How Israel's Iron Grip Makes a Third Intifada Brutally Difficult
- A year later, surveillance and raids keeping attacks down
- Death of Shimon Peres renews debate over Israeli occupation
It was well past midnight late in August as a convoy of Israeli armored vehicles raced through the winding streets of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Arriving at a city center mansion, soldiers broke the front gate and detained a middle-aged Palestinian couple in night clothes. In the basement, they seized weapon-making machinery, arms and ammunition.
Roman Goffman, the Israeli commander who oversaw the operation, called it one of the more serious recent weapons finds. But in many ways it was a typical night in the West Bank, and helps explain why a year after Palestinian youths began a campaign of stabbing Israelis, widespread predictions that the latest wave of violence would evolve into a third Palestinian uprising have not materialized.