The Day In Israel: Thurs Apr 30th, 2009

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An Israeli Foreign Ministry official has warned European countries that unless they stop criticizing our new Netanyahu-led government, they can forget about participating in the diplomatic process with the palestinians.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly plans to tell US President Barack Obama that Israel will accept “some form” of the Arab Peace Initiative, as a compromise to obtain “more direct and aggressive” US assistance regarding Iran.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:12PM: Youssef Magied al-Molqui, the leader of a palestinian terror cell which hijacked the Italian cruiser Achille Lauro and murdered elderly Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer before throwing him overboard, has been freed.

He had served almost 24 years of his 30-year sentence, and was released early for good behavior.

Here’s hoping:

  • He has spent the last 24 years fending off the advances of his 6″5 300lbs roommate – unsuccessfully.
  • The Mossad know where to find him, and when they do, he’ll wish he was in the arms of his 6″5 300lbs roommate

9:00PM: I want myself one of these (hat tip: Kafir Alalazoo):

Here’s more.

No word yet whether it is resistant to bird flu.

8:28PM:Ha’aretz reports:

The 26-year-old Israeli in quarantine with swine flu is “feeling healthy as an ox but will stay in the hospital for another couple of days,” said his brother Wednesday.

Or maybe he’s just too chicken to tell the truth.

8:12PM: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has made Time Magazine’s list of the top 100 influential people of 2009.

Getty

6:42PM: The Israeli Health Ministry on Thursday has raised its pandemic alert level for swine flu to Phase 5. Which is code for EVERYBODY PANIC!

Measures decided upon include:

  • People returning from Mexico are instructed not to arrive at crowded places and not to use public transportation.
  • All arrival ports are to use stricter screening of incoming passengers, both from Mexico and any other countries hit by the virus, for possible exposure.
  • Each person landing at Ben-Gurion Airport after visiting Mexico will be examined by a doctor before entering the country.
  • Each person entering Israel will be asked to declare whether he/she had visited Mexico in the past week – and will be examined accordingly.
  • The Health Ministry will send doctors to all of Israel’s border crossings and entrances.
  • The Health Ministry will continue monitoring the patients and order them to stay at home.
  • The Health Ministry has been instructed to increase the supply of medications for the disease and ignore budgetary constraints.
  • The Foreign Ministry will halt the departure of delegations from Israel to Mexico.
  • A travel advisory will be issued calling on Israelis to refrain from visiting Mexico.
  • The Foreign Ministry will ask the Mexican authorities to refrain from sending delegations and tourists to Israel.
  • A daily meeting will be held to discuss the issue and decided on further readiness moves

5:00PM: British carrier BMI has ahmadinejaded us by wiping us off the map.

British airline BMI has deleted Israel from electronic maps that appear on its flights in order to avoid angering Muslim passengers, Army Radio reported on Thursday.

Additional efforts on to appeal to Muslim customers include showing the distance and relation of the plane to Mecca, the direction to which Muslims face when they pray.

In the electronic maps appearing on a BMI flight from London to Tel Aviv, for example, Israel and its cities are not marked, with the exception of Haifa, which is spelled ‘Khefa,’ the city’s Arab name dating to before the War of Independence.

BMI operates flights from England to many popular Muslim destinations, including Syria, Lebanon and Iran, but has also recently launched an agreement with the Tourism Ministry to add Israel to its roster.

BMI said in response that two planes en route to Tel Aviv were originally destined to arrive in Arab countries, so the map was tailored to those passengers and showed Muslim holy sites.

The company issued a statement saying that a “logistic failure” caused the map to appear on the Tel Aviv-bound flight and said it will be removed from planes flying to Israel. The statement added that BMI was making every effort not to hurt passengers’ feelings by adopting a nonpolitical position, the statement added.

Nonpolitical position? This is the epitome of a political position.

I’m guessing BMI stands for British Made Infidels.

In any event, I’ve said it time and again. Britain is unfortunately a lost cause.

6:00AM: Perplexing photo of the day: I won’t reproduce it here, due to the nudity. But you can find it here.

It is perplexing because 1) I do not recall seeing any female nudity in a foreign press photograph before (if I am not mistaken, they once showed male nudity, also regarding a photo containing Orthodox Jews) and 2) the whole scenario is odd.

I assume the guys in the picture are not the ones who had been photoshopping women out of the Israeli government, or attacking “sinful” buses.

5:47AM: Israeli President Shimon Peres does not think bombing Iran may be the best solution.

Methinks it is a heck of a lot better than his solutions.

“Attacking the nuclear sites is not the only option. The West has other options. First of all we can tell the Iranians ‘If you launch a nuclear attack, it doesn’t matter against whom, it will illicit a nuclear response.’ Secondly, we can monitor their missiles. It is easier to monitor launching devices. If, like they say, they are not interested in developing nuclear weapons, why do they need launchers?”

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