Israel: Terrorists, and Broken Promises, Control Gaza

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September 19, 2005: The Palestinian Authority cannot control Gaza in the face of armed opposition from several major terrorist gangs. The largest Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas, is openly defying the Palestinian Authority with thousands of armed demonstrators. Hamas continues to stress that it will be resuming its attacks on Israel, with the ultimate goal of destroying Israel. Hamas takes credit for Israel leaving Gaza, insisting that Hamas terrorist attacks was what made this happen.

September 18, 2005: After unsuccessfully attempting to make a deal with the United States, Syria adopted a policy of saying they were sealing their border with Iraq, but not using the substantial powers of their police state to crack down on the Saddam and al Qaeda supporters operating in Syria. Shia Iran is still an ally of Syria, despite Syrian support of al Qaeda (a Sunni organization) and al Qaeda's terror campaign against Iraqi Shia. The Iranian Islamic radicals are so rabidly anti-American that they are willing to sacrifice Iraqi Shia in order to cause problems for the U.S. in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iranian support of the Shia Hizbollah terrorist militia in Lebanon continues, even though this threatens to ignite another civil war. Pro-Syrian Lebanese count Hizbollah as their most powerful faction. If there is another civil war, Hizbollah will be the largest force opposing the government (which has the support of the majority of the population.)
 
September 17, 2005: Palestinian border guards again attempted to seal with border with Egypt, and Egypt has finally moved troops, and a new barbed wire fence, to the border.  Israel has reminded the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt, that Israeli troops will move back into Gaza if the border is not sealed, and the weapons smuggling halted. In the meantime, Israel is threatening to halt its withdrawal operations in the West Bank.  The weapons are being brought into Gaza by Palestinian terrorists, and include bomb and rocket making material for attacks on Israel. 

September 16, 2005: Israeli counter-terrorist operations continue in the West Bank, as do attacks by the Palestinian terrorists. 

September 15, 2005: Palestinian border guards tried, and failed, to control the Egyptian border. On the Egyptian side, additional troops have yet to show up. Smugglers continue to move weapons into Gaza. 

September 13, 2005: With Israeli troops out of Gaza, control of the border with Egypt promptly disappeared. Large holes were blown in the border wall, and, in the first 24 hours, some 20,000 Palestinians went into Egypt, and another 3,000 people came into Gaza. Many illegal goods flowed into Gaza as well, including weapons for terrorists. Egyptian troops refused to stop the movements. The Egyptians and Palestinians had promised to maintain order in Gaza, and especially along the Egyptian border, when the Israeli troops withdrew. But there was no real attempt to do maintain order, and Israeli protests were dismissed by the Egyptians and Palestinians, telling the Israelis the border breech was simply a result of Gaza Palestinians celebrating their "liberation," and that the breech would be sealed in a few days.

 

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