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Over at his blog, Challah Hu Akbar asks:

Thus far in December, there have been no rockets or mortars fired from Gaza into Israel. Will this be the first month in 5 plus years without a rocket or mortar being fired from Gaza into Israel?

He points out that we need to reach all the way back to 2007 for a month in which no rockets or mortars were fired into Israel from the armed-to-the-teeth Hamas enclave, the Gaza Strip.

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Does this indicate better, safer times ahead? No, not if we consider the very latest opinion poll data released by the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) yesterday.

For this survey, 1,200 Palestinians were interviewed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  All socioeconomic groups were represented in the poll… The margin of error in this poll is plus or minus 3 percent.

The findings that seem of greatest significance to us do not appear in AWRAD’s own summary. You need to dig into the report itself to get to them. Referring to the November 2012 battles in and around Gaza:

* Optimism is widespread [but] the majority of respondents do not believe that the results of the conflict will lead to real change on the ground. 50 percent believe that the confrontations in Gaza will not lead to real change in the affairs of Palestinians. 46 percent believe otherwise.
* 73 percent believe that the Palestinian cause has been advanced by the recent events.
* 87 percent are optimistic that the conflict will lead to reconciliation and unity. [Between whom? Not stated.]
* More respondents in the West Bank say they prefer the Hamas approach (42 percent) over the Fatah/Abbas approach (28 percent). In contrast, Gazans prefer… the Fatah/Abbas approach (40 percent) over the Hamas approach (37 percent).

The kicker:

* 88 percent believe that the results of the confrontation in Gaza prove that armed struggle is the best means of achieving Palestinian independence.

Bottom line: the chances that Gazan mortars and rockets are being withdrawn from service? Not so great.

Visit This Ongoing War.

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Frimet and Arnold Roth began writing and speaking publicly soon after the murder of their fifteen year-old daughter Malki Z"L in the Jerusalem Sbarro massacre, August 9, 2001 (Chaf Av, 5761). They have both been, and are, frequently interviewed for radio, television and the print media, including CNN, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, and others. Their blog This Ongoing War deals with the under-appreciated price of living in a society afflicted by terrorism which, they contend, means the entire world. Frimet is a native of Queens, NY while her husband was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. They brought their family to settle in Jerusalem in 1988. They co-founded the Malki Foundation in 2001 and are deeply involved in its work as volunteers. They can be reached at [email protected] .