The Day In Israel: Mon July 13th, 2009

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry has blasted the call by EU foreign policy (failure) chief, Javier Solana, for the UN to set a deadline for the establishment of a palestinian state.

“Resolutions 242 and 338 of the United Nations, the roadmap [peace plan] and agreements between Israel and the Palestinians all cautiously determine that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be reached through negotiations by the sides,” the ministry said in a statement.

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The Foreign Ministry added: “Israel has called more than once for the immediate renewal of the talks without preconditions.

“Another demand setting an artificial deadline endangers and harms the chances of actually reaching a bilateral agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, in yet another example of misguided European policy towards Israel, Britain has refused to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa’ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip were used for defending Israel earlier this year.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:05PM: Here’s the Reuters report on the Cellcom ad, which quotes Israeli bloggers opposed to it.

One such blogger is this guy, who comes down hard on mainstream Israelis, and completely ignores the reason that there is a need for a security fence to begin with. It is all well and good for an Israeli to look inward at Israeli society and critique it, but I find something patently dishonest about ignoring terrorism and its impact on societal views and attitudes, especially towards the society from which it emanates.

Mind you, Richard Silverstein is on his blogroll, so I am not altogether surprised.

7:18PM: Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi has sent Cellcom a letter protesting the advertisement.

6:23PM: The following Israeli Cellcom advertisement has been derided by members of a Facebook group as “racist.”

If anyone would like to explain how this is racist, be my guest.

I suspect these people really dislike the ad because the IDF soldiers are depicted as being human beings.

5:08PM: Yesterday, I posted “Bruno’s” interview with terrorist Ayman Abu Aita. If you missed it, here it is again.

WND reports Aita may sue Sasha Baron Cohen.

A “terrorist leader” interviewed in the just-released hit movie “Bruno” is fuming mad, telling WND the film mislabels him and that the movie’s star, Sasha Baron Cohen, conducted the interview under false pretenses.

Ayman Abu Aita, who is labeled in the movie as a “terrorist group leader,” said he was shocked when he learned five days ago the film depicts a homosexual character and contains scenes including full frontal male nudity and graphic homosexual fetish sex.

Aita also slammed Baron Cohen as a “big liar” who “made up stories” when describing to CBS’s David Letterman last week the way he met Aita at an undisclosed location. Aita said he is pursuing legal action against Baron Cohen.

“[Baron Cohen] said this was a film going to help the Palestinian cause,” Aita told WND. “When I heard (four days ago) what this film was about I really didn’t believe it.”

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In an interview with Letterman last week, Baron Cohen described meeting Aita and Aita’s “bodyguard” at an undisclosed location in the West Bank.

“I thought I needed security,” Baron Cohen told Letterman. “It was in the West Bank. The guy picks this secret location. … The terrorist comes in with his bodyguard.”

“I was pretty sure that my terrorist either did or did not have a gun on him,” said Baron Cohen.

Aita, however, says the interview took place at a private section of a popular restaurant called Everest in the town of Beit Jala, which is in a section in the West Bank under Israeli control.

Aita said he does not carry any weapons and Palestinians are not allowed to bring weapons into Beit Jala. Indeed, during multiple in-person interviews with WND, Aita was unarmed.

Aita also said he does not have a bodyguard. The second individual who showed up with him for the interview with Baron Cohen, he said, was Sammy Awad, the American manager of the Holy Land Trust.

Asked if he thought anything was unusual about the way Baron Cohen acted or dressed during the interview, Aita replied, “No. He behaved very normally.”

“There was nothing special,” continued Aita. “He said he is a German actor making documentaries watched by young people. … He wanted to make a story to mobilize the young people to help us (Palestinians). … I didn’t have any impression he would use my interview in a bad way.”

Aita slammed Baron Cohen as a “big liar.”

He said he is in the process of securing a lawyer to pursue possible legal action, claiming the film “made me big damages.”

4:55PM: The Free Gaza terror enablers are disseminating the following video to gain sympathy for their cause.

I am posting it to further illustrate their love affair with lying.

Pay special attention to the very relaxed Mairead Maguire at 3:27, telling the cameraman she thinks they will be alright and the Israeli navy’s threat to attack them is a bluff. Now compare this to what she said in this Democracy Now interview.

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: Yes, indeed. I mean, when as were the combat troops in masks and fully armed came on board our small boat, some people were injured. And even during—that happened during the day. But our life was put at risk even more, because the previous night, during the night, when we were in international waters, we were—a couple of Israeli naval ships came up around us. Over the radio, they told us if we did not turn back into Cyprus, they would shoot at our boat. They cut off our communications, including our satellite communications. So we were in grave danger of actually being killed at that point.

In other words, even though the footage shows Maguire did not believe they were in any danger (which of course proved to be the case, given that the Israeli navy did not shoot at the boat), she says otherwise in the interview.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone familar with the exploits of Free Gaza’s sister organization, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), whose training pack (no longer online) advised members to lie.

4:25PM: Oh, this should be good.

Member of the British House of Commons George Galloway told the press Monday he was planning to organize a new solidarity convoy to Gaza that would include Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

1:07PM: From the You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me Department:

A last-minute effort to show solidarity with Gilad Shalit at the Maccabiah’s opening ceremony Monday ended in disappointment for the British and American delegations, after organizers forbade them from wearing yellow ribbons.

We truly try too hard to be like other countries.

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