Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering a plan to seal the porous border with Egypt which is a growing security threat to Israel. The defense establishment presented a plan to halt weapons smuggling from the Sinai by building a security fence. Sharon said he would bring the plan, expected to cost 1.5 billion shekels, to the cabinet in the coming weeks. “The assignment of the security forces in the area is to stop border infiltrations. I emphasize: Not to cut down on them, not to disrupt them, but to stop them,” Sharon said during a tour of the border. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is pushing to erect a security fence along the Egyptian border south of the Gaza Strip and around the Eilat region to halt increased attempts to smuggle in weapons and terrorists. The fence is part of a grand project, called “Hour Glass,” that envisions a formidable barrier similar to the security fence around the Gaza Strip.