Current news from Israel's neighborhood in the Middle East strikes me as more surreal than usual. First, Syria has by rotation become president of the UN Security Council: "Syria assumes presidency of UN Security Council." The Jerusalem Post story notes that during Syria's stint as president last year, "the Damascus-based Islamic Jihad terror group claimed responsibility for killing 17 Israelis in a suicide bombing at the Megiddo junction."

This morning's New York Post reports the results of Shin Bet's interrogation of two Hamas operatives it recently apprehended: "Hamas duo planned to down chopper." The chopper was to be carrying Ariel Sharon, but "the plotters suffered a serious blow when their commander, Abdullah Kawasmeh, was killed by Israeli commandos June 21."

The Post carries a wire service story reporting that a meeting between Sharon and Daddy Mazen "was cancelled after a Palestinian shooting attack wounded four Israelis and Palestinians reacted with scorn to Israel's decision to release some 440 Palestinian prisoners." Yasser Arafat's comment on the release of only 440 terrorist detainees once again demonstrated a certain kind of gall: "What is this? Deception?"

The story usefully alludes to one or two of the projects for which the terrorist detainees are needed: "Also Tuesday, a Palestinian boy died in a Gaza Strip hospital after an explosive device went off in his hands, hospital sources said. Details of the incident and the boy's name and age were not immediately available. In another incident, three children were moderately wounded in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis when an explosive device blew up while they were playing with it, hospital officials said."

The Post also carries a column commenting on the continuing immunity of "Arafat's very own terror brigades," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Connecting the dots between and among these items leads ineluctably to the conclusion that Israel's policy of targeted assassinations and Israel's construction of the security fence are proving insurmountable obstacles to peace.