2. Wishful thinking at al-Ha'aretz

The de facto PLO organ, al-Ha'aretz, continues its psychological war of incitement dn demoralization against the Zionist pioneers in Yesha. In an article that could have been written by our own reader Benji, the rag sheet summarizes:

In fact, the kiss of death to the settlers' campaign to win public support for their cause may already have come - and from precisely those settlers most fervent in their opposition to disengagement.

The de facto PLO organ then continues to gloat:

At a time when ambush rifles and suicide bombs have largely stilled in other areas of the Holy Land, the Israeli families of the Strip are the targets of daily, at times hourly shelling.

Palestinian gunners firing mortars, homemade Qassam rockets and anti-tank missiles have fired more than 5,000 projectiles at the settlements, nearly one for each Jewish man, woman and child in the Strip.

I tip my hat to the Zionist pioneers who will not yield to terrorists.

3. News flash

al-Ha'aretz believes that the following is not worth more than one line:

16:58 Hundreds of settlers block entrance to Defense Ministry and traffic on Kaplan street in Tel Aviv

4. Euphemisms

Arutz7 reports:

Though police officials are not optimistic about their chances for successfully and efficiently executing the evacuation of Gush Katif and northern Shomron, they are working on a plan to do so. The name of the police program: "Shevet Achim," from the verse in Psalms, "How pleasant it is for brothers to sit together."

Why does that remind me of euphemism like Arbeit Macht Frei?

5. Your donation dollar to Israel at work

IsraelBehindTheNews reports:

The Israel Police has begun to equip for the operation to evacuate settlements in the context of the disengagement plan.

Police assessments as to the scope of violence expected to be encountered in the course of the evacuation worsen with every report about an escalation in the settlers' battle...

Police representatives have held a series of meetings with Finance Ministry officials in an attempt to persuade them to accede to their budgetary requests. The police have scaled down their original request for NIS 500 million to NIS 370 million, but the Finance Ministry has not agreed to meet the request yet. A substantial part of that sum is to be used to recruit reservists and to deal with logistical aspects of evacuation operation.

Happy new year, everybody!

6. Collaborators

ABC news reports:

Residents of a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip have agreed to move to a community inside Israel and will begin the evacuation in March, an Israeli official said Sunday.

Yonatan Bassi, head of the government administration in charge of Israel's planned withdrawal, on Sunday confirmed a deal had been reached with residents of Peat Sadeh last week.

He said about 25 families live in the settlement, which would become the first to be dismantled under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan.

Although the deal affects a tiny percentage of the 8,200-strong settler community of Gaza, it would give Sharon an important boost.