September 1, 2006:
Israel still has over 10,000 troops in southern Lebanon, and they limit what Hizbollah can do. Israel will begin withdrawing their troops, and lift the air and naval blockade of Lebanon, once the UN has at least 5,000 peacekeepers in the area. There are already about 8,000 Lebanese troops in the south, but these soldiers are easily bullied around by Hizbollah. The UN should have 5,000 peacekeepers on duty within the next two weeks. The problem, however, will be whether or not the UN troops can stand up to Hizbollah. The UNIFIL peacekeepers, who manned the Israeli border for nearly two decades, were regularly bullied or bribed by Hizbollah. Israel is demanding that Hizbollah be disarmed, and everyone, except Hizbollah, agrees that this would be a splendid idea. Trying to make it happen will most likely produce another crises, even a resumption of fighting.
August 31, 2006: Palestinian terrorists fired five rockets from Gaza towards the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon. But the inaccurate, home made rockets, landed outside the towns and caused no injuries. The terrorists fire the rockets to prove they are still fighting Israel. This makes it possible to raise money from foreign Moslems who back the destruction of Israel. The rocket salvo was the first in a week, because Israeli troops had just pulled out of northern Gaza after six days of operations searching for terrorists. In two months of operations to recover a kidnapped Israeli soldiers, over 200 have died, most of them Palestinians. Israel continues its campaign to identify, track down and kill key terrorist personnel. The Palestinian terrorists are still trying to get their act together so they can resume terrorist attacks inside Israel. But several years of Israeli operations against terrorist leaders and technicians (especially bomb builders) has crippled the terrorists ability to kill Israeli civilians. But this war continues, as the terrorists continue to try and rebuild their crippled organizations.
August 30, 2006: An examination of rocket and missile fragments revealed that Syria had supplied Hizbollah with Syrian made rockets, and Russian made anti-tank guided missiles. Syria denies everything, but apparently could not pass up an opportunity to make some hefty profits via these illegal arms sales.
August 29, 2006: Gaza continues to fall apart, and more Palestinians are looking to each other for the cure, rather than just blaming Israel. Hamas and Fatah, despite announcing the formation of a unity government, have failed to form one. The two sides are deadlocked in arguments over who should control which ministries (and their budgets and payrolls). Gaza is in anarchy, with dozens of armed groups controlling their bits of real estate, and living off the civilians in their area (who must make voluntary contributions, or else). These conditions are being deplored by more and more Palestinian journalists, and politicians. But, so far, no one has been able to do anything about it. The Israelis want their kidnapped soldier back, and for Hamas to drop the "destruction of Israel" from its official todo list.
