You asked for it, Jewlicious commented on it, and so, I must provide: The cat bribe.

So. Vote for me in the JIB awards, because, well, it’s not looking great. I’m not in the top six in a couple of them, and will not go on to the finals.

Best Post (Group B)

Best Israel Advocacy (Group B)

Best Overall (Group B)

Speaking of the JIB Awards, I don’t think I’ve linked to Dave’s blog recently. He’s the one who started the Jewish and Israeli Blogger Awards.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a breakdown of terrorist attacks before and during the so-called “truce” (the palestinians call it the “tahdia,” which does not mean truce), complete with graphs.

There were a total of 2,990 terrorist attacks in 2005. The breakdown:

Gaza 2004: 2,637
Gaza 2005: 1,205

Samaria 2004: 751
Samaria 2005: 677

Judea 2004: 288
Judea 2005: 379

Green Line 2004: 212
Green Line 2005: 195

Notice that the level of terror attacks stayed the same or rose in the West Bank and Israel. Terror attacks were halved in Gaza. Why? Two reasons. First, the terrorists deliberately slowed down terror attacks before it was certain that the Gaza withdrawal would go through, so there would be no reason to cancel it. (In the last days, terrorists stepped up their attempts to make it look like the Israelis were retreating out of fear of them.) Secondly: There were no more Jews to terrorize in Gaza–ergo, terrorist attacks in Gaza would perforce go down, because now the terrorists have to sneak past the well-guarded border in order to murder Jews. Which brings us to Significant Fact Number Three: Kassam rocket attacks went up in the last year.

Kassam attacks 2004: 309
Kassam attacks 2005: 377

These are the only terrorist attacks that don’t have to sneak past the border guards. It is proof that there is no truce, no “hudna,” and no “tahdia.” If you need more proof, there is this:

Regarding the number and level of warnings in 2005, there was no real change in the terrorist organizations’ motivation to attack Israeli targets. The number of monthly warnings remained for the most part fairly high.

The accompanying graph shows that terror warnings have increased since the disengagement was completed.

The good news: Fewer terrorist attacks have been successful. The number of Israelis murdered by terrorists declined 60% over 2004. 45 Israelis were murdered in bombings in 2005. 117 were murdered in 2004. Successful terrorist bombings went down from 15 in 2004 to 7 in 2005.

The big question, of course, is this: If the numbers of terror warnings and attempted terrorist attacks did not significantly decrease in 2005, why were the number of suicide bombings halved?

Many people are pointing to the separation barrier as a major reason. I have, in the past, credited the barrier with cutting the number of suicide attacks. While I still think it is a major factor in preventing suicide attacks, it is not the only factor. The hard work of the Israeli intelligence agencies, security services, police force, and the IDF are what has lowered terror attacks. 160 would-be suicide bombers were arrested last year. There were 578 warnings of impending terror attacks. Anyone who thinks that Mahmoud Abbas is preventing terrorist attacks with that phony truce is ignoring the numbers–which have been available throughout the year, and which are constantly ignored by the mainstream media outlets. If you do see these numbers referenced, you can bet the farm they will be quoted as showing that the “truce” is working.

It is not.

It is a sham, it has been a sham, and it was meant to be a sham from the get-go. The numbers don’t lie: 2,990 terror attacks in a year breaks down to eight terror attacks per day, with another 1.5 attacks per day foiled in some manner.

It is hardly a “truce” when terrorists try, ten times a day, to murder Israelis.

Remember this the next time you read that Israeli defensive actions are “violating” a “shaky truce” that has “held” since the last year.

Last night after Lost, I was feeling quite tired, and came up with a novel idea: How about going to bed when you’re tired?

And so I did, and so I feel extremely refreshed, and so I have no new posts to give you until later today.

You could always vote for me in the JIB awards while you’re waiting.