Israel: June 19, 2002

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: 10.0pt"> Overnight, in response to the latest suicide bombing, Israel has reoccupied parts of the West Bank and has told the Palestinians that the troops will not withdraw until the terrorist attacks stop. That could be a while. Palestinians insist that the terrorist attacks won't stop until Israel begins to negotiate. The terrorists (some of them, anyway) say they won't stop attacks until the Israelis (including Jewish settlers) get out of Palestinian territory. Israel says it won't negotiate or move until the terror attacks against civilians stop. Terrorists tried to concentrate on Israeli soldiers for a while, but this was too difficult. So the attacks are back against civilians. The Israelis seem determined to stop the attacks any way they can. Israeli public opinion is solidly behind this approach. So Israeli troops, commandos and police will go back into Palestinian territory looking for terrorist bombing organizations.

The last successful suicide bombing attacks was on June 5th, killing 18. Before that, an attack on May 7th killed 17. Since early May, dozens of suicide attacks have been prevented, but the terrorist organizations, and many Palestinians, believe they are making Israelis more willing to grant Palestinian statehood through the bombings. Any Palestinian that pays attention to Israeli media would discover this is not true. But that's the Middle East for you.

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