January 23, 2014: In the Sinai the Egyptian counter terrorist operations in the last year have left over 180 soldiers dead along with nearly 200 Islamic terrorists. Overall some 1,200 have died since the army removed the Moslem Brotherhood from power last July. While about a hundred police have been killed, most of the dead are Moslem Brotherhood members or Islamic terrorists. The Brotherhood tried to use large, aggressive and often violent demonstrations to shut down cities. The police used force to prevent this and most Egyptians supported the security forces because the Brotherhood was generally seen as more disruptive than revolutionary.  In most of Egypt the Moslem Brotherhood is still active but under tremendous pressure because so many Egyptians oppose them and will inform on Brotherhood activities. Most Egyptians blame the Brotherhood for the failure of the Arab Spring revolution in 2011 to improve the economy and reduce corruption.

The U.S. sponsored peace talks between Israel and the West Bank Palestinians continue to be stalled, despite optimistic American government press releases. Israel is particularly angry over the increase in Palestinian terror attacks since the peace talks began. It’s no secret that several smaller Palestinian terrorist groups oppose the peace talks and insist on constant attacks as part of their strategy to destroy Israel. Hamas refuses to even participate. The Palestinian media is openly disdainful of the peace talks and the American insistence that the talks continue.

January 22, 2014: Israel revealed that they had thwarted an al Qaeda plot to have two suicide bombers attack the entrance to the American embassy. Three people were arrested; the two Israeli Arabs bomber and a Palestinian from the West Bank. Other members of al Qaeda are being sought in the West Bank. The embassy attack was but one of several al Qaeda was planning Israel and was the one closest to being carried out. Other attacks involved truck bombs and the use of firearms. This is the first time al Qaeda has managed to get some serious Islamic terrorism efforts going in Israel.

Over Gaza an Israeli warplane fired a missile that hit a car and killed two Islamic terrorists. One of them was a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was responsible for recent rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. Israel regularly responds to rocket attacks from Gaza with an air strike on known Islamic terrorist targets in Gaza. In the last month over 20 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel and Israel is pressuring Hamas to do something about it. Israel warned Hamas that it was responsible, despite Hamas blaming smaller Islamic terrorist groups in Gaza. Egypt told Hamas that the Israelis were serious about moving in to Gaza if these attacks did not stop and blaming it on unruly Islamic terrorists in Gaza does not work for Israel or Egypt.

In Egypt, a hundred kilometers south of Cairo, gunmen on motorcycles fired on police at a checkpoint killing five and wounding two others.  

January 21, 2014: In Egypt police found a bomb hidden in front of the home of an anti-Moslem Brotherhood judge. The bomb was disabled and police patrols were increased in the area.

January 20, 2014: Three rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza but there were no casualties.

In the northern Sinai Egyptian soldiers arrested nine Islamic terrorist suspects and destroyed eight tunnels used to smuggle goods and terrorists in and out of Gaza. Elsewhere in the area two rockets were fired towards the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat but missed. For Eilat and resorts across the border in Egypt the tourists are still coming. This despite the terrorist threat and several rockets fired at the Eilat last August. An Iron Dome system was based outside Eilat and it detected an incoming (from Egypt) 122mm rocket and intercepted it on August 13th. Such interceptions are automatic (when Iron Dome is turned on) if the software predicts the incoming rocket will land in an inhabited area. Islamic terrorists operating in the lawless Sinai later took credit for the attack. Israel and Egypt have both deployed more police to their resorts in the area and are cooperating in keeping the terrorists out. After the August attack the Egyptian security forces scoured the area for Islamic terrorists and made some arrests.

January 19, 2014: Over Gaza an Israeli warplane fired a missile that wounded an Islamic terrorists believed involved in rocket attacks on Israel. The missile was meant to kill him.

In the northern Sinai Egyptian soldiers clashed with some Islamic terrorists killing three of them. One of the dead was a wanted terrorist leader.

January 18, 2014: A rocket was fired into Israel from Gaza but there were no casualties. Israeli jets responded with an attack on Islamic terrorists facilities the next day.

January 17, 2014: In Egypt (Sinai) terrorists blew up a portion of a natural gas pipeline supplying local factories. The last such attack was on December 30^th.

January 15, 2014: Six rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza but there were no casualties. Five of these rockets were destroyed in the air by the Iron Dome anti-rocket system.

In Egypt two days of voting on the new constitution ended without much of the promised disruption by the Moslem Brotherhood and Islamic terrorists. Both these groups boycotted the vote, so 98 percent of the 21 million who did vote approved the new constitution. Only 38.6 percent of those eligible to vote did so. The last vote on a new constitution was held in late 2012 and 33 percent of those eligible to vote did so and approved (by 67 to 33 percent) a new constitution created by the Moslem Brotherhood. That new constitution proved very unpopular and led to massive demonstrations against the Moslem Brotherhood government and eventual removing of that government by the army last July.

January 14, 2014: On the first day of voting in Egypt 11 people were killed by anti-vote violence. The army and police struck back and arrested more Moslem Brotherhood members.

January 13, 2014: In Gaza Islamic terrorists fired three rockets into Israel, where they did no damage.

In the northern Sinai Egyptian soldiers arrested 18 Islamic terrorist suspects. To the south, on the Suez Canal, police arrested four men wearing suicide bomb vests. Elsewhere in the area a roadside bomb went off as four Islamic terrorists sought to emplace it. Two of them were killed and the other two badly wounded. The Islamic terrorists are attempting to disrupt preparations for the voting on the new constitution. Islamic radicals are boycotting the vote and trying to discourage anyone from voting at all. The army is sending 160,000 troops to guard 30,000 polling places. Some 54 million Egyptians are eligible to vote.

January 12, 2014: In the central Sinai Egyptian soldiers found and seized a heavy machine-gun mounted on a truck. They seized other heavy weapons, including RPG rocket launchers. The troops acted on a tip from local Bedouins.

A senior Israeli defense export official (Meir Shalit) resigned in late December because a bit of American technology (part of an Israeli cooling system) ended up in a French electro-optical system that was sold to China. While it was legal to sell the Israeli item to France, an American defense export law was broken when the French sold the item to China. Shalit did not have to resign, as the issue was minor and not deliberate. But because of several past, more serious, cases where China got American military tech via Israel, it was considered prudent for the popular and competent Shalit to take the fall. This incident became a sore point for many Israelis who are already feeling bullied by the United States over the current quite futile peace talks with the Palestinians.

January 9, 2014: In Egypt police arrested an Egyptian-American wanted for attacking police stations. The 47 year old man is a Moslem Brotherhood member and one of several American citizens born in Egypt who have returned to support the Moslem Brotherhood.

January 8, 2014: In Gaza there was an explosion that killed a known Islamic terrorist. Apparently the dead man was working on a bomb and it went off. But Israel was blamed even though there were no Israeli aircraft overhead.

A retired Israeli diplomat recently revealed that Israel had quietly tracked down and killed most of the Iranians or Iranian operatives involved in two terrorist attacks against Jews in Argentina in 1992 and 1994. The Israeli overseas intel and special operations organization (Mossad) has handled assignments like this for decades but the government always denies it.   The two Argentine bombings killed 114 and wounded over 200. Most of the victims were not Jews but nearly all were Argentinians. Israel often quietly goes after those behind attacks like this and kills them. There is rarely any official admission of this activity or the results. But the terrorists do take notice, even though the government again denied that it did this sort of thing.

January 6, 2014: The Palestinian Authority signed a 20 year deal, worth $1.2 billion to buy natural gas from the new Israeli offshore gas fields. The Palestinians will use this gas to fuel a $300 million electricity generating plant they are building in the West Bank.

January 5, 2014:  The Palestinian government is suing in Israeli courts to reinstate courses on genocide that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were allowed to take until 2011. The genocide course was very popular with the more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Most of these prisoners are men from the West Bank and Gaza who were convicted of terrorism (trying to kill Israelis, some for actually doing so and not just caught trying). This lawsuit got a lot of publicity recently and that is another headache for the Palestinians who try to present themselves as helpless victims and not coddled terrorists. The existence of free college courses for jailed Palestinian terrorists follows on public statements by recently released Palestinian terrorists that life in Israeli jails was pretty good, with good living conditions and plenty of leisure time. But they want to be able to study genocide at the college level as well.