Israeli security company tenders for Trump’s Mexican border wall

AN ISRAELI security company is making a push to help build Donald Trump’s Mexico border wall, after the US president praised Israel’s success in boosting security by fencing off its frontiers.

Shares of Yehud, Israel-based Magal Security Systems Ltd jumped 5.6% on Friday, the day after Trump told Fox News a security barrier could almost completely stop border breaches. The company’s shares have risen nearly 50% since Trump’s election.

Executives from Magal’s US-based Senstar unit will be showing off its FiberPatrol product at a border security summit in Alexandria, Virginia, where officials from the US Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will be present, according to Magal chief executive officer Saar Koursh. The system, which embeds fibre-optic sensors in long stretches of fences and walls, is already used for perimeter security at airports and seaports around the world, he said.

“We have the right product and we have the experience in Israel that helps in showcasing our product,” Koursh said.

Magal was a major contractor on Israel’s West Bank barrier, a stretch of sensorladen fences and concrete walls that was begun in 2002 to counter a wave of Palestinian suicide-bombings. The company has also helped build a fence along Israel’s border with Egypt, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented on Saturday as an example for Trump’s Mexico wall. “President Trump is right,” Netanyahu said on Twitter. “I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.”

That intervention prompted a statement of “profound surprise, rejection and disappointment” from Mexico’s Foreign Ministry. – Washington Post