The Conundrum, Part 32

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in an attack on Israeli troops in Gaza. This comes as the Israeli raids on Beit Hanoun continue to stem the rocket attacks into Israel. They keep coming though. One landed south of Ashkelon.

Despite the Israeli raids, they're still permitting aid to travel into Beit Hanoun. Carrot and stick.

Has there been progress on a so-called unity government between Hamas and Fatah? Are their minions still firing at each other? That's the true test. As is the fact that the so-called unity government will still refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist. It's the latter point that means that donor countries will continue withholding much needed financial aid.

This is curious. The Serbian Foreign Minister cites the Arab countries as the impediment to peace in the Middle East.

The main obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the "stubborn refusal" of certain Arab countries and organizations to recognize Israel's right to exist, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic declared Sunday while on a visit to Jerusalem, which he called the capital of Israel.

"I fully understand the fear of the Jewish people, because refusal to recognize the existence of Israel must remind Jews of the Holocaust and seem a demand for a new annihilation, and this couldn't be a basis for negotiations," Draskovic told The Jerusalem Post.

Draskovic said he could well understand the importance of recognition for Israel since the lack of recognition of Serbia's territorial claims to Kosovo form the central cause of the conflict there between the province's Albanian Muslim majority and its tiny Serbian minority.

Go figure.

Syria's considering armed fighting to regain the Golan. That would be a bad idea, unless they're going to adopt Hizbullah's tactics, or let Hizbullah do the fighting for them. Iran, meanwhile, isn't shy about saying that they're willing to share their missile technologies.

The issue of the Temple Mount is the most contentious one in Israel. Jews are routinely prohibited from entering the Temple Mount because of the potential for violence with Muslims praying at the al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock. Yet, a decision by the Israeli Attorney General to permit a Gay Pride Parade to be conducted despite threats of violence might serve as a precedent for opening up access to the Temple Mount for those Jews who might want to pray there. Freedom of expression.

UPDATE:
As Meryl Yourish notes, it was those Syrian peaceful intentions that lost them the Golan the first time around. They're cruising for a bruising yet again, but this time the media is playing foil. Not only is the media covering for declarations of war, but is trying to spin this as being Israel's fault that the Israelis are mean for not giving the Golan back to Syria.

Syria would do better by simply accepting the reality that they've lost the Golan permanently instead of trying to reverse the clock to June 1, 1967, when they were not only in control of the Golan, but were using it to shell Israeli settlements in the Kinneret (Northern Israel around the Galilee Sea (Kinneret). But we know that since land for peace is the coin of the realm these days, Syria is going to try and wrest control of the Golan from Israel by all means at its disposal.

Back in 1993, I spent the summer in Israel, and there was a very strong move for Israel to keep the Golan at all costs. There were posters and fliers all over the place stressing that the Golan was a part of Israel. I sense that this feeling is even stronger now than it was in 1993 given the fallout from the Gaza withdrawal and the situation in Lebanon.

UPDATE:
Should it surprise anyone that Hamas and Fatah couldn't come to an agreement yet again?

Technorati: terrorism, nasrallah, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.