2005 SAW DRAMATIC DROP IN TERROR IN ISRAEL

HMMM. I WONDER IF THE SECURITY FENCE HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS. DO YOU THINK MAYBE?

IDF figures show dramatic drop in terror
Statistics released by the IDF Tuesday reveal a dramatic drop in Palestinian terrorism this past year, but the army still hesitates to declare the intifada over.

There were five successful suicide bombings this past year that accounted for nearly half of the 52 Israelis murdered in Palestinian terrorist attacks. Of those killed 43 were civilians. A total of 637 Israelis were injured in the attacks.

The IDF did not release any figures for Palestinian casualties. According to Betselem, the Israeli information center for human rights, 170 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the first 11 months of this year. This was significantly lower than in 2004 when 812 were killed.

There was a 55 percent reduction in the number of Israelis killed by terrorist attacks compared to 2004. This was a 44 percent drop last year and a 53 percent drop from 2002 when 453 Israelis were murdered. Last year there were 14 suicide bombings.

"We have proven we can reduce deaths from 450 a year to 50, but remember, we had a year (1999) when only one person was killed by Palestinian terror," said a senior officer. "Our task is to reduce this to a minimum."