June 8, 2007: In Lebanon, police have been chasing after Islamic terrorists outside Palestinian refugee camps, and have found a car bomb workshop, with three cars rigged and ready to go, in eastern Lebanon. In the last few weeks, there have been four bombing attacks in the capital, most of them in Christian neighborhoods. Recently, three foreign Islamic terrorists were arrested, and the police believe Syria and Iran are sponsoring terrorist activity against those who oppose Iranian and Syrian domination of Lebanon.

The battle in the Palestinian refugee camp in the north, and another camp in the south, has so far left at least 120 people dead (20 civilians, 60 terrorists, and 40 soldiers and police), and several hundred wounded. Police have indicted 31 Fatah al Islam members for terrorist acts. So far this week, twenty Fatah al Islam have surrendered, and others are negotiating their terms of surrender. Police believe only about 75 Fatah al Islam members are still fighting up north, where 3,000 civilians refuse to leave the refugee camp which, it turns out, had only 31,000 residents. Earlier reports of 39,000 residents were based on UN records. But it's a common scam to get people, who don't exist or have moved elsewhere, registered with the UN and collect their refugee benefits. Thus the Palestinians have another thing to be mad at the Lebanese for, as the fighting has forced the UN to do a headcount, and many of the phantom refugees have been discovered, and their benefits cut off.

This week, the Lebanese army stopped a truck at a check point in eastern Lebanon and seized a load of rockets and ammo belonging to Hizbollah. This is rare, and may represent a dispute over the size of the bribe Hizbollah is supposed to pay to get their weapons shipments past army checkpoints.

For the last few days, there has been fighting between Islamic terrorists and soldiers at another Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. So far, this has been much less intense than the combat up north, with only 20-30 casualties so far. The police are cracking down on foreign terrorists, who were long tolerated when the country was occupied by the Syrian army. Although the Syrian troops are gone, Syria and Iran still want their people to run the country. This is difficult, because about two-thirds of Lebanese are opposed to this foreign domination. The core of pro-Iranian support is in the Shia community, which is about 40 percent of the population. The biggest Shia faction is Hizbollah, but even this group is not powerful enough to start a civil war and expect to win. So Syria and Iran appear to be using terrorists to stir up trouble, and weaken the Christians and Sunnis who currently run things.

June 7, 2007: Fatah asked Israel for ammunition, anti-tank missiles (for use against fortified houses) and hand grenades. Israel is hesitant to supply the stuff, because many Fatah gunmen are defecting to Hamas. At the moment, Fatah has 30,000 armed security personnel, and Hamas only 6,000. Fatah is also allied with private militias, with several thousand gunmen. The Hamas fighters, however, are better led and motivated, and usually win battles with Fatah, unless greatly outnumbered. Israel is afraid that any weapons and munitions it gives to Fatah will either be sold off on the black market (Fatah is still very corrupt), or seized by Hamas. Fatah officials are so corrupt, that some have been known to sell weapons and ammo to anyonw (Hamas, independent or Fatah factions).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has become more outspoken about Iranian officials talking openly about destroying Israel. Moon points out that membership in the UN includes agreeing to respect the existence of other members. Iran is a barely functioning member of the UN as it is, a process that began in the late 1970s, when the clerics took over the country. Iran has long talked of attacking Israel, but done little about it. Now, however, Iranian money and weapons are killing Israelis because of attacks from the north (the Hizbollah rockets last Summer) and the south (Hamas has been receiving cash and technical assistance). Thus Israel takes the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapons very seriously. Iran already has ballistic missiles that could deliver such a weapon.

June 6, 2007: After three weeks of ceasefire, fighting again broke out in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas forces. There were 18 casualties, after several hours of fighting. There was a confrontation between Hamas and Fatah last week, but no one was hurt.

June 4, 2007: Israeli troops made a raid into southern Gaza, searching several houses and arrested eight men.