December 22, 2003

 The Egyptian foreign minister was attacked, but not injured seriously, by Palestinian militants inside a Jerusalem mosque. Many Palestinians are hostile towards Egypt because of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Egypt is trying to convince all, or at least most, Palestinian factions to make peace with Israel. The Egyptians point out that three years of violence has accomplished nothing except to get 3,000 people killed and destroy the Palestinian economy. The Israelis are building a security wall that blocks all access between Israel and the West Bank, and this is convincing more Palestinians to go for a deal. But several radical groups are not interested. For the radicals, the struggle to destroy Israel is a fight to the death.