Conflict Blotter

I’m back in Gaza for a couple of days and the story here is law and order under Hamas. Gazans of all political stripes seem to be enjoying a sort of blissful honeymoon with the new regime here. Families are sitting in cafes and wandering the streets until well past dark. Everybody is talking about […]

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Yediot Ahranot ran a piece today by Ilan Hamra, an expert at analyzing voice recordings. It’s an interesting window into how tapes, like the one Hamas just released of Gilad Shalit, are analyzed.
It is clear that the statements made by Gilad Shalit were dictated by the people holding him. The recording was edited in at […]

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Khaled Amayreh, a Hebron-based writer who tends to sympathize with Hamas and reflect their point of view and always provides sage analysis, has a nice overview of the problems facing the Fayad government going forward, including the daunting task of reigning in the many rogue Fatah militias in the West Bank. You can read the […]

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I spent the last two days running around doing interviews in the West Bank, in Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus. Hamas has definitely gone to ground and seems to be on the run, more so in the north than in the south. In the village of Shiyoukh, south of Hebron, the Hamas dominated town council is […]

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The Army of Islam and other fringe radical groups in Gaza are reportedly seizing on Hamas’ rise to power to exploit their own agendas. Last week there was an attack on a church school in Gaza City in which the attackers decapitated Jesus on the crucifix, burnt icons, and looted computers. Today there were reports […]

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The Erez crossing is a bit of a mess. Swarms of Palestinians are waiting to leave amassing just before the Israeli controlled elctronic gate that is about two-thirds of the way through the half-kilometer long cement corridor connecting Gaza to Israel. There are also dozens of kids milling about looting what little scrap metal and […]

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