ISRAEL SEIZES TERRORISTS BEFORE HAMAS CAN FREE THEM FROM JAIL

In 2002, after the Palestinian Authority released a bunch of terrorists from its jails, it was pressured into agreeding to put six assassins into a jail at Jericho, guarded by Americans and Brits. With Hamas now in control of the Palestinian government, the deal has fallen apart. As Ha'aretz reports, the American and British monitors "were withdrawn in response to a statement last week by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who said that he was prepared to free [Ahmed] Sa'adat," one of the men who murdered Rehavam Ze'evi, Israel's tourism minister, in 2001.

You'll recall that Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned that if Hamas released the murderers, Israel would track them down and send them into the arms of white raisins (or virgins, depending upon your reading of the Koran).

Today, the IDF made good on Mofaz's threat, besieging the prison for nine hours until the terrorists surrendered. They are now in Israel's custody.

Israeli soldiers using helicopters, tanks and bulldozers burst into a Palestinian jail Tuesday to seize militants wanted for the assassination of a Cabinet minister, triggering a 10-hour standoff that ended when the prisoners gave themselves up.

Furious Palestinians rampaged through the West Bank and Gaza Strip attacking offices linked to the United States and Europe and torching the British Council building in Gaza City. Palestinian gunmen also kidnapped nine foreigners, including an American university professor, and some aid agencies pulled their foreign staff out of Palestinian areas.

The Jerusalem Post reports that terrorists who kidnapped the American professor in Jenin, Douglas Johnson, blame the whole thing on George Bush:

"This is a response to what Bush did today in Jericho," one of the gunmen, who declined to give his name, told the AP. "If Sa'adat or any of his colleagues are harmed in this operation, we'll kill this guy," he said, referring to Johnson. "If Sa'adat or one of his colleagues is harmed, we will attack American and British consulates everywhere."