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According to the latest military assessments, Hamas is very weak in the “West Bank” and is working mostly on surviving and retaining its capabilities for a future time. To this end, they have lowered their profile in the “West Bank” out of fear their men will be captured by the PA and the IDF.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
8:08PM:Headache inducing music? Check.
Voiceover man trying too hard? Check.
Irresistible lines like “Our dignity after this day..Will not be tread” and “Our chests are the barricade”? Check.
Completely wrong translation into Hebrew at the end? Check.
Via the Hamas website.
6:15PM: By all accounts, the wedding of of Mahmoud Dahlan, the nephew of former PA security chief Muhammad Dahlan, was a blast.
5:58PM: And now for a wooden wrap-up of yesterday’s Maccabiah Games.
5:45PM: My friend Stephanie Gutmann argues why America needs Israel more than Israel needs America.
5:40PM: The Egyptian Foreign Minister and noted morality expert Ahmed Aboul Gheit has a problem with Israel’s insistence on deporting “West Bank” prisoners to the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit says that most issues concerning a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas which would secure kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit’s release have already been agreed upon, and the only obstacle left is Israel’s insistence on deporting West Bank prisoners to the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat, Aboul Gheit said that Israel’s demand to deport prisoners was “unacceptable from a moral and human point of view.”
The Egyptian minister noted that “the number of prisoners to be released by Israel has already been agreed on, as were the stages of the release. Many arrangements have also been agreed upon, including the problem of some of the Palestinians holding an Israeli citizenship and the deportation from the territories.”
He added that “the talks between Egypt and Israel on this matter have dealt with Israel changing its demands and accepting the Egyptian logic. We can guarantee that those freed will not harm Israel’s security after their release. We are taking this on our shoulders, but the Israelis are insisting on deporting them, and this is unacceptable.”
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t recall Gheit lecturing the palestinians about terrorism being “unacceptable from a moral and human point of view.”
I would have also expected that if the palestinians truly had a deep love for the land, they would not have a problem with being relocated from one area (“West Bank”) to another (Gaza). Jews see every square inch of the land of Israel being holy.
3:18PM: Terrible excuse of the day: Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai has done nothing to disprove the notion that Iranian officials make for terrible liars with this political equivalent of the dog ate my homework.
Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai responded to criticism of his appointment to the post of senior-most vice president in the country and attempted to explain his controversial statements about Iranian relations with Israel. He has gone on record in the past as saying that Iran and the Jewish state are friends.
Mashai said in an interview with state television Tuesday that he did not intend that Israel is Iran’s friend, but that his statements were meant as a form of “psychological warfare.”
Mashai, who previously served as vice president for tourism affairs, provoked a media storm when he said that Iran is a friend of the Israeli people. More than 200 Iranian parliament members and senior religious officials condemned his statements and called for him to be dismissed from his post.
Ahmadinejad did not fold under pressure and explained that Mashai’s statements were taken out of context. The scandal died down when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Mashai’s statements were “incorrect and illogical,” and ordered that discussion of the subject be closed.
Even then, Mashai went back on his statements, even making a militant call to destroy Israel. In an interview with Press Tv, an Iranian English-language television channel, Mashai issued a detailed explanation of his motives behind his declaration of friendship with the Jewish state.
“What I said then was not connected at all with the Israeli regime,” said Mashai to Press TV. “I did not speak of the illegal Zionist regime at all. My statements were intended for the ears of the residents of the occupied territories. Actually, it was psychological warfare against the Israeli regime.”
He added, “What I meant to say was that this regime is in such a state of disorder that it won’t enjoy international support much longer.” Mashai reiterated that he never claimed that the Islamic republic is a friend of the Israelis.
