January 31, 2012: Hamas has been forgiven for past violence against the Jordanian government and allowed to set up some operations in Jordan. Hamas has also been allowed to open an office in Turkey. The Islamic politicians in Turkey have been looking for more ways to aid Palestinian efforts to destroy Israel. Thus some Turkish officials are proposing giving Hamas $300 million for construction in Gaza. Hamas would like Turkey to replace Iran as a financial patron. Turkish officials are reluctant to do that, as they understand Turkey is often a target for Islamic terrorism and Hamas is an Islamic terror organization. Thus the next time (and there is frequently a next time) Hamas is responsible for a terrorist attack, any financial backers of Hamas will be seen as guilty as well. Iran doesn't mind this, Turkey does. While these Turkish moves to support the Palestinians is seen as ominous, it ignores the fact that many Turks are opposed to getting involved in Arab radicalism. That's because for centuries (until 1918) the Turks ran most of the Arab world and this was a constant source of disasters and rebellions. One result of this was a number of Turkish maxims about how one should not get involved in Arab affairs. Many Turks consider this ancient advice still very valid.

Hamas is breaking up anti-Syria (government) demonstrations in Gaza. Hamas is trying to patch things up with Iran, but this is difficult with most Palestinians opposed to the Syrian dictatorship and Shia activists in general. Iran has long been pushing Shia Islam as superior to the Sunni form (which represents 80 percent of all Moslems). Hamas is a Sunni outfit that has long been subsidized by Shia Iran. But the rebellion in Syria, against a Shia minority that had ruled the country by force since the 1960s, found much support among Palestinians. This happened despite the fact that the Syrian dictatorship had long provided Hamas (and other Palestinian radical groups) sanctuary. Hamas is trying to be neutral, which is impossible. Meanwhile, smaller Islamic radical groups in Gaza are converting to Shia Islam and getting support from Iran. This has caused Hamas to open negotiations with Iran.

The revolution in neighboring Egypt is far from over. The Islamic parties, especially the Islamic Brotherhood, won 75 percent of the seats in recent parliament elections. The parliament will now put together a new constitution. The unrest in Egypt continues because the army, and its many corrupt officers, is still running a caretaker government and because the unrest has caused higher unemployment (because tourists have stopped coming and foreign and local investment has slowed down a lot because of the uncertainty).

January 30, 2012: Israeli troops entered the West Bank and arrested ten Palestinian terrorism suspects.

January 28, 2012: Israel shut down the offices of two Islamic charities in Jerusalem. The two organizations were accused of being fronts for Hamas.

January 26, 2012: Hamas officially declared that it had moved its senior leadership out of Syria. This has been underway for months and was no secret. It is a major embarrassment for the Syrian dictatorship, which has been under growing popular pressure to allow democracy.

A rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel, there were no injuries.

January 25, 2012: The renewed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks ended, with both sides accusing the other of refusing to negotiate in good faith. The Palestinians come off worst in this because more and more of their Arab language anti-Israeli propaganda is becoming widely known. Palestinian media has, for decades, insisted that the only solution is the destruction of Israel. This is one thing Hamas and Fatah (and most other Palestinian radicals) agree on. But this policy is at odds with what the Palestinians tell the non-Moslem world (that they are willing to negotiate a peace deal).

January 23, 2012: In East Jerusalem, Palestinians threw fire bombs at vehicles. There were no injuries as police intervened and made arrests.

January 22, 2012: Azerbaijan revealed that it had broken up an Iran sponsored terror plot last week and arrested three suspects. Israelis were the target of the attacks.

January 21, 2012: Israeli warplanes hit targets in Gaza, in retaliation for an attempt by Gaza based terrorists to plant bombs near the border fence road.

January 20, 2012: In Egypt, police caught some men planting explosives under the natural gas line that goes to Israel and Jordan.

Israel announced that over the last two months police had broken up a ten man terrorist cell in the West Bank. This group belonged to the Islamic Jihad terror organization.