Israel Update for December 2010

Beginning the first week of December, Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip unleashed a series of rocket barrages upon Israeli civilian communities and military positions in the area. Officials said over 30 mortar shells were fired over a period of two weeks, along with 10 even more destructive Kassam rockets. A Kornet anti-tank missile was also fired at an IDF tank operating along the border, penetrating its metal shell but failing to explode. A 14 year old Israeli girl was later wounded when a rocket crashed down next to a kindergarten on a kibbutz south of the coastal city of Ashkelon. This prompted the strongest IDF response in some time, with air strikes launched upon eight separate Hamas militia positions. This in turn caused Hamas leaders to order a halt to the assaults, which were said to have been mostly carried out by the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror group. IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi told Knesset members that the atmosphere in the Gaza Strip remains 'fragile and volatile.'

Some Israeli commentators said that Palestinian groups may have been emboldened to act after several South American countries announced in December that they officially recognize the existence of a Palestinian state in both the Gaza Strip and inside the pre-1967 West Bank ceasefire lines, which includes the eastern half of Jerusalem. Regional powerhouse Brazil led the charge, followed by Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia. This came as PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad said he was making progress toward fulfilling his earlier stated goal of unilaterally declaring the formation of such a state before the end of 2011. PA leaders also asked the European Union to join the recognition bandwagon despite earlier pronouncements from several leading EU countries that any future Palestinian state should not be established unilaterally, but be created in cooperation with Israel.

Israeli defense officials would not publicly comment on a report issued by a Washington- based security institute claiming a computer virus named Stuxnet has hampered Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons in the near future. The report said that at least 1,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at Iran's largest nuclear facility in the city of Natanz had been effectively deactivated by the virus, which is around one-tenth of the overall total. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in December that the virus had been introduced into the country several months ago by what he termed 'Western interests.' Iran's confirmation that a cyber virus has been attacking its nuclear-linked computers came as the IDF formally inaugurated a military battalion in December called Yanshuf, designed to deal with an unconventional nuclear, biological or chemical attack upon the small country.

Despite continuing tensions in the region, nearly 3.5 million tourists visited the Promised Land during 2010, which is a 14% increase over the previous record year of 2008. Tourism officials are preparing for another banner year in 2011. Whatever lies ahead, may the New Year bring you blessings from on high, from the Lord God of Israel who 'guards your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever' (Psalm 121:8).