[link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9925-2001Aug14.html|Militants Find Jenin a Seed Bed for Volunteers]

Of the assaults in the past two months, at least nine have originated from Jenin and surrounding villages around it. Jenin-based terrorists carried out the two most recent suicide bombings: last Thursday's attack on a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 14 Israelis and Sunday's bombing of a cafe in Haifa that injured 20 customers.

[...]

That was the rationale behind Israel's attack on central Jenin early this morning in which tanks and armored bulldozers leveled the main Palestinian Authority police station. But the attack did not seem to dim Jenin's enthusiasm for combating Israel by any means possible. "We got their attention. They came they shot, they left. We are happy," Abu Samer said.

The police station was targeted because Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, blames Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which controls Jenin and its surroundings under peace agreements reached in 1993, for not cracking down on Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Dore Gold, a Sharon spokesman, explained the tank operation as "an act of accountability."

Palestinians do not dispute Jenin's reputation as a source of suicide bombers. This low-rise town of blocky buildings and potholes overflows with bitterness about Palestinian fatalities in the last 10 months, which have risen to more than 500 killed. Anger and nationalism blends with a mystical belief in a divine sanction for martyrdom under Muslim tradition.

"It is something people have begun to take pride in. We are not second to Nablus or Gaza in struggle," said Ramadan Bitta, the Jenin district governor.

Bitta said Arafat's recent call for an end to attacks on civilians influences almost no one. "People here understand it only in one context: that both sides must stop," he said. "If the Israelis don't end killing, the Palestinian people don't see why they should, either."

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That's the problem. Both sides need to stop the violence or neither will. Israel attacking the PA isn't going to improve the situation. It's just going to breed more resentment.

It's a [link|http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=pathetic|pathetic] situation. :-(

Cheers,
Scott.