October 25, 2005:
Israeli warplanes fired missiles at terrorist targets in Gaza, while Israeli artillery did the same. Israeli warplanes also flow low, and fast, over Gaza city, breaking the sound barrier and leaving a loud sonic boom behind. All this was in retaliation for Palestinian terrorists firing some twenty unguided rockets into southern Israel. That was in retaliation for Israel killing a terrorist commander belonging to Islamic Jihad (which has not agreed to any truce). That was in retaliation for that terrorist commander organizing recent suicide bomber attacks. And so on, ad infinitum.
October 24, 2005: Troops found and destroyed two roadside bombs found near the fence between Gaza and Israel. The Palestinians demand that the fence be opened, so that goods and people may move freely in and out of Gaza. But the Israelis refuse to do this until the Palestinian terrorist organizations are disarmed. The Palestinian terrorist organizations refuse to disarm until Israel is destroyed. There has been little progress in resolving this disagreement.
October 23, 2005: Kidnapping is becoming the tactic of choice for criminal and political gangs in Gaza. There were 31 such kidnappings in August, and 44 in September. The number for October is expected to be higher. The gangs demand ransom, or favors, from the Palestinian Authority, and the police are not strong enough to go after the gangs. The Palestinian Authority is largely considered corrupt and run by a small group of men who are more interested in power than in the Palestinian cause. However, perhaps the worst mistake the Palestinian Authority made was to allow the educational system, and Palestinian media, to constantly and stridently call for the destruction of Israel. For years, this has been the main message, even as the Palestinian Authority was negotiating with Israel. Thus any peace deal will still have to deal a Palestinian population that takes it for granted that the only solution to the dispute is to destroy Israel.
October 21, 2005: Israeli troops killed Luay Saadi, a terrorist leader, along with another Palestinian terrorist, during a a pre-dawn raid in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank. Saadi was the leader of Islamic Jihad's terrorist operations in the West Bank, and is considered responsible for the deaths of 12 Israelis in recent terrorist attacks.
October 18, 2005: In Gaza, 244 young members of the Fatah party, which has long run the Palestinian Authority, resigned. The departing members said corruption and lack of democracy where the main reasons. Fatah has been steadily losing members to Islamic radical, or more moderate political parties. No one can seem to get democracy to work among the Palestinians, although Hamas, a terrorist operation, has shown it can run a less corrupt government. Hamas, however, like all other major Palestinian groups, favors dictatorship.
