Israel: Diversions

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April 8, 2010:  Israel is seeing more European leftist activists coming on tourist visas, and working with Palestinians and Israeli leftists, against Israel. The leftists have, so far, stuck to demonstrating, but Israeli security officials know, from past experience, that this usually leads to participation in more violent actions. Back in Europe, leftists, anti-Semites and Arab migrants have joined forces to back the establishment of the Palestinian state. Meanwhile, all internal Palestinian propaganda calls for the destruction of Israel, and Palestinian rule over Israeli territory. The Palestinian's European allies either agree with this, or profess ignorance.

Egypt has increased its security on its Sudan border. This is an effort to stop the smuggling of Iranian weapons, to the Gaza border, where they are moved across the border in tunnels. Egyptian attacks on the tunnel system halts both consumer goods, and terrorist supplies (mainly weapons.) The Egyptians are mainly concerned with the weapons, which are sometimes used against Egyptian targets. So concentrating on the weapons more makes sense.

Efforts to get peace talks going between Palestinians and Israel continue to fail. Both sides are pretty much deadlocked. For the last decade, Palestinian propaganda has increasingly called for the destruction of Israel, not coexistence. So the Palestinians keep throwing up more impossible demands before peace talks can even begin. If peace talks did get started, the Palestinian internal propaganda would come to light, and that would cost the Palestinians some support in the West.

April 7, 2010: An Israeli Arab was sentenced to five years in prison for spying for Hezbollah. The convicted man collected information on the commander of the Israeli armed forces, but was never able to pass it on to Hezbollah. Off the Gaza coast, Israeli gunboats again opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats that were approaching Israeli waters. Hamas continues to try and use Palestinian fishing boats to smuggle weapons into Gaza, or land terrorists in Israel.

April 6, 2010: Israel began distributing millions of chemical warfare protection kits to its citizens. Syria has chemical weapons, and ballistic missiles to deliver them. So does Iran, which is believed to have equipped Hezbollah with these weapons, for use against Israel.

April 4, 2010: A Palestinian rocket from Gaza landed in Israel, but caused no damage. These attacks have increased in the past month. Meanwhile, Hamas has persuaded the four small Palestinian terrorist groups that are still trying to attack Israel from Gaza, to at least discuss some kind of peace deal. Hamas is pushing the idea that a ceasefire with Israel, that would lift the blockade, would enable terrorists to smuggle in more weapons, and get more terrorists out and into Israel. Not all Palestinians believe the Israelis will be more vulnerable during a ceasefire, but nothing else has worked for the Palestinians, and the Hamas proposal is persuasive.

April 2, 2010: Israeli F-16s bombed four terrorist bases (weapons workshops and storage sites) in Gaza. Five Palestinians were injured. Small Palestinian terror groups continue to fire rockets and mortar shells into Israel. These have little impact, other than political. Hamas is trying to stop these attacks, so that the blockade can be lifted. Hamas likes to portray itself as a victim here, but the fact that the rockets keep hitting Israel indicates that wither Hamas is not honoring the ceasefire, or cannot control what goes on in Gaza. It's a little bit of both, and Hamas wants to change that.

March 30, 2010: A Palestinian riot at a Gaza crossing escalated and troops fired on the mob. The Palestinians claimed that a 15 year old boy was killed, but he showed up alive a few days later. Meanwhile, Egyptian police seized 41 new automobiles that were to be smuggled into Gaza. Police then began searching for smuggling tunnels large enough to handle cars. Egypt has been increasingly active in its search for these tunnels, and those they find are destroyed.

March 29, 2010:  Hamas gunmen entered one of the ten bank branches operating in Gaza, and demanded, at gunpoint, that $270,000 in funds frozen by rival movement Fatah, be handed over. This caused some of the banks with branches in Gaza to shut down, and threaten to leave.

March 26, 2010: Along the Gaza security fence, Palestinian terrorists managed to pull off one of the many ambushes they attempt. Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians were killed.

March 25, 2010: In the last week, Egyptian police on the Gaza border have carried out a major crackdown on the tunnel smugglers. At least 22 people have been arrested, and dozens of tunnels destroyed.

March 24, 2010: Israel approved the building of 20 more apartments in East Jerusalem. The U.S. has joined most European (and all Arab) nations in opposing any more Jews moving into East Jerusalem. That's because Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their independent state. Israel claims Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Israelis cannot understand how the foreigners can ignore the Palestinian anti-Semitism and "destroy Israel" propaganda campaign, not to mention continued Palestinian support of terror attacks on Israel. Instead, even the United States is now concentrating on Israeli housing in East Jerusalem.

 

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