Neri Zilber in The Daily Beast: Israel’s Secret Weapon Against Terror

Despite Monday’s bus bombing, terror incidents have waned. Is the $100 million a year the U.S. spends on the Palestinian Authority Security Forces paying off?

GUSH ETZION, West Bank — On a recent cold foggy day at the entrance to Bethlehem, Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. Yoel Pinto pulled his military jeep to the side of the road to point out an overpass where, on occasion, young Palestinians rain down rocks on Israeli cars below.

Pinto, a battalion commander whose infantry unit was responsible for this north-west sector of Gush Etzion, a restive part of the southern West Bank, seemed preternaturally calm despite being at the doorstep of a major Palestinian city—which was likely the point.

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