The Israeli army will hold a major exercise simulating an explosion of Palestinian terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank) next week, reported Ha'aretz.

Army officials stressed that the exercise is not necessarily an anticipation that the upcoming US-hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland will fail, though top military sources have been predicting for months that the talks will break down resulting in a new outbreak of Palestinian terrorism.

The simulation will pit limited Israeli forces against widespread Palestinian violence in the West Bank, while the remainder of the Israeli army is pinned down in the north and south of the country in response to ongoing threats from Syria and Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Similar exercises in the past have predicted outbreaks of Arab violence with astonishing accuracy, despite the fact that they are designed to be an exaggeration of expected reality. For instance, Ha'aretz noted, a June 2006 exercise simulated the abduction of Israeli soldiers to Gaza and Hizballah-controlled southern Lebanon. Several weeks later, that exact scenario became a reality.