The walls of Jericho came tumbling down ...

Israel stormed the walls of a Jericho prison yesterday and led away some Palestinians in captivity. Harry de Quetteville in today's Telegraph puts it beautifully:

In the Old Testament the children of Israel circled the ancient city of Jericho seven times until its walls collapsed.

Yesterday morning more than 100 Israeli combat troops arrived armed not with the ark of the covenant but bulldozers, helicopters, tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

Wonder what Ahmed Saadat would make of that passage, although I very much doubt that that is uppermost in his mind at this moment.