October 4, 2011: Hamas has a growing problem in Gaza, as it is increasingly viewed as the corrupt establishment. Hamas leaders, and their families, have more money to spend, more cars to drive around in, and larger and more opulent homes to live in. While there is also more foreign aid for most Gazans to live on, Hamas skims a portion of that aid for their own expenses, which includes better living standards for the senior leadership. But Hamas also pays the security forces well, and expects its intelligence personnel to keep tabs on who's naughty, and who's still loyal.

The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) run by Fatah (the Palestinian group that controls the West Bank) has agreed to resume negotiations with Israel. According to Fatah's Arab language media, these negotiations are all a sham, just a tactic to weaken Israel enough so that Palestinians can destroy the Jewish state and drive all Jews from the Middle East. Then Fatah can deal with Hamas and reunite all Palestinians in a "Greater Palestine" (Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.) Most Palestinian maps show this area as Palestine. No mention is made of Israel, except in cases where maps show Palestinian land and cities illegally (and temporarily) occupied by Jews. The West tends to ignore this Fatah view of the situation, and believe that the Palestinians are interested in a peace deal with Israel. In Palestinian media, such "peace deals" are described as temporary truces, so that Palestinians can build up their strength for the next major assault on Israel. These tactics have been remarkably unsuccessful for decades, but the younger generation of Palestinians buys into it. Hamas is more forthcoming about these goals, and is actually in agreement about the ultimate fate of Israel.

For the Palestinians, the most annoying Israeli tactic is the development of settlements in the West Bank. These are demanded by conservative Israeli political parties. The parliamentary style democracy in Israel will not work if a government cannot be formed with a coalition of parties, and their elected representatives in parliament. This usually means using some of the smaller, pro-settlement parties. These parties believe the Palestinian party line, that there can be no peace with Israel. These Israeli parties want to take over the West Bank one settlement at a time, and they have the votes to make the government help them.

October 3, 2011: In the West Bank, Israeli settlers damaged a Mosque, in retaliation for an earlier incident where Palestinians throwing rocks at cars had caused the vehicle to crash. This killed the Israeli settler who was driving, and his infant son.

October 1, 2011:  Hamas has called on other Arab nations to attack Israel anyway they can. Hamas does this periodically, without much effect.

An Israeli warplane fired a missile at a terrorist base in Gaza, wounding three people. This was in retaliation for recent rocket firings into Israel.

September 27, 2011:  The Syrian government claims they have found Israeli weapons and military equipment in the city of Homs, where Syrian rebels are fighting to overthrow the Assad dictatorship. Blaming Israel for anything that goes wrong is a common practice in Syria, and throughout the Moslem world.

September 26, 2011:  Lebanese police arrested an Egyptian man and accused him of being an Israeli spy. The suspect has lived in Lebanon for twenty years and is married to a Lebanese woman. In the last two years, Lebanese police have arrested about a hundred locals and accused them of spying for Israel.

Israeli undercover police finally caught a Hamas leader, who had been ordered to leave Jerusalem a year ago. Instead, the Hamas leader received sanctuary in a Red Cross compound in Jerusalem, and periodically left to conduct Hamas business in the city. Israeli police, themselves disguised as Arab civilians, saw through one of the Hamas official's disguises and arrested him as he left the Red Cross compound. The Red Cross has not yet decided if it will file a protest.

September 25, 2011:  Hamas has ordered foreign journalists to hire a Hamas approved "guide" while they are in Gaza. The guide will accompany them wherever they go, and, presumably, call the police if the journalist does anything Hamas does not approve (like report the police-state tactics Hamas is increasingly using to maintain control of the population.)

September 20, 2011:  Saudi Arabia has donated $200 million to the PLO, in an effort to keep the West Bank Palestinian government going. The Hamas government in Gaza is supported by Iran, which is attempting to displace the Saudi royal family as the guardian of Islam's most holy places.

September 19, 2011:  Israel has withdrawn its police cooperation with Turkey, because of Turkey's continuing efforts to make Israel apologize for defending themselves when Turkish radicals attacked Israeli troops who boarded a blockade running ship off Gaza last year.

Another rocket was fired from Gaza into southern Israel.