North Korean-style hijinks are afoot in the holy land. Some military analysts and news junkies will recall the tunnels North Korea built underneath the DMZ as a surprise invasion route to the South. Since the North knew its antiquated military couldn't punch its way through the fortified South Korean-American lines, the idea was to go under, envelop the defenders and storm into Seoul (When discovered, Pyongyang explained away the tunnels as coal mine shafts, or simply insisted that the ROK had dug them to invade the North).

Now the Palestinian Authority has announced, as part of a $1 billion economic development fund, a plan to construct a subway tunnel between Rafah and Beit Hanoun.

Something doesn't add up, here.

Subways are expensive pieces of transportation infrastructure. They can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. It's not like the Palestinians don't have other more pressing financial needs (like funding the salaries of convicted murderers of Israelis). And they are usually built in dense urban centers with thriving business districts that are already facing massive gridlock.

But Rafah is a town of just 71,000 in the southern Gaza Strip. And Beit Hanoun is a rural town -- more of a village, really -- of just 32,000. Far from being an urban centre, it's essentially a farming outpost. If you are building a subway between Gaza and the West Bank out of simple economic considerations, the more logical route is between Gaza City (population 450,000) and Ramallah (population only 25,000, but the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority).

The only logical reason to connect the southern Gaza strip with Beit Hanoun is the town's proximity to the Israeli town of Siderot, just a few kilometers away. Palestinian terrorists have used Beit Hanoun in the past to fire missiles indiscriminately at Siderot and other nearby towns. That is, a tunnel would make it easier for Hamas to bring in large numbers of jihad-happy maniacs and tons of heavy weapons. And if the subway were extended a little further, they could be looking at a more ambitious invasion of Israel, perhaps envisioning the participation of an "Arab Legion" -- especially now that Egypt is opening its border with Gaza and falling in love all over again with the Hamas regime.

Too conspiratorial? Couldn't happen?

Well, look at it this way: Manhattan needs a subway system. London needs one, too. Tel Aviv could probably use one, but Israel doesn't have a subway system anywhere in the country. Beit Hanoun is not Manhattan, London or Tel Aviv. So why are the Palestinians building a subway tunnel going right up to the border with Israel?

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist