The Baltimore Sun reported (last week) "O'Malley takes in a city 'at war'":

"When viewed from afar, we see the suicide bombers and the daily violence," O'Malley said yesterday while being driven in a bus in Jerusalem's intimidating traffic. "Yet when going through the city, you can see how the economy continues to roll and how people continue to live."

If Jerusalem seems a place about government and religion, Baltimore seems a place about commerce. Baltimore suffers from violence because of guns and drugs, Jerusalem from violence linked to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

"I know that you are here to learn from our experiences on security issues," Jerusalem's mayor said. "Unfortunately, we have had a lot of experience." He praised the controversial barrier Israel is building to isolate Palestinian neighborhoods and villages from the city, saying, "A fence can be taken down when it is no longer needed, but a life cannot be reversed."

It's interesting to compare Baltimore's violence problem with Israel's. Israel's problem is a lot less serious. Baltimore is averaging over 250 murders a year for a population of about 600,000. Israel's terror toll for a population of 6,000,000 is in about the same range per year over the past four years. Arguably then, Israel's terror problem is one tenth of the problem that Baltimore violence is.
As far as the fence goes it's interesting to note that, though reporter termed the fence "controversial" another Maryland jurisdiction is erecting a security fence. The town of Capitol Height has decided to extend a fence that will "imprison" residents of Washington DC:

The fences will be chain-link and six feet tall, topped with small spikes to deter those who might scale them.

They will serve as physical barriers and public reminders: Once the 32-foot-long fences go up this month, connecting to two existing fences, anyone who wants to walk from the District into the small Prince George's County community of Capitol Heights no longer will be able to do so on a rugged footpath that has become a corridor for drug dealing, police say.

For years, the footpath, which snakes between two brick houses and is partially obscured by tall oak trees, has been a shortcut into the narrow neighborhood streets of Capitol Heights. Without it, people on foot would have to walk several city blocks that are well lighted and regularly patrolled by police.

"The path has been a nuisance," said Anthony Best, public works director for Capitol Heights. "It has done nothing but worry those who live closest to it."

The daily drug activity, residents and police say, has transformed the footpath: Once it was convenient, the quickest route to and from the District. But now it is too dangerous, they say, even in daylight.

Notice that a fence to prevent drug trafficking is not controversial but one to prevent mass murder is.
The article ends with O'Malley wondering about the fence:

O'Malley was still thinking about the barrier. "So, they say it works?" he said, looking at the wall in the distance.

He was frustrated and distracted by news of three men being shot and killed overnight in the Remington neighborhood of Baltimore and tabulated the city's death toll on the back of his schedule. "I doubt that I would close roads," he said, stopped at a checkpoint because of a bombing alert. "It's also hard to get used to police carrying machine guns.

"It's a city clearly at war."

Now I'm not certain if he's talking about Baltimore or Jerusalem here, but it's pretty clear that Baltimore's murder problem is worse than Israel's terror problem. At least when comparing the numbers.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.