Thursday, January 10, 2008
Here's an official report form the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that I was forwarded: Palestinian Terrorism in 2007 - Statistics and Trends [PDF]
This document summarizes the data and major trends that characterized Palestinian terror in 2007, broken down by areas, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and general trends that were prominent this year, such as the activities of the Palestinian security apparatus, the growing strength of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and exploitation of humanitarian allowances. This past year brought significant changes that affect the entire region. The most conspicuous was Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip, which altered the reality in the Palestinian arena by creating de facto two separate Palestinian entities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
Despite the changes in the Palestinian arena and Hamas's takeover, we were witness in 2007 to a continuation of the substantial reduction in the number of suicide attacks, and as a result, in the number of persons killed. This reduction resulted primarily from the combined efforts of the Israeli Security Agency, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Israel Police...
Contains charts:
Trends are down. It's reasonable to infer that the fence is working. Certainly, the idea that the fence causes resentment and thus increased violence is not represented in any statistic.