Oh, and btw, they weren't "settlers"

Jerusalem Post reports that the two Israelis murdered earlier today have been identified as Private Ahikam Amihai (20) and Sergeant David Rubin (21), both from Kiryat Gat (near Ashkelon).

But the two were hiking with a female companion in the "Hebron hills" in Judea, part of the disputed territory known as the West Bank and supposedly "occupied" by Israel.

The information on the West Bank found in the CIA Factbook (updated 12/13/07) is confusing.

On the one hand it says that the Population numbers about 2.5 million and that 17% of the population is Jewish; this would mean 425,000 Jews, would it not?

On the other hand, it notes "in addition" to the Population, "there are about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem."

This provokes several questions. First, how many Jews live in the West Bank? 187,000 - or more than twice that number?

Does the CIA not count Jews as part of the Population?
(If not, why not?)

What does Jerusalem have to do with it?

And since when did any official U.S. government entity recognize and legitimize the Arab propagandistic notion that there is any such thing as "East Jerusalem"?

And finally, since when does the CIA sound so much like the State Department?

(See John Bolton in the Washington Post, three weeks ago.)

Comments

[Mordechai Y. Scher]

Are you sure about the Kiryat Gat connection? All the stories I've seen have these young me coming from Kiryat Arba. The fact the Rav Lior, rav of Kiryat Arba, was at the funeral might support this.