October 30, 2007:
Hamas refuses to do anything to
stop the terrorists firing rockets into southern Israel, or mortar shells at
Israeli troops guarding the security fence around Gaza. Israel is trying
several things to change the mind of Hamas. Israel has cut the supply of fuel
to Gaza by 30 percent. Further efforts along these lines are opposed, in Israel
and the European Union, as being collective punishment, and thus unfair.
Collective punishment (holding an entire family, clan, village, etc,
responsible for the acts of their members) is an ancient practice, and has only
been replaced by individual punishment in situations where there was a
government in control of the environment the guilty individuals were from. Such
is not the case in Gaza, although Israeli intelligence believes that the Gaza
Palestinians would be largely docile if Israeli troops moved back in and tool
control. Many Israelis are not eager to test that assessment, but they also
fear the growing arsenal of rockets Hamas is building in Gaza. In addition to
firing about a dozen rockets a week into Israel, there are daily attacks on
Israeli troops guarding the fence keeping Palestinian terrorists out of Israel.
One or two Palestinian attackers are killed each day because of these attacks.
Meanwhile, while Fatah says, in English and Hebrew, that it wants to negotiate a
peace deal with Israel, it continues to broadcast Arab language television
shows which declare that Palestinians must control all of Israel, and
eventually will. This "two messages" policy has been in force for
decades.
October 29, 2007: In the West Bank, troops and
police raided several locations and arrested ten Palestinians on terrorism
charges.
October 28, 2007: The Syrians have quickly
destroyed all evidence of the nuclear weapons development facility that Israeli
warplanes bombed on September 6th. The attack was a major embarrassment for
Syria. It put a spotlight on their long relationship with North Korea, revealed
a secret nuclear weapons program, and demonstrated that Syrian air defenses,
recently updated with new Russian equipment, were very inadequate. Syria would
like to forget the whole thing happened.
October 26, 2007: Israeli troops raided a terrorist
safe house in Gaza, killing six Palestinian gunmen. Two soldiers were
wounded.
October 25, 2007: Egyptian police found half a ton
of TNT explosives in a cave in Sinai. The stuff was believed headed for Gaza,
via tunnels under the border. While these tunnels are constantly found by
police, new ones are always being dug. In the last month, at least three Hamas
members have died during cave-ins of tunnels being dug.
October 24, 2007: In northern
Gaza, another two Palestinian boys (age 12 and 13), were killed by Israeli
artillery. The kids were trying to remove launchers used for three rockets
terrorists had just launched. The rockets are fired with a timer, because
Israeli radar spots the rockets right after launch, issues a warning to Israeli
towns, and plots the launching position. This data is sent to Israeli artillery
units, which fire on the launchers, to destroy them. Palestinian kids try to
get to the launchers first. If they can get the launchers away before the
shells arrive, they get paid, either by the terrorists, or metal scrap dealers.
If the kids get hit, the Palestinians make the most of it by publicizing yet
another Israeli atrocity. In southern Gaza, two Palestinian terrorist were
killed by a team of Israeli commandoes, who had entered Gaza for that purpose.