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Militärisch gesehen war die gestrige Kommandoaktion palästinensischer Milizen in Nazal Oz perfekt geplant aber nur halb erfolgreich. Die Systemschachstellen: The fuel depot at Nahal Oz, near the Karni crossing, the site of yesterday's terrorist attack in which two Israeli civilians were killed, did not have guards, despite its proximity to the Gaza border and the presence there of civilians. The IDF only had troops along the border fence, who failed to prevent the terrorists' infiltration. IDF sources said that Dor Alon, the company that operates the terminal, probably didn't post guards at the site to save money, even though the IDF had demanded it. The sources said other companies operating border crossings to the Gaza Strip all employed security guards. In response, Dor Alon said it had never been asked to post guards at the depot and that the IDF is responsible for the crossing. ... Die Reaktionen teilen sich in den "normalen" Benzinstop: The flow of fuel from Israel into the Gaza Strip came to a halt on Thursday, one day after Palestinian militants attacked a border terminal used to supply the Hamas-controlled territory. "Gaza is on hold," said Bilal Abdel-Rahman, a father of two from Gaza City, citing the shortage of petrol. Two Israeli civilians were killed in Wednesday's attack by militants on the border crossing at Nahal Oz, the only terminal for piping fuel to the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million people. und die "normalen" Drohungen: A day after three Israelis were killed by terrorists in the South, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert upgraded his threats against Hamas and vowed to take action that would incapacitate the Islamist organization. Aus IDF-Kreisen kommen die üblichen Ablenkungsmanöver: Hamas is presenting a distorted picture of reality in the Gaza Strip and creating a phony humanitarian crisis in order to score points, a senior IDF officer charged Thursday evening. Referring to the latest terror attack at Nahal Oz, Colonel Nir Press, who heads the Erez Crossing Coordination Office, told Ynet that the attack is part of the campaign led by Hamas, aimed at "creating a false display of crisis in order to gain international legitimacy." [Nettes Beispiel für asymetrisches Denken btw.. Während die wohl allerhöchstens informierte Hamas im Kreuzfeuer steht wird das strategische Denken der ausführenden Splittergruppen negiert. Damit negiert man aber auch zumindestens in der Öffentlichkeit die Existenz des Denkens das nur auf Zeit und Gelegenheit beruht und das eben keinen "strategischen Plan" aufweist, es sei denn man hält Entführungen für strategische Pläne. Die Ebene wird jedoch gleich von Hamas-Militärführer Sami Abu Zuhri said Thursday that the attack on the fuel depot was "one of the many choices Hamas has. This was the first option, and the beginning of the eruption against the blockade," he said. Ein wesentliches Merkmal von Konflikten, die Inversion der Realität, da die Attacke die Blocke mit nichten aufheben, sondern eher verstärken wird.] ... The murder at the fuel depot at Nahal Oz yesterday shows that Israel is having a hard time establishing a sufficiently effective deterrent against the terror organizations operating from the Gaza Strip. Even if Hamas is not currently firing rockets at the Negev itself, it is continuing to clash with the Israel Defense Forces along the Gaza border and is not lifting a finger to rein in the smaller Palestinian factions firing Qassams and sending operatives into Israel. In contrast with the situation on the Lebanese border since the war, there has barely been a single day of quiet on the southern border in the last two years. [...] In the wake of the steps toward peace in our region, the large-scale exercise to examine Israel's readiness to defend itself from massive rocket attacks on population centers and strategic facilities reached its high point Tuesday. On the same day, a memorial rally was held in Jerusalem for the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva students who were killed 30 days before. Yesterday, one soldier was killed in southern Gaza while two Israelis were killed by terrorist gunfire at the Nahal Oz terminal. And of course, as per usual, rockets of peace continued to fall on the western Negev. [...] An Israeli think tank said in a study it released on Thursday that Hamas' military buildup is at its peak, despite the international blockade on the Gaza Strip. In an estimate of the current strength of the militant group's forces, the think tank said Hamas had organized 20,000 armed forces and acquired long-range rockets and advanced anti-tank weapons. The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center also said that Israel's 2005 pullout from Gaza enabled the militant Palestinian group to boost its power in the coastal strip, over which it gained control in a violent takeover in June 2006. "The Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 created a new situation which accelerated the establishment of an area fully controlled by Hamas. It was quick to use its increased military power to make political capital in internal Palestinian affairs," the study states. [Full report]

Ja, und irgendwie wars das auch schon. The Israeli government and politicians sent mixed messages on Thursday regarding plans by former US president Jimmy Carter to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus next week. [...] Two Palestinians from the West Bank city of Nablus were arrested last month for planning to poison diners at the Ramat Gan restaurant that employed them, according to details revealed Thursday after a gag order was lifted. [...] Former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak has called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to fire Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, whom he has accused of threatening to destroy Israeli democracy. Barak, who has spoken publicly against Friedmann's policies over the past few months, dropped his gloves and came out swinging in personal articles and interviews published this week in the country's three main Hebrew newspapers. Friedmann replied to Barak's allegations in a separate article in Yediot Aharonot on Thursday. Barak's lengthy Ha'aretz interview was due to appear on Friday, but copies were distributed a day earlier to subscribers... Verhaftungen in der Westbank: 28, davon 7 Hamas-Mitglieder durch die Fatah.

Jordan is this year facing a severe drought, the likes of which it has not witnessed in decades. The government is scrambling to find means of coping by reducing supplies to households and spearheading a nationwide campaign to encourage rationing. Rivers and lakes are a rare commodity in this desert kingdom, with most of the water supply coming from dams that collect water during the rainy winter season or from springs that have been siphoning off the kingdom's underground reserves. A disappointing rainy season has left most of the country's dams half empty. Precipitation registered during the rainy season constituted only 57 percent of the long-term annual average of 8.3 billion cubic meters. [...] The Palestinian government and the union of civil servants on Thursday agreed to discuss the initiative suggested by the Palestinian parliamentarian blocs regarding the current stalemate between the government and the unions, Azzam Al-Ahmad, Fatah's speaker in the Palestinian Legislative Council PLC announced. Al-Ahmad told a press conference in Ramallah in the central West Bank that both sides in the dispute have agreed to end the current crisis. Under the deal the government will cancel all punitive measures against striking civil servants who in turn have agreed to suspend their protests, including strike action. The parties will then meet to discuss a way of reaching agreement on the union's demands. [...] Falk-Affaire: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday urged the UN Human Rights Council to reject the reports compiled by the UN special investigator on Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories. [...] Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt angered Israeli diplomatic officials Wednesday when he made a direct comparison between Hamas and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu. In an interview with a Swedish radio station, Bildt was asked how it was possible for Israel to make peace with the Palestinians while Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip. "It is possible to make peace without Hamas the same way it is possible to make peace without Netanyahu on the Israeli side," Bildt said. [:-)]

Sami Moubayed, "War and Peace, Israel style": The Israelis insist they are not seeking war with the Syrians, even as Israel began its biggest military maneuver in its history since 1948. This was on the border with Syria, which has been calm since the June war of 1967. This nation-wide "exercise" is being carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command, in cooperation with the recently-established National Emergency Authority.