According to a senior Hamashole, Hamas is conducting intense negotiations with Israel over the release of Gilad Shalit.
Osama al-Muzaini, who is in charge of the talks for Hamas, was quoted as telling a newspaper run by the group that negotiators were currently studying the remaining issues.
He was further quoted as saying that the German mediator in the negotiations is both objective and serious.
Of course he’s serious. He’s German.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
10:58AM: A team of Israeli breast cancer researchers were denied entry into Egypt earlier this week, for a major conference sponsored by a leading breast cancer awareness group based in the US, despite having previously received the necessary clearances to attend the conference in Alexandria.
“It is absolutely intolerable for Israeli scientists and advocates to be excluded from a conference like this, apparently on the basis of their nationality,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “We urge the Egyptian government, and in particular the First Lady of Egypt, Suzanne Mubarak, who is the patron of this conference, to ensure that the Israeli delegates are permitted to enter the country. We urge the Susan G. Komen organization to make clear to the Egyptian authorities that such bigotry has no place in the global fight against a terrible disease which afflicts millions of women of all nationalities and groups.”
The conference, which takes place over the coming week, is also being supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and the United States Agency for International Development in Egypt. Israeli researchers, working at major centers like the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hadassah Medical Center, have been at the forefront of attempts to fight breast cancer.
Peace!
9:35AM: Candid words from a Sudanese refugee in Israel.
In other news, there are Sudanese refugees in Israel.
9:28AM: Tough crowd:
Interior Minister Eli Yishai referred Thursday evening blamed Reform Judaism for the assimilation among Jews.
“Look what is happening with the Reform Jews because of the assimilation. They are disappearing,” Yishai told the Israeli Presidential Conference. He was booed by the audience, which was mostly comprised of American Jews.
9:22AM: Anti-Israel Protester of the Day: Woody Allen and Steve Urkel all rolled into one.
Security guards forcibly remove a protestor after he interrupted Ehud Olmert’s, former Prime Minister of Israel, lecture about the challenges of the Middle East and Israel-Palestinian peace process during a World Affairs Council event at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, Thursday Oct. 22, 2009. Over 20 protestors were removed from the lecture. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)
