Cave-men and women
With Hebron under curfew, Jewish pilgrims flock to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in a Sukkot tour that ends in tragedy.

On the armored bus that made its way from Jerusalem to Hebron sat soldiers and Jewish settlers from the territories. The soldiers were from Paratroop Battalion 101, who guard the Jewish settlement in the city. Along the way the bus went past Palestinian villages. One of the soldiers, his face pressed up against the armored window, threw out to the officer sitting next to him: "Does what we're doing to them look okay to you?"(...)

"Why can't they be kept under curfew all the time?" one of the trippers asked the guide.

"Ask the government," she replied.

In a large courtyard, the guide, Tehila Ben Yosef from Hebron, pointed out signs and indications that Jews had been in the casbah in years past: She identified scars on a wall where a mezuzah had been ripped off. The curfew is so absolute that no signs of life are heard from the houses.

"Where are the Arabs?" asked one of the trippers.

"Don't worry," interjected another tripper. "After the holidays they will let them out again." [read more]

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It's only a matter of time

If an IDF computer, as the myth goes, rather than a military copywriter, gave the Muqata operation the code name "Matter of Time," dumb it's not. If you look at the situation overall and analyze it coldly, there are seven issues that are a matter of time:

1. This is the first time since the occupation that Palestinians have violated a curfew in several cities as a spontaneous protest against the IDF's hazing of Arafat. They galloped through the streets in noisy protest, totally ignoring our forces. The IDF, using its brains this time, did not respond.

A hasty decision would have ended in a bloodbath. But it's only a matter of time before not hundreds, but thousands and tens of thousands, take to the streets during a total curfew. And then, either some stupid officer will give the order to open fire, or the army will accept the fact that an entire people cannot be kept under lock and key. Not because it looks bad on television, but because it will end badly. [read more]

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Water War Looms as Israel Tells Lebanon to Halt River Works

But now Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, has become involved in the whole affair, discussing with army officers the fate of the water project. One Israeli minister scoffed at the use of the army. "Are we going to go to war for four kibbutzes?" he asked. The answer, of course, is that wars have been started in the Middle East over smaller things that the Wazzani. Which is why the waters of this wandering little river could grow a lot hotter in the coming weeks. [read more]