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It's the Curfews, Stupid!

"The curfews which the Israeli occupation army imposes for prolonged periods of time on three and a half million Palestinians express the almost total Israeli disregard and callousness toward the Palestinians, their needs, their feelings, their lives, and their very humanity.

"And the message is too clear, namely that 'we are the masters and you are the slaves, and the master can do whatever he likes to the slave.'

"Now, does the world have a better understanding of the suicidal bombers?"

- Khalid Amayreh, "The Curse of the Curfew," Shia News, April 21, 2002

"MAAN, JORDAN - There were no evening prayers Wednesday as hundreds of Jordanian soldiers downed their rations at the end of another day's Ramadan fast, and clambered back into their tanks to impose a sixth night of curfew on the 70,000 inhabitants of Jordan's desert town of Maan.

"Spotlights blazing, a vanguard of armored cars topped with loudspeakers and machine guns cruised the streets ordering residents back to their homes. Convoys of tanks chugged behind. Residents said the tanks had pounded the suburb of Al Tour earlier Wednesday. Security sources said six soldiers and policemen and four residents were killed in the fighting. Scores were also injured in what observers called the biggest military campaign the army had waged inside Jordan since the crushing of the 1970 Palestinian Revolt.

"...A nebulous militant group, the militants have attacked officials and Christians in Egypt and Lebanon, and denounced Arab leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah, to be apostates. The group is said to adhere to the same Salafist ideology as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization.

"'They prowled the town in black masks, and prayed in the mosques with grenades strapped to their chest, prostrating to [assault rifles],' says Musa, the grocer, who welcomed the business brought by the military incursion."

- Nicolas Pelham, "Jordanian Attack on Militants Reveals a National Rift," The Christian Science Monitor, November 15, 2002 (article describing Jordanian crackdown on Islamic militants)

When was the last time you heard of a suicide bombing in Jordan?

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Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Peace with Realism