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Both US and Israeli officials have downplayed the New York Times report that said the US might not always veto UN Security Council resolutions opposed by Israel, as well as taking other punitive measures to force Israel to halt all construction in West Bank “settlements.”
Meanwhile, former Clinton adviser Dick Morris believes Obama is snubbing Israel over this issue.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
9:46PM: Failed suicide attempt of the day:
9:35PM: At 11AM this morning, air raid sirens sounded across Israel as part of a week-long, country-wide war drill dubbed “Turning Point Three,” at which time we made our way to designated safe rooms.
However, not everything went smoothly.
Nevertheless, the exercise was by no means flawless. At one beachfront Tel Aviv hotel, employees were given three minutes to move to the building’s shelters, but guests were not included.
Also, residents of various cities and locales nationwide complained that they didn’t hear the siren. In one Tel Aviv neighborhood, the air raid sirens could not be heard. And in the city of Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, a worker struggled to unlock the door of a neighborhood bomb shelter as two women watched from the sidewalk.
As the siren faded, one asked the other, “Is it over?” Shrugging their shoulders, the two then went away, and the worker gave up trying to open the shelter.
9:27PM: Wow.
US President Barrack Obama’s administration’s criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policies has crossed the line into interfering in Israeli politics, top Likud ministers and MKs said Tuesday.
Kadima officials responded to the charges by disagreeing that the US was meddling but expressing concern that such a perception by the Israeli public would harm their party and end up strengthening Netanyahu. They accused Netanyahu’s associates of portraying Obama as an enemy of Israel in order to unite the public behind him.
The charges of American interference began April 16 when Yediot Aharonot quoted Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel telling an unnamed Jewish leader: “In the next four years there is going to be a permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of two states for two peoples, and it doesn’t matter to us at all who is prime minister [of Israel].”
Likud Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled said Tuesday that the statement was inappropriate and was just one of many examples of American interference in Israeli politics since Netanyahu’s election. Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon has accused Israeli leftist groups of coaching Obama’s administration about how to handle Netanyahu.
Netanyahu himself appeared to endorse that assertion when he told a Likud MK over the weekend: “What do they want from me? Do they want my government to fall?”
Israeli diplomatic officials were quoted in Ma’ariv on Tuesday accusing the Obama administration of attempting to force Netanyahu to bring Kadima into his coalition and adopt its policies on the Palestinian state issue.
“They are pressuring Livni to retreat from her opposition to joining Netanyahu’s government, so she can enter it and prevent the worsening of relations with the US,” a diplomatic official was quoted as saying.
Likud MK Danny Danon, who has close ties with Christian evangelical leaders in the US, was most blunt in his criticism of Obama. He said Obama refused to admit that the public in Israel chose a different direction, just like America did.
“The American administration thinks that there were only elections in the US,” Danon said. “Any attempt to intervene in Israeli politics only strengthens Netanyahu, who has the support of the public, especially after this interference.”
Hasbara Minister Yuli Edelstein rejected charges that the Obama administration was interfering, but he admitted that it did seem that way.
“It looks like illegitimate interference in Israeli politics but it isn’t,” he said. “The Obama administration is simply sending up trial balloons. They are testing Bibi to see how far he will bend.”
7:48PM: Rabbis, Yesha Council members, and government ministers have condemned recent violence against palestinians by residents of Judah and Samaria.
I am always hesitant to react until I know the facts, especially considering the demonization and propaganda campaign against them. Having said that, in a case such as this where it seems they are their own worst enemy, I condemn their actions.
7:30PM: They have to be kidding, right?
The family of an Arab man shot to death by a Jew believed to be mentally unstable is infuriated that the shooter is not being dubbed a terrorist.
Yoel Almagor Dazanshvili, 48, has confessed to killing Amjad abu-Khader, 33 from Shuafat early Tuesday, before heading to Jerusalem’s Old City to pray and returning to his home. Later, the shooter fired at two Jews, wounding one of them seriously.
Dazanshvili will undergo a psychiatric evaluation and police believe his attack was not nationalistically motivated, as the two Jews he fired at were wearing kippas and were not likely to be mistaken for Arabs. However, abu-Khader’s relatives are upset over the probe’s initial conclusions.
“When one of us kills a Jew, they immediately say he’s a terrorist,” says abu-Khader’s cousin, Salomon abu-Gadir. “This is an injustice.” Another relative, Mai abu-Khader, was also upset: “They said the murderer is crazy. Of course I’m angry; so what if he’s crazy?” she told Ynet.
6:22PM: Yet more “anti-Zionism”, this time from Egyptian Psychologist Dr. Wafa Musa. And if you get through her rant, you’ll see something even more sickening.
6:15PM: US President Barack Obama is reportedly dispatching George Mitchell to Israel in order to hear official responses to US demands for a halt to “settlement” building.
4:05PM: At yesterday’s Salute to Israel Day Parade 2009, Yousef al Khattab, aka Joseph Cohen, used his Jewish background to speak a little Hebrew to the parade participants.
From the Muslim forum on which I found the photos:
Re: Salute to Israel Day Parade 2009 New York City
Quote:Originally Posted by EuropeanMuslim
YouTube – Once Again Into The Belly Of The Beastwhat were you saying to them in hebrew?bro
Asalam 3leikoum wr wb,
I said Yeshivat Merkaz Harav, Hashana Haba v Yerushalayim (Next Year in Jerusalem)[that is a old Jewish saying] then I said Koulanuu bYakhad(all of you togeter) then it was Arabic “Tulab al Mout Jaynak ya Falesteen” The students of death are coming to you oh Falestine. (this was a nasheed from the 1st intifada)
If you didn’t read through to the end of the Wiki link for Yeshivat Merkaz Harav, you may have missed that he was referring to the massacre of 8 young Jewish seminary students over a year ago.
Incidentally, it seems like some forum members may go beyond “merely” supporting terror.
Stop being a kike and whining while others are doing things that your afraid to do, unless your training for jihad and have to hide your identity then i understand
The authorities need to investigate these guys.
2:10PM: Remember our juicy protester friend from yesterday? As the sign shows, he represents www.salafitalk.net.
FDOG visited their website and confirmed they have a sense of humor.
1:55PM: A 13-year old palestinian boy has mistaken the “humanitarian” lane of the Hawara checkpoint with the “please stab soldier” lane.
9:28AM: A Jewish man has gone on a shooting spree in Jerusalem, shooting dead one and seriously wounding another.
It is not yet clear what were his motives, although from the reports, it seems like he was a few agarot short of a shekel.
One man was killed and another was seriously wounded after a 48-year-old resident of Ashdod went on a shooting spree in the center of Jerusalem.
The first man, an east Jerusalem Arab, was shot and killed in Tzahal Square near Jaffa Gate, and the other was shot on Rehov Hrav Kook.
The shooter claimed that he had been engaged in meditation when the first man approached him in a threatening manner. Feeling that his life was in danger, he shot the man, he said.
Several minutes late the shooter opened fire on two religious Jews on Rehov Harav Kook. he claimed that he had felt threatened after the two asked him for a cigarette.
Police arrested the shooter, who, according to their assessments is mentally unstable. It was initially assumed that the motivation for the attack was nationalistic.
The firearm was licensed to the shooter.
The wounded man was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital with a serious chest wound.
Needless to say, Ha’aretz are playing up the nationalistic angle with their headline Jewish gunman kills Arab, wounds another in Jerusalem, despite his apparent mental instability and the inconvenient fact that he also shot at religious Jews.
9:12AM: US President President Barack Obama has continued to talk tough with Israel, basically blaming us for the situation in the Middle East.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Obama vowed to sustain close ties with Israel but said the status quo in the region was “unsustainable,” and put the interests of both countries at risk.
“Part of being a good friend is being honest,” Obama told the US radio broadcaster, continuing his recent tougher tone toward Israel.
“I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also US interests,” Obama said.
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‘Speaking to NPR, Obama argued it is in Israel’s best interests to make peace.”I believe that strategically, the status quo is unsustainable when it comes to Israel’s security,” Obama said.
“Over time, in the absence of peace with Palestinians, Israel will continue to be threatened militarily and will have enormous problems on its borders.”
If I didn’t believe in the G-d of Israel, I’d be seriously worried right about now.
6:15AM: Here’s a BBC interview with a Hizbullah terrorist who confirms that anyone who thinks they have a “political wing” separate from their “military wing” is fooling themself, and they’ll become a political organization once Israel ceases to exist.
6:09AM: Palestinian Ponzi?
6:05AM: Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced at a Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) event that the Canadian government will soon introduce legislation that will enable victims of terrorism to sue perpetrators in Canadian courts, allowing “victims of terrorism to seek justice against individuals, organizations and foreign states that support terrorism.” (hat tip: John)
