March 15, 2006:
In response to the Israeli prison raid in Jericho, Palestinians have kidnapped seven Westerners (journalists and aid workers) and told all "foreigners" (non-Moslems) to get out of Palestinian territories. This is a move to make the Palestinian territories more terrorist-friendly.
The Israeli operation in Jericho resulted in 15 wanted terrorists being taken into Israeli custody.
March 14, 2006: Israeli troops and police stormed the West Bank Jericho prison holding terrorist leader Ahmed Saadat, and several hundred other prisoners. The Israelis moved in shortly after the British and American monitors left the prison. The Israelis believed that the terrorists held in the prison would be freed by the Palestinian Authority. This sort of release has been carried out before, despite Palestinian promises that terrorists would be punished.
March 12, 2006: Two Palestinians, carrying bombs, were arrested by Israeli soldiers on the West Bank. The Palestinians admitted they were going to attack an Israeli checkpoint. Palestinian terror attacks continue, as they have since late 2000. The Israelis have just gotten a lot better at detecting and stopping the attacks.
March 11, 2006: Iranian hard liners are urging Palestinian terror group, Islamic Jihad, to resume attacks on Israel, and put Hamas on the spot for not being "Islamic" enough. The Iranians offer money and other support to Islamic Jihad. This is tempting, because many Islamic Jihad members will shortly lose their jobs with the Palestinian Authority, as Hamas cleans house and gives the jobs to its own supporters. The Palestinian Authority currently has some 75,000 people on the payroll, most of the jobs being patronage (given in return for political, and armed, support.)
March 10, 2006: Israel says it will unilaterally establish permanent borders, including sealing itself off from the West Bank, by 2010, if the Palestinian Authority is unable to negotiate a peace deal by then. Such a deal would have to include clearing out terrorist organizations in the Palestinian territories.
March 8, 2006: Britain warned the Palestinian Authority that it would remove its prison monitors if Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in a Palestinian Jericho (West Bank) prison for killing a cabinet minister in 2001, was not properly confined. Britain brokered the deal that confined Saadat in the prison, and averted a major Israeli military operation. Saadat's confinement was to be guaranteed by American and British monitors. That's because, in the past, terrorists placed in Palestinian prisons were basically under house arrests, and could freely make phone calls, receive visitors and carry on as before. This is what Saadat is doing, and even the British are fed up with it. The Palestinians deny everything, and the British are fed up with that as well.
