Israel has no idea what to do with J'nin now that they have it, and they don't want to let go of it. The palestinians living there are fucked, theyve lost all hope. the following is an excerpt from Haaretz on the situation now in Jnin.

"Col. Moshe Tamir, commander of the Golani Brigade, is now commander of the Jenin district. The term "district commander" includes a lot of elements of a military governor, even if a temporary one. Tamir found himself in two meetings with the Palestinian Authority's mayor, Haider Rashid, in which Tamir emphasized that his mission, as an IDF officer, is to seek and destroy the terrorist infrastructure. But that didn't prevent him from dealing with issues like what to do about the high school matriculation exams (the IDF allowed makeup exams for those who missed the first test because of the operation).

When a Palestinian adult and three children were killed by a tank shell in the city market, the IDF sent an apology and expressions of regret and condolences to the local TV station, with a promise the incident would be investigated. This week, authorizations were made for Jenin businessmen to meet with Israeli businessmen.

In some districts in the West Bank, commanders are ready to recommend limited renewals of passes for Palestinians to work in Israel, despite the risks involved.

Despite the scars from the fighting that still decorate the buildings in north Jenin, it seems the current operation has greatly reduced the amount of friction between the army and the civilian population. There is no permanent army presence inside the city. Golani soldiers are not occupying a single house in Jenin. The troops are deployed outside the city, mostly on the seam line. They go in and out of the city according to need, mostly for specific arrests.

There is also no real attempt to maintain the curfew during the day. Yesterday, the curfew was kept in place for a few hours in the morning because of a specific alert about a terrorist group at work. At 11 A.M., the curfew was lifted and cars began to move freely in town. The curfew only is imposed seriously from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M.

There is minimal resistance to the actions. Occasionally, a local Fatah cell lays some mines on the roads taken by jeeps, and when jeeps enter the refugee camp's outskirts they are greeted by stones thrown by children.

From the observation post above the camp, the "field" left behind by the army's bulldozers is clearly visible. But the tent camp put up by the UN after Operation Defensive Shield is mostly empty. According to the army, it fills up only when the foreign press shows up, about once a month.

Compared to the hundreds of dead and thousands of arrested during Defensive Shield, the army is now much more pinpointed in its operations. The big difference is in Fatah's reduced ability to act, compared to January and March when it flooded Israel with suicide bombers. The effort, therefore is aimed mostly at Hamas and Islamic Jihad cells.

Out of a population of nearly a quarter of a million people in Jenin and its surroundings, the army is now seeking 15 "heavies," and 75 more junior operatives in terror groups. Except for specific alerts about a specific terrorist on his way to Israel, those numbers do not justify curfew during the day.

The most senior of the suspects hiding in the area is Jama Abu Hijla, a Hamas politician who took over military authority with the death of other activists in the military wing. Meanwhile, al-Hujla, who lost a hand to Golani fire in February, has proved himself to be "a pro," in the military sphere, say army sources. Another wanted man is Nasser Gerar, of Hamas, who lost an arm and a leg, but has not lost his enthusiasm for plotting attacks.

The IDF, which manages to capture "number two and number three" men consistently, finds it difficult to reach the number one man in local cells; they've gone deep underground and still enjoy the support of the community.

Last Saturday, there was a perfect example of how the army foils an attack. Intelligence said a Jihad activist was on his way from Nablus to Jenin, trying to get to Afula. The Shin Bet and IDF managed to get to each member of the cell, in descending order form the plotters in Nablus, through the senior member in Qabatiyah, who sent the suicide bomber. But the bomber himself managed to elude the army until he reached the last line of defense, the 12th Golani battalion on the seam line near Umm el Fahm. The bomber was exhausted by then and knew the army was on his trail. He fired a few shots at the soldiers, but then gave himself up, even showing them where he had hidden the explosives belt he planned to wear.

A mid-term summary of the Jenin operation shows some 70 arrests in a month, including 10 people - two of them young women - who were due to try to blow themselves up inside Israel.

The terrorists are adapting quickly to the new situation, said an army source. "They understand they should do less but focus on more spectacular attacks," said the source. Indeed, it's the reduced level of activities that also makes it more difficult to catch them. The arrest rate has dropped.

If the months before Defensive Shield were an expression of the complete unity between the population and the terror groups, it seems the picture has been reversed. It's doubtful that the trauma of the shock suffered by the Palestinians in the territories as a result of Defensive Shield and the current operation is properly appreciated in Israel. "They felt they were about to break us, but it didn't happen," said a senior officer. "For them, the dream has been broken. It's almost like 1967 or even 1948. Nearly everything they built since Oslo is gone. What kind of Palestinian entity remains if the IDF decides when cucumbers are sold here?"

But the big question, he added, is whether Israel will know how to manage the conflict from now on. Will it send the population back into the arms of the terrorists or will it know how to create an alternative?"