I'm going to pass on trips to Israel for a few weeks. Walking around the Gaza strip looking for some good Arabic food would be crazy right now.

Thousands of Americans each year travel to see the sights of Old Jerusalem and walk in the places where Jesus once walked from the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth and any place that a tour bus can travel. I have only been to Israel once and loved every minute of the trip. The places I saw where beautiful and inspirational.

The Temple Mount is a place in Jerusalem that is thought to be one of and probably the holiest shrine in the city. The golden dome temple stands out from all the other buildings when looking at it from the Mount of Olives, which is thought to be the place where Jesus ascended into heaven. At the time of our visit the Temple Mount was under the control of the Palestinians. We were allowed access to visit but I didn't enjoy the visit for a second. The guards did not at all look welcoming and all carried machine guns. I was glad when we stepped off that property.

The land of Israel is so small, about the size of New Jersey. Gaza is only 139 square miles and crowded with over 1.7 million people making it the seventh most densely populated area in the world.

The area is too small for such hatred and violence. With all that is going on in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Israel, how long will it take for the entire Middle East to blow up? Who will be the first to go crazy and set off a nuclear weapon? That will be crazy and the chain reaction will be earth altering.

While all the war seems to be so far away, television once again brings everything very close and up front. Yet, we can still go to the ice cream shop or order pizza while flipping through the television channels or posting pictures on Facebook.

Never mind that we are in a war right here in our country. You could take a little trip southwest and see the thousands of people storming the borders of our country. Southern California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas are in serious trouble as thousands of people from Mexico and Central America are coming here every day. How long will it be before it's the Taliban with four or five thousand thugs targeting a border city and fighting to take over that city? Currently, I don't think they would get very far. Or, how far would they get and how many people could they kill?

America's southern borders seem far away for most Americans. Everything seems to be someone else's problem being played out on television. We turn off the television and breeze out the door to whatever we want. However, our southern border is essentially our backyard.

If America does not secure our borders fast the America we grew up in will not be recognizable in ten years or much less.

We need to spend the trillion dollars or whatever it takes to better secure the Southwest part of the United States. Along the way we need our military patrolling the wall.

I would rather build bridges than walls. But in this age there is an evil mindset that is determined to eliminate America's freedom. We have to build walls, seriously protect them and keep our freedom.

Glenn Mollette is an American columnist and author.