The Day In Israel: Wed Aug 26th, 2009

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Sweden’s Ministry of Justice announced it will examine complaints submitted in response to the infamous blood libel article, which alleged it was racist and amounted to incitement against Israelis.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:40PM: Palestinian officials have stated Mahmoud Abbas is open to a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the UN next month, but refuses to reopen peace talks until Israel halts all settlement construction in Judea and Samaria. Abbas himself also reiterated that if negotiations are renewed, they will not be picked up from the starting point, and the palestinians would not agree to a state with temporary borders.

Netanyahu sees this as a positive move. Color me confused.

7:58PM: Photo bias of the day: Draw your own conclusions.

AP

An Israeli soldier uses his rifle to indicate the direction as he tells a Palestinian boy to leave the scene following a knife attack attempt by a Palestinian man against an Israeli soldier at a nearby checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009. The Palestinian man was shot and injured by soldiers at the checkpoint, Palestinians said. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Sure, the caption explains what is really happening, but I’m willing to bet the photographer is banking on many people not getting that far.

7:36PM: A Lebanese diplomat in Australia has lost his bid to have a website remove comments that called him the most offensive of things.

Zionist!

A TOP-ranking Lebanese diplomat in Australia has lost his bid to stop a website calling him a Zionist after a court ruled the comments were not defamatory.

Lebanon’s Consul General in Sydney, Robert Naoum, was trying to stop comments posted about him on an Arabic-language website through a permanent court order, claiming they threatened his physical safety.

Mr Naoum argued the “Zionist” comments made on the website www.alankabout.com, owned by Sydney man Nabil Dannawi, wrongly suggested he supported the Jewish right to the state of Israel – something the Consul General took offence to given the tense situation between the two countries.

Actually, Naoum and company do not believe in the Jewish right to the state of Israel period. This is not a denial triggered by a pre-existing “tense situation” between the countries but rather the case of such tension.

The term “Zionist” is also sometimes used as a derogatory word to express anti-Jewish sentiment.

Say what?

7:16PM: The Dead Sea has made it on to the Seven Wonders shortlist.

Not so the Kiryat Yam mermaid.

7:10PM:It is not too often I get to include a story about PETA idiocy in one of these Day in Israel posts (although I should theoretically get more opportunities).

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have planned a new billboard for the seaside town of Kiryat Yam, featuring a topless mermaid, according to a press release from the animal rights group released Wednesday.

The planned advertisement will feature the slogan “Try to relate to who’s on your plate. Make a splash – Go vegetarian,” in both English and Hebrew.

According to PETA, the billboard hopes to carry the message that “fish, like all animals, feel pain,” adding, “There’s a lot to be said for recognizing that fact and not participating in their violent killing for the table or for sport.”

You can read the press release here if you have the stomach for stupidity. And there’s these “sample” billboards here.

mermaid PETA

peta mermaid hebrew

(hat tip: Shy Guy).

5:05PM: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad “Tony Stark” Hariri has said Hizbullah will be part of the next Lebanese government “whether Israel likes it or not.”

“The national unity government will include the [ruling] March 14 alliance, and I also want to assure the Israeli enemy that Hizbullah will be in this government whether it likes it or not because Lebanon’s interests require all parties be involved in this cabinet,” AFP quoted Hariri as saying.

Yeah, we don’t like it.

2:12PM: It’s Swedish meatballhead and blood libel author Donald Bostrom vs Dr. Mordachai Kedar, otherwise known as the guy who ripped Al Jazeera a new one.

2:05PM: Not much time to blog even a few sentences so far today, but I wanted to remind those of you who are known to tweet – be sure to include #GiladShalit in your tweets today to make it a trending topic (actually, as of this update, it is a trending topic. Let’s keep it that way).

6:14AM: Yesterday, I mentioned video of Hamasholes executing Al Qaida terrorists pinned in a mosque courtyard.

The video is available here (thanks to commenter t34zakat).

6:10AM: The sister of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is enlisting in the army today.

Tourists are flocking to Kiryat Yam, Israel, in hopes of spotting a mermaid who has reportedly been seen frolicking during sunset swims, and the Town Council is offering a $1 million reward for anyone who can provide a photograph that proves Ariel’s kin are kicking back on local beaches.

If it’s a photo of a mermaid they want, we’d be happy to oblige. We’re offering to run our stunning “Make a Splash—Go Vegetarian” ad, which makes the case that, like mermaids, fish sea kittens, lobsters, crabs, and other animals of the sea deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.

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