Today in Arafatistan

Haaretz reports: “IDF finds tunnel used for smuggling terrorists from Gaza to Israel.” The Jerusalem Post adds “that information about the tunnel was handed over to the Palestinian Authority, but that it ‘did nothing about it.'” And this:

The US, at a separate meeting, said the security problems were caused by technical glitches at the Rafah passage between Gaza and Egypt, and not by Palestinian failures.

Folks, that’s not a glitch, it’s a feature. The Post has a separate story on what seem to be a few other features of the agreements — concessions to the PA are irreversible, and concessions from the PA are unenforceable: “Mofaz demands that PA abide by Rafah deal.”

In a backgrounder on the Rafah crossing agreements, the Post takes a stab at explaining “Why Rice pushed so hard.” That’s easy to explain. What’s a little harder to explain is the Lucy and the football quality of these deals.

The Haaretz story’s concluding paragraphs add the other catches of the day:

In the West Bank, a Palestinian man carrying two improvised explosive devices and a toy gun was caught south of Jerusalem on Saturday morning, Israel Radio reported. Sappers safely detonated the bombs.

The 20-year-old man from Bethlehem told police investigators that he was planning to carry out a terror attack in Jerusalem. On Friday a 15-year-old Palestinian was caught carrying improvized bombs near the Hawara checkpoint close to Nablus. He said he was planning to transfer the bombs, concealed in aluminium cans, to terrorists on the other side of the security fence.

That’s the kind of undiplomatic candor that explains even more than the Post’s analysis of the impetus for the crossing agreements.

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