The Day in Israel: Thurs Apr 2nd, 2009

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New Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has told Ha’aretz that Israel is ready for mutual peace moves, and will stick to the phased nature of the road map of 2003 – which means no moving forward unless the palestinians confront terror, take control of Gaza and demilitarize Hamas.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians are waiting for a Lieberman apology regarding his October comments in which he said if Mubarak doesn’t want to come to Israel, “he can go to hell.” Ouch.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:58PM: Still no news on CNN of the terror attack.

8:15PM: The Jerusalem Post reports that the IDF has “a lead” in the search for the terrorist who perpetrated today’s heinous murder.

“We will do the utmost in order to find him and put him where he belongs,” Lt.-Col. Guy Oshrey, the deputy commander of the Etzion Brigade, told Army Radio.

That would be 6 feet under. But I somehow don’t think that is what Lt.-Col. Guy Oshrey meant.

6:25PM: Channel 10 reports that the IDF believes the Bat Ayin terrorist will be apprehended within hours.

6:10PM: Here’s how CNN has reported today’s axe-attack murder of 16-year-old Shlomo Nativ and injuring of 13-year-old Yair Gamliel.

.

.

Yep. Nada. Zilch.

But not to worry. They have covered the most important Middle East news, namely Israeli foreign minister spurns peace process.

5:00PM: Nothing to see here. Just some kids reciting anti-Semitic messages.

4:57PM: Here is how the palestinian Ma’an News has reported today’s terror attack resulting in the murder of a 16-year-old boy and serious injuring of a 7-year-old: Israeli settler killed in apparent West Bank ax attack; Israeli forces overrun nearby villages

4:02PM: Today’s terror victim Shlomo Nativ.

shlomo-nativ

May G-d avenge his blood.

3:30PM: Those wacky peace partners of ours at the PA have arrested and expelled to Israel Wafa Younis, the musician from northern Israel who founded a youth orchestra in the Jenin refugee camp. Her crime? Organizing a performance for Holocaust survivors.

I am guessing this did not sit especially well with Holocaust-denying “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, reading the report, I noticed something very interesting.

On Tuesday, Younis had been meeting with students’ mothers when about four armed men in civilian clothing surrounded her. The militants were led by Zakariya Zubeidi, head of Fatah in the camp, who demanded that Younis go with him in his car to the camp’s police station.

“The police chief, who is familiar with my activities, said he would prefer that I leave because those are the instructions regarding anyone with an Israeli identification card,” Younis told Haaretz Thursday.

“Zubeidi offered a hudna, where we would suspend our activities for a time, and I agreed. I’ll return to Jenin at the right moment because the children are waiting for me, because the community is waiting for me. And if I can’t teach them in their classroom I’ll teach them in the center I founded in A’ara [where she lives].”

The last time we heard about Zakariya Zubeidi, we were being made to believe he was a changed man, devoting much of his time to promoting the theatre to young palestinians.

So much for that.

Maybe he’s trying to win back Tali Fahima.

3:28PM: The murdered boy has been identified as 16-year-old Shlomo Nativ, at least according to Ynet and JPost. Ha’aretz reports he was 13-years-old. He will be laid to rest at 6:00PM.

1:10PM: The mayor of Gush Etzion Regional Council has said that Bat Ayin’s local security watch squad shot at the terrorist but he got away. He also noted that no palestinian workers are employed in the town.

“It is clear that the terrorist came in with the intention of murdering and terrorizing. The only way he could have come in was through infiltration.”

12:57PM: Here is a map showing where Bat Ayin is.

bat-ayin-map

12:55PM: Channel 2 reports that Bat Ayin residents are in shock and have been told to stay inside their homes. Meanwhile, a resident has said the community has no security fence.

12:50PM: TERROR ATTACK: An axe-wielding Arab terrorist has killed a 13-year-old boy and seriously injured a 7-year-old boy in the West Bank town of Bat Ayin in Gush Etzion, before escaping the scene.

The initial assumption is the terrorist was an Arab laborer, and therefore had entered the community without arousing suspicion.

Brave man, huh?

10:50AM: Syrian Dorktator Bashar Assad:

“There is no escaping the fact that the day will come when we will free the Golan, through peace or through war.”

You and which army?

10:32AM: John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza head, has threatened to fire employees recently elected to lead its labor union if he finds they are involved with palestinian political factions.

In a letter to his 10,000 staff, John Ging, the Gaza head of operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, said employees must not “be under the influence of any political party in the conduct of their work.”

Because we all know it is their involvement in palestinian politics that is a problem.

I assume Ging not mentioning involvement with a terrorist organization or in terrorist activities as grounds for firing means it isn’t. Unless “be under the influence of any political party in the conduct of their work” is meant to cover this, which means Ging just classified terrorist organizations as “political parties.” Either way, Houston UNRWA you have a problem.

8:40AM: Every year or so, the Arabs play the “Let’s-ask-‘Was Arafat Poisoned?’-and-draw-attention-away-from-the-likelihood-he-died-of-AIDS” game.

Well, it’s apparently that time of the year again.

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