I know that sounds like a complete fence-sitting decision".
"Had there been a completed fence today in Jerusalem, we probably would have been able to prevent this terror attack," Mr. Meir said.
While the recently completed fence along the country's border with Egypt is blocking new arrivals, an estimated 50,000 asylum seekers and undocumented migrants from African countries live in Israel.
A recently completed fence along Israel's 140-mile-long border with Egypt, a project that took four years and around $377 million, has reduced the influx of new migrants from Africa to a trickle.
But a turnaround began in 1994 when the Immigration and Naturalization Service focused resources along its San Diego sector -- installing lights and ground sensors; more than doubling the number of Border Patrol agents, to 2,000; completing fencing along 47 miles of the border and starting a new secondary fence as reinforcement.
It would take 10 to 15 years and cost $30 billion to complete a fence, Mr. Perry said on Tuesday night.
Budapest is racing to complete a fence on its border with Serbia, where 4,330 people crossed on Saturday.
The decision, affecting eight Palestinian villages with 35,000 residents northwest of Jerusalem, sets a precedent for how Israel can complete the fence, which is one quarter built.
Tighter migration laws officially kicked in this month and the Hungarian government promised to complete a fence along its 108-mile border with Serbia to keep out migrants.
In his own commercials, the prime minister boasts of achievements — like completing a fence along the border with Egypt, and bringing down cellphone costs.
