be coming from. also, there were tanks from the al assad regime that ended up in that demilitarized zone. though they were pointing to syria. at one point, israelis decided they were going to fire warning shots. they did fire warnings shots. the concern is that jihadists are going to start a fight. so far they've not been involved in any way in that conflict. they're very concerned about it, spilling over into the borders and having to deal with yet another threat. suzanne? >> appreciate it. >>> palestinians there trying to pull together now as a single people, doing it by rebranding themselves. we'll explain how. wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. >>> plirch authority has rebranded itself renames his government to the state of palestine last week, amid efforts to unify the palestinian factions of fatah and hamas. >>> t

starting point, he accepted the saudi peace initiative which would have forced israel to return the golan heightswest bank, much of jerusalem, which would mean they'd have indefensible borders and the statement about the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up there. >> you look at chuck hagel's record and it places him on the outer fringe in terms of his views of national security. in fact, "the washington post" describes him as, quote, near the fringe of the senate. now, this is a man who served honorably for his nation. he was wounded defending his nation. i respect him personally, but his views are not in the mainstream and i don't think they'd serve this nation well leading defense. >> sean: and then nomination of brennan for cia who says jihad is a legitimate tenant of islam. jihad, holy war, terrorism against westerners? >> there's a pattern here, sean, which is i think the president has drunk the kool-aid. he was reelected and at this point he thinks he can do nothing wrong. he went through the fiscal cliff, got exactly what he wanted in the fiscal cliff, and take the hagel nomination

remind you that the syrian opposition has already thought of the radar station on the edges of the golan heights last year so this comes as a continuation of the of for to destroy the syrian army by the opposition and now by the masters themselves by the israelis so what we are witnessing now is a reflection of the political impasse that the syrian opposition as suffering from being able to achieve anything significant on the ground they have resorted to help from the zionists directly i don't think that this is a policy of making public comments of strikes be it assassinations or strikes that they launch outside the boundaries of international law officials in the u.s. say the attack was actually carried out to stop illegal supplies of weapons to hezbollah is it justified it is the case. well i could barely hear the question but the five got it right you are asking about a convoy of a shipment of arms to hizbullah and fucked we do not know of this is true we know what the syrian government has said. basically a stationary target was was thought to get the by israeli planes and we do not know of

but yesterday for instance we went up to the golan heights which is, you know, a land that the israelis captured from the syrians. and that is really where the two countries meet up. you can see how very close the conflict is you can hear the boom of firing from the other side. and looked at the defensive measures that israeli is taking to try to prevent any spillover. we also this week went into gaza, just two months after the israeli-gaza conflict there, for example, to assess how people are feeling and in particular about how they feel about the prospects for israeli-palestinian peace. so we hope to have some textured stories next week. >> brown: all right. we will look for those next week. margaret warner in jerusalem, thanks some of. >> warner: thank you, jeff. >> brown: margaret and the rest of our reporting team are filing stories on our web site. you can read their insights and analysis on our "world" page. >> sreenivasan: and to another newshour correspondent overseas- - ray suarez in davos, switzerland. he's moderating panels at the world econonoc forum, where there's been tal

but yesterday for instance we went up to the golan heights which is you know, a land that the israelis captured from the syrians. and that is really where the two countries meet up. you can see how very close the conflict is you can hear the boom of firing from the other side. and looked at the defensive measures that israeli is taking to try to prevent any spillover. we also this week went into gaza just two months after the israeli-gaza conflict there, for example to assess how people are feeling and in particular about how they feel about the prospects for israeli-palestinian peace. so we hope to have some textured stories next week. >> brown: all right. we will look for those next week. margaret warner in jerusalem, thanks some of. >> warner: thank you jeff. >> brown: margaret and the rest of our reporting team are filing stories on our web site. you can read their insights and analysis on our "world" page. >> sreenivasan: and to another newshour correspondent overseas- - ray suarez in davos switzerland. he's moderating panels at the world economic forum, where there's been talk ab

the syrian border trying to build up a big border fence where we find leland vittert live in the golan heightsthing separating israel from syria, a couple of strands of barbed wire, from where we are, we could see and we could hear the civil war in syria rage on. hard core jihadist and al-qaeda sympathizer account for many of the syrian rebel fighters and takeover of army bases are netting them more and more sophisticated weapons. from the once quiet israel-syrian border, israeli army officers now watch the civil war rage on below. the area near the border is a no-man's land explains a lt. colonel, all kinds of organizations can enter. this is the old rusted syrian border fence and they're working to try to reinforce this area. to get is sense what they're doing, the ground is muddy and this is the tank trap they put in, a concrete wall going deep down underground to reinforce and prevent any vehicles from crashing through it and they're of course worried about people and that's where this comes in, it's a lot bigger than the old fence, 25 feet tall. steel reenforcement and lattices welded ont