The Palestinians should thank their lucky stars that their neighbors are the Israelis and not Americans

The Israeli internal security agency, Shin Bet, release a report at the end of July on the security situation in Israel since the January 22, 2005 tahdiya or period of calm that was negotiated by the Palestinian Authority. I came across this Jerusalem Post reference to it recently.

The first seven months of the year have witnessed a gradual increase in attempts by all West Bank terror organizations, especially Islamic Jihad, to launch attacks – despite the Palestinian-declared tahdiya (truce) on January 22 – a seven-page report published by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday.

The calm has deteriorated slowly, coming to a head in July with 436 attempted attacks registered for that month alone. There was also a 50 percent increase in Gaza-based mortar attacks during the same period with a total of 142 mortar shells fired at settlements, compared with 65 in May, the report stated.
Since the beginning of the year, 33 Israelis have been killed, 21 of that number after the so-called January 22 truce. According to the report, Jenin and Nablus remain the hotbeds of terror, and were the focus of widespread operations conducted by the Shin Bet and IDF in recent months.

Nablus – where terror cells continue to stockpile weapons, explosives, and chemicals to build bombs and manufacture Kassam rockets – was the site of a number of raids in recent weeks. In Jenin, Islamic Jihad and Fatah Tanzim members have joined forces to improve their capability. The report noted that the Islamic Jihad infrastructure there is considered to be one of the most dangerous operating in northern Samaria.

Israel is a country with approximately a population of 6.2 million, and yet it sustained 436 attempted terror attacks in the month of July 2005 alone. Let that number, 436, settle into your mind. I live in a country of approximately 32 million people and cannot even begin to fathom the emotional devastation and outright rage that most Canadians would feel if the number of attempted terror attacks reached 10 in any given year; let alone 436 attempted attacks in just a month during an alleged period of calm.

I never really considered patience as a cultural characteristic of Israelis but I think its time to revise my opinion. If our American neighbors experienced 436 attempted bombings, mortar and rocket barrages and sniper attacks on the US homeland in any given month you can bet the farm and ten years of crops that somebody would be getting nuked.