social notes from here and there

[Michael Eisenstadt]

reading the Jerusalem Post on line (way long ago 
it was a weekly air mailed newspaper on flimsy 
paper) and in an article found this:

At least nine of the Palestinians killed were known 
fugitives, according to IDF Chief of General Staff 
Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon. "I know that nine of 15 of 
those killed Tuesday were involved in terrorism. 
Nine of those names are familiar to me," Ya'alon 
told reporters Tuesday. 

Let's assume he's not lying and he actually did 
recognize 9 of the 15 killed. How could this be?
My longtime assumption has been that it was
impossible for the authorities to snoop on 
everybody, listen to every telephone call, etc.

With 2 million or so Arabs in the territories, 
it may be possible to database everybody
in computer banks. Im not sure but I believe
that the Palestinians have Israeli issued ID 
cards. As Israeli supplies electricity to the West
Bank and Gaza and remits money from the taxes 
it collects to the Palestinian Authority, it may in 
fact have databased pretty much every adult.

And in addition they have quite a number of 
Arab Palestinian informers scattered about.
I cant even begin to imagine how the informers
and their Israeli control officers communicate.
As so many Palestinians have spent time in 
Israeli detention, how is one to know which 
releasee has been bent and is now a snitch?

Both the spiritual leader of Hamas, the beard
in the wheelchair, and his successor, the 
ex-pediatrician often interviewed on TV spent
years in detention. They were let out and some
years later were struck from the sky with missiles.

Interestingly, the Israelis just recently let out 
of detention a highranking Hamas adherent.

I can imagine Hamas asking the releasee how 
come they let you out?