A military official told the AP that Hasan’s family has Palestinian roots. ABC News reported on Friday that Hasan’s grandfather moved to the United States in the 1940s.

—-

Relatives said he felt harassed because of his Muslim faith but did not embrace extremism. Others were not so sure. A recent classmate said Hasan once gave a jarring presentation to students in which he argued the war on terrorism was a war against Islam, and “made himself a lightning rod for things” when he felt his religious beliefs were challenged.

Investigators were trying to piece together how and why Hasan allegedly gunned down his comrades in the worst case of violence on a military base in the US The rampage unfolded at a center where some 300 unarmed soldiers were lined up for vaccines and eye tests.

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for “God is great!” before the rampage Thursday, which left 30 people wounded, including the gunman.

Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Maryland, said Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, was a committed soldier, gave no sign of extremist beliefs and regularly wore his uniform at prayers.

“I got the impression that he was a committed soldier,” Khan said. He spoke often with Hasan about his desire for a wife.

On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Virginia, but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.

“I don’t know why he listed Palestinian,” Khan said, “He was not born in Palestine.”

(So what? Even the UN includes in its definition of a “palestinian refugee” those not even born in “Palestine.”)

Then there’s this:

Hasan’s relatives who live in the Palestinian territories have said they had heard from family members that Hasan felt mistreated in the Army as a Muslim.

“He told (them) that as a Muslim committed to his prayers he was discriminated against and not treated as is fitting for an officer and American,” said Mohammed Malik Hasan, 24, a cousin, told the AP from his home on the outskirts of Ramallah, a Palestinian city north of Jerusalem. “He hired a lawyer to get him a discharge.”

Meanwhile (and alarmingly), the terrorist was apparently an invited guest to a public address in Washington by the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor earlier this year.

From a poster on Free Republic (hat tip: RBP).

Nidal Malik Hasan was apparently an invited guest to a public address in Washington by the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor. Shooter Hasan took a seat in the second row nearly across from the Ambassador and one of the participants Yonah Alexander of Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies (also professor of international studies and director of the Institute for Studies in International Terrorism at the State University of New York)—the program ironically called “Combating Terrorism”. It is my impression or at least some level of concern that the Israeli Ambassador, other anti-terrorist officials and VIPs at that event may have been in some level of danger. I have analyzed the video in detail. In addition to the link above, I provide my own outtakes from said January event in Washington.

The poster links to this C-Span video (non-embeddable) with the following commentary:

Details: Hasan had been an active participant, and invited general guest, to such policy seminars featuring VIPs on the issue of TERRORISM and HOMELAND SECURITY, between the period of June 2008 and February 2009. As has been reported on FR and elsewhere, his name is listed in the proceedings. On one of these occasions, which may well be on tape, terrorist Hasan asked a question which apparently turned into either a ramble or a rant, and he was cut off by the Director of the policy group. (This may well have been in support of Islam or against US policy). On two known occasions, both on 3 December 2008 and again on 9 January 2009, Hasan took a position close to the speakers dais at these by invitation events, and appears in photographs and videos in his US Army BDU uniform. I am not sure of the specific executive security situation at GWU in Washington not far from the White House the day of this event, if there were metal detectors or what not, but it does appear the Israeli Ambassador had personnel protection nearby which may have hindered a possible attack by Maj. Hasan, who nevertheless could well have been armed and dangerous at the time—knowing what we know now. I invite you to look at his movements and demeanor of Hasan in this video, and follow my comments. Others may also have comments or notice things I did not. This is a group effort, let us all try our best to interpret events.

00:13 Shooter in second row from front directly in front of Ambassador and Dr. Alexander.

06:24 Video shows, in the upper center, US Army Major dressed in BDU, looking down, as he is seated in the second row. Either taking notes, or in deep thought.

31:40 to 32:03 Clear view of Hasan from back of room, looking down the whole time, on right in military uniform.

75:00 to 75:25 Very Clear close up view of Major Hasan! It is him.

84:10 Moderator asks, in accordance with security measures, that everyone “please remain seated” while Ambassador Meridor leaves

84:23 Moderator demands AGAIN, that everyone remain seated as Ambassador leaves the event, followed closely behind by one special detail agent, either Secret Service or more likely Israeli Embassy protection (green shirt/tie).

84:35 Hasan, relatively close to the departing Ambassador, one of a few to disregard the request, slowly starts to rise, as some VIPs in front of him are shaking hands with the leaving diplomat, provoking the moderator a THIRD time to tell him and the audience to sit down as told. Hasan can be seen sitting down, through the crowd, as told.

85:12 Hasan looks straight into the camera, he is in the center of the view, spotlight on his bald head which shines. His demeanor and facial manner have an odd, dark nature about them. The Ambassador has left the immediate area and is exiting the auditorium.

Whenever this Hasan appears in the video, he did not look like a happy camper. We may suspect, in his Salafist Fundamentalist rage, he may well have been seething inside at the positions expressed by the Ambassador; this event was right during an Israeli flare up with Hamas Palestinian terrorists on the Gaza Strip (Operation Cast Lead) due to their terrorist rocket attacks on civilians in Israel.

Shown at the very end of the video even appears to be Amb. Paul Bremer, who served as chief of the Coalition Authority to Iraq, and other VIPs well within close range of Major Hasan.

Or, if you do not have the patience to go through the video, you can see the Cliff Notes edition here:

(That’s Hasan standing up at 0:12).

And here (that’s him on the left):

5. “Whats up mate?”

4. “Aweeeeee poor little fella.”

3. “Hey num Nuts.”

2. “..scared by a bum from Perth.”

1. “He never had one in the fist place.”

Previously on Israellycool: The Top 5 Things You Don’t Want to Say When You Are About to Go To Prison

Which means Salah might just be spotted with this expression on his face again, albeit for very different reasons than before.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

3:38PM: According to the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, the US informed Israel of the ship carrying tons of weapons en route from Iran to Hizbullah, but vetoed Israel’s plans to bomb it out of the water.

1:08PM: Thanks to One Jerusalem, here is footage of yesterday’s Dore Gold-Richard Goldstone debate.

7:32AM: The UN General Assembly approved an Arab-backed resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report by a vote of 114-18.

The draft resolution includes a demand for the Israeli government to carry out an “independent and credible” internal investigation of its own conduct during Israel’s 3-week offensive in Gaza, which left over 1,000 Palestinians dead.

Hamas isn’t mentioned in the draft resolution. Instead, it calls on the “Palestinian side” to carry out an investigation into the Goldstone report findings that relate to Palestinians.

The draft resolution also includes a recommendation to convene the signatories of the fourth Geneva Convention treaty for an emergency session to discuss Israel’s violations of the treaty.

Apart from Israel and the United States, a number of European countries including Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic voted against the resolution. But the European Union was split, with others including Britain and France abstaining. Most developing countries voted in favor.

7:25AM: IAEA (Potato) Head Mohamed ElBaradei thinks Iran’s previously secret uranium enrichment site at Qom is “nothing to be worried about.

UN inspectors found “nothing to be worried about” in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks published on Thursday.

Mohamed ElBaradei also told the New York Times that he was examining possible compromises to unblock a draft nuclear cooperation deal between Iran and three major powers that has foundered over Iranian objections.

The nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after diplomats said Western spies first detected it, added to Western fears of covert Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs. Iran says it is enriching uranium only for electricity.

ElBaradei was quoted in a New York Times interview as saying his inspectors’ initial findings at the fortified site beneath a desert mountain near the Shi’ite holy city of Qom were “nothing to be worried about”.

“The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect things,” ElBaradei, alluding to Tehran’s references to the site as a fallback for its nuclear program in case its larger Natanz enrichment plant were bombed by a foe like Israel.

“It’s a hole in a mountain,” he said.

Oh, except for that whole “evidence of having experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design” thing.

12:15AM: It’s the Dore Gold vs Richard Goldstone cage match debate live from Brandeis University.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/11/04/house-denounces-goldstone-baird-courageously-dissents/comment-page-1/#comment-115776

You’re right. There’s a website set up by Maize with almost the same name, http://www.ungoldstonereport.com/ which I confused w. the other website.

Why would you waste yr time creating a site dedicated to “fisking” the Goldstone Report? Don’t you have anything better to do w yr time? But now that I think of it one of yr partners is the notorious Aussie Dave & he REALLY doesn’t have anything better to do w. his time. So I take that question back.

BTW, who paid for that snappy graphic design for yr site? The foreign ministry perhaps?

Glass house. Stone.

Introducing Silverstein’s public LinkedIn profile:

[click images to enlarge]

In other words, it is Silverstein who REALLY doesn’t have anything better to do with his time.

500 Tons of Weapons for Hezbollah Intercepted by Israeli Navy, 4 Nov 2009
Massive Arms Shipment Intended for Hezbollah Intercepted by Israel Navy

Roughly 500 tons of weapons, rockets, and missiles was uncovered aboard the cargo vessel “Francop” flying an Antiguan flag, which was intercepted and brought to the Ashdod port. The Israel Navy force which intercepted the ship included naval commandos, missile boats, intelligence and explosive experts.

36 shipping containers with 500 tons of weaponry were found on the ship disguised as civilian cargo, and hidden among hundreds of other containers onboard.

Israel Naval and Engineering Corps forces are currently unloading the containers and are sorting through the various types of weaponry found aboard.

The naval commando force boarded the vessel and conducted an initial search. The search was conducted in accordance with the usual search protocols as dictated by International Law.

Following the initial search and after it became clear that the vessel was carrying weapons, the vessel was directed by the Israel Navy to dock at the Israeli Ashdod Naval base for additional searches and a detailed inspection of the hull’s cargo. It should be emphasized that the captain of the ship agreed to the search. The Israel Navy conducted all activity without any force.

The weapons found onboard the ship originate from Iran, and were intended for the Hezbollah terror organization, for use against the State of Israel and its citizens. The weapons uncovered at sea last night constitute a harsh violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1747 and 1701 that strictly forbid Iran from exporting or trading any form of weapons.

This is a well-known Iranian technique, taking advantage of cargo ships flying different flags in order to smuggle containers loaded with large amounts of highly volatile weaponry to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.

Following the necessary inspections of the boat, it is expected to be released.

The overnight operation was authorized by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of the State of Israel. Commander of the Israel Navy, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom, commanded the operation from a forward command cell. The IDF Chief of the General Staff authorized the operation, after the confirmation of intelligence information gathered by the IDF.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has instructed employees to utilize this incident to direct international pressure toward Iran.

Because the threat of a nuclear holocaust just doesn’t seem to be enough for some people.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:58PM: The IDF really has gotten it’s act together regarding the arms ship seizure.

Here’s a slideshow they have prepared showing the different  types and amounts of weaponry on board.

In addition, the IDF has released pictures linking this weaponry with terrorism in Southern Lebanon.

Following denials from Hezbollah, the Syrian government, and others, regarding the destination of the weapons cargo onboard the ‘Francop,’ the IDF is releasing photos which prove this relationship. The photographs were taken during a rocket launching from Southern Lebanon at the Israeli Galilee region on Tuesday, 27 October 2009. The pictures clearly show that the rocket fired was a 107 millimeter rocket, the same types that were found on the ‘Francop’.

The pictures also explicitly show that the rocket was fired from a residential property, placing the local civilians in danger and using them as human shields.

Only one rocket was fired during the incident, exploding in an open area of the Ezba Hagalil region in Northern Israel. The pictures show other rockets which have yet to be launched.

6:15PM: He must be so proud.

Palestinian souvenir shop owner Tareq Abu Daia shows an embroidery scarf bearing the name of South African judge Richard Goldstone on sale at his store in Gaza City on November 4, 2009. The UN General Assembly is scheduled to discuss the controversial UN Goldstone report on Israel’s 22-day war against Palestinian militants in Gaza.

I’m sure they’ll sell out. Like Goldstone himself.

Story here.

6:10PM: PA President Mahmoud Abbas stated he will not run for office in the 2010 presidential elections. But as usual, resigning is not an easy thing when you are a palestinian official.

The Fatah Central Committee announced later on Thursday that it had “unanimously rejected” Abbas’s resignation.

For previous palestinian official resignation attempts, see here, here and here.

2:12PM: More on yesterday’s UN General Assembly debate on the Goldstone Report.

The United States on Wednesday openly eschewed a United Nations General Assembly debate on a resolution that would call on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the Gaza war detailed in the Goldstone Commission’s report.

The nonbinding resolution on the Goldstone report, which looked certain to be approved by the 192-nation assembly, also requests that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submit the 575-page report to the Security Council.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice skipped the discussion and sent her deputy, Alejandro Wolff, as an observer instead.

—-

In the assembly debate, Arab envoys praised the report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone and demanded an end to what they called the Israel’s impunity. But Israel damned the document as “conceived in hate and executed in sin.”"

There is no veto in the assembly and the resolution looked sure to win a majority. But with more than 40 envoys listed to speak, most of them from Arab and other Muslim countries, it was unclear when the vote would take place.

Israel’s ally the United States was one of a small number of countries expected to vote against the resolution. In a clear warning to the administration, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to oppose UN endorsement of Goldstone’s findings.

Most members of the 27-nation European Union were likely to abstain, although diplomats said negotiations were underway with the Arabs to agree a text the Europeans could support.

The diplomats said the EU opposed the resolution’s implicit endorsement of the Goldstone report, which Western states have called flawed, although making important points.

Representing the EU, Ambassador Anders Liden of Sweden, the bloc’s current president, called the report serious and urged Israel and the Palestinians to launch “appropriate, credible and independent investigations” into its charges.

Meanwhile, here is the address of Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev.

I’m not really a fan of Shalev’s style (Gillerman was way better), but what a great line: “The report before you was conceived in hate and executed in sin.”

2:02PM: Hizbullah are full-of-bull-ah:

In a statement issued by the Lebanese organization, Hezbollah denied any link to “the weapons that the Zionist enemy claims it confiscated from the ship.”

But at least they’re funny:

In addition, the terrorist organization condemned “the Israeli pirates operating in international waters.”

9:25AM: The IDF has also published this list of past Iranian attempts to smuggle weapons.

December 2001 – The Karin A ship, loaded with weapons in Iran, bound for the Gaza Strip, was sailing towards Egypt with the intention of unloading its cargo there.  Small fishing boats were meant to pick up the cargo and deliver it to the Gaza Strip. The ship, loaded with rockets, anti-tank rockets, and light arms, was seized on January 3rd, 2002 by Israeli Naval Commandos.
Weaponry found on the Karin A

December 2003 – January 2004 – The Iranian Revolutionary Guard directed an aerial convoy to transfer weapons and supplies to Hezbollah via Syria. The aerial convoys were disguised as humanitarian aid intended for casualties of an earthquake in Bam, a city in southern Iran. The Iranians took advantage of the open airspace by trying to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah while humanitarian aid flights were landing in Iran from all over the world.

May 2007 – An Iranian train carrying arms (mortar shells, light arms, rocket launchers and ammunition) was uncovered in Turkey. The arms were intended for Hezbollah. The Iranians attempted to conceal and disguise the arms in order to avoid suspicion by the Turkish authorities.

January 2009 – An arms shipment sent by Iran was intercepted and seized in Cyprus after it was found on the Cypriot vessel Monchegorsk which had been leased by the Iranian Irisl shipping company. The Cargo was found to include tank, artillery and mortar shells as well as materials to be used for producing rockets.

October 2009 - The Hansa India, which sailed from Iran flying a German flag was due to unload a cargo of eight containers in Egypt. Following warnings from the German authorities the vessel was not unloaded and continued to Malta where it was seized and found to be carrying bullets and industrial material intended for the production of weapons, seemingly bound for Syria.

7:58AM: From the Whatcha Talkin Bout Willis Department:

US President Barack Obama is Israel’s “closest friend,” contrary to what many Israelis seem to believe in recent polls, US Ambassador James Cunningham told a Tel Aviv audience on Wednesday.

“I told you I’d shoot, but you didn’t believe me! Whyyyy didn’t you believe me?!”

Palestinian seething to ensue.

Meanwhile, here is a response to Goldstone from one of the co-sponsors of the resolution, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif., after the former claimed the resolution was significantly factually inaccurate.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:50PM: Some more Turkey Jerkey behavior.

5:48PM: Richard Landes with another fine fisking of the Goldstone Report, this time focusing on the incidents Goldstone and company decided to investigate.

4:30PM: More on that weapons ship.

3:20PM: More than 60 tons of weaponry – including 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades – were found on board the ship stormed by Israeli Navy commandos.

Meanwhile, the ship’s owners have invoked the Manuel defence.

1:56PM: Ma’an News reports on the anonymous flirts of Qalqiliya.

The Palestinian police arrested nine Qalqiliya youth on charges of mobile phone theft and using the devices for anonymous flirting, police said on Tuesday.

11:45AM: It has been revealed in the Mumbai special court that Israeli officials had tried to negotiate for the release of several hostages inside the Mumbai Chabad House during the 26/11 attacks last year.

Details of negotiations and phone conversations between 26/11 terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai and the Israeli Embassy in Washington were revealed at the Mumbai special court on Tuesday.

The court heard a CD of telephone conversations between the terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November 2008 and Israeli officials. So was Israel negotiating or buying time?

The court heard clear evidence that Israeli officials had tried to negotiate for the release of several hostages inside the Jewish Chabad House during the 26/11 attacks.

So almost a year after the November 26, 2008, terrorist attack in Mumbai it was officially established that that the Israeli Embassy officials in Washington DC had initiated negotiations with the terrorists at Nariman House.

In an audio clip of the telephonic conversation played before the special court at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, two things were clear. Firstly the Embassy wanted to ensure the safety of captive Jews and secondly the officials were trying to buy time, perhaps to strategise their next move.

Israeli officials contacted the terrorists by the number of one of the Jewish hostage in Hariman House.

10:50AM: Israeli Navy commandos have stormed an arms-laden ship, suspect to be heading from Iran to Syria/Hizbullah, 100-150 miles off the Israeli coast.

Meanwhile, judging by the report, Ha’aretz has managed to find a new word for “terrorist”:

Israel believes the weapons on the ship were meant to be delivered to Palestinian rejectionist groups in the Gaza Strip

8:30AM: Sir, I do believe a Darwin Award awaits you.

A Palestinian man keeps dry inside a plastic bag as rain falls on West Bank labourers looking for work in the Jewish State, on November 3, 2009 at the Eyal crossing in central Israel.

In the meantime, if you keep yourself alive, isn’t it nice to know that Israel provides employment opportunities for you, despite the fact your people are trying to destroy the Jewish state?

Meanwhile.. France and Britain to the rescue?!

A joint French-British UN initiative would call on Israel and the Palestinians to hold immediate, independent investigations into war crimes allegations stemming from the war in Gaza, as part of a bid to send the Goldstone report back to Geneva and out of the hands of the Security Council or the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

The proposal comes before the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled Wednesday to deliberate on the Goldstone report on the war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

A source at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the details of the initiative during a telephone conversation.

Netanyahu asked the French President to take action among European Union partners in an effort to form collective opposition to any resolution at the UN on the Goldstone report.

The initiative is a list of “red lines” which was adopted by the 27 members of the European Union. Its main points:

1. A resolution brought for the approval of the General Assembly will not include operational steps, like taking the matter to the Security Council or the International Court of Justice.

2. The resolution would call on Israel and the Palestinians to embark on an independent investigation into the events of Operation Cast Lead, and the allegations of war crimes.

3. The handling of the Goldstone report will return to the Human Rights Council, the UN body in Geneva. The parties will have to report to the council on the findings of their investigations in a few months.

According to the Foreign Ministry source, the document was delivered yesterday by the British and French permanent representatives at the UN to the Palestinian Authority delegation at the international body, as well as the representatives of Arab states, and the members of the Security Council.

Arab representatives at the UN are expected to complete Tuesday the first draft of a resolution that will be brought to the General Assembly for a vote.

The French and British has emphasized in their exchanges with the Arab representatives that if the “red lines” are not part of the resolution being prepared, the European Union will abstain, and may even vote against it – and expects that much of the international community will too.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

6:12PM: Here is the latest example of a PA official denying the Jews’ history in the Land of Israel

For a comprehensive treatment of this issue, see here.

6:00PM: An interesting article on Israeli innovation.

Americans think of war or religion when they think of Israel. But Israel is also an unusual high- tech success story.

A survey last May of non-American companies on the Nasdaq counted three Korean companies, five Irish businesses, five from the U.K. and six from Japan. Israel had 64.

In 2008, Israel drew more than twice the venture capital per citizen than the United States. It drew 30 times as much VC cash as continental Europe, and 350 times more than India.

There are some pretty familiar ethnic explanations for the Israeli tech miracle. Jews are supposed to be smart. Jews from overseas will fund Israeli companies regardless of quality. And so on.

But those explanations don’t suffice, as Dan Senor and Saul Singer point out in “Start Up Nation.” (Senor is my colleague at the Council on Foreign Relations). The Israeli record of innovation has less to do with tribe and more with policy. The Israeli military has also played a surprising role in the process.

The story starts with the old Israel, its suspicion of capitalism and its counterproductive affection for trade unions and communal farming. A decade and a half ago the Israeli government established a tech fund that it dubbed Yozma. Yozma’s goal was to lure venture capital to join it in creating Israeli projects. The very signal that Yozma’s creation sent changed Israeli attitudes about business dramatically. One executive paraphrased John Lennon on Elvis to describe the shift. “Before Yozma, there was nothing.”

Education, Women

But other forces contributed. The high level of education for both men and women meant new companies had someone to hire. During his tenure as finance minister earlier this decade, Benjamin Netanyahu pulled his own Margaret Thatcher by cutting taxes and government jobs and privatizing El Al, the national airline, and the Bezeq, the state-owned telecom company. Netanyahu phased out high-return government bonds, thereby forcing domestic capital to find an alternate place to invest. Financial reforms made the marketplace relatively transparent.

The authors identify several less-intuitive factors. One is Israeli tolerance for failure — bankruptcy isn’t the end of a career. Another is immigration. Sure, the immigrants from the former Soviet Union had degrees, but what mattered as much was the immigrant personality, that of the self-selected risk-taker willing to start over, and therefore, also “start up.” It also helped that academic and business doors were open to the immigrants.

Soldiers of Commerce

Yet the secret weapon of Israeli innovation is the Israeli military. The Israeli draft doesn’t merely ask soldiers to serve for two years; they serve for much of their adulthood, returning each year. This sounds like a career disrupter. But the Israel Defense Forces’ elite units end up functioning as the sort of fruitful techno clusters that Michael Porter of Harvard University identified as so hospitable to innovation.

The advantage of being associated with an Israeli elite unit — two famous names are Talpiot and 8200 — is like the advantage of going to Harvard Business School, only greater, says Israeli Tal Keinan.

Keinan is an Israeli investor and a 2001 graduate of Harvard Business School, so he’s able to put in American terms what the Israeli network does. He points out than a Harvard Business School reunion happens only every few years, and it is among people who shared only spreadsheets, not tents or rifles. Says Keinan of the IDF bond: “Imagine a reunion every year, and that it lasts two to four weeks.” Israelis are that much closer and more likely to help each other on projects.

Democratic Authority

Beyond the advantage of networking are a flatter hierarchy and the democratic habits of the Israeli military. The challenges of war on the house-to-house level have forced the Israeli military to hand authority down the chain. The skills even junior officers garner get them civilian jobs from people who themselves have served, and therefore know how to read a military resume.

An example of the military-high tech dynamic came when the president of PayPal Inc., Scott Thompson, was on the hunt for software to detect fraud, something American innovators believe they produce better than anyone else.

As a favor to an investor, Thompson met with Shvat Shaked, a co-founder of the Israeli company Fraud Sciences. To Thompson’s astonishment, Fraud Sciences was able to predict the likelihood of fraud better than any mechanism PayPal or others had developed. While at 8200 tracking terrorists, Shaked and fellow 8200 veteran Saar Wilf had discovered a special characteristic of those doing something wrong — they try to hide their traces. The innocent, by contrast, don’t. They had used that knowledge to write the most competitive software.

Muslim Opportunity

Soon investors nurturing projects in Muslim-majority countries will have their own Yozma, the new Global Technology and Innovation Fund that President Obama is touting.

But the Israeli record suggests that such public-sector funds, while exciting, aren’t the most important reason for high-tech innovation. “Most of these countries,” Senor says of the Middle East, “are not behind because they lack money.”

Senor suggests that strengthening the talent pool by allowing women in the workforce, strengthening the right to question and vote out officials within the military or outside it, capitalizing on the value of immigration, and voting in a government that encourages experiments all matter more.

The second message here is for U.S. companies, which tend to value veteran officer candidates less than their Israeli counterparts. U.S. veterans’ time in combat may translate into an ability to make the difference at some of our own start-ups.

4:15PM: Picture of the day:

An unidentified Palestinian man holds a pipe as he tries to push back Jewish settlers into a house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem November 3, 2009, in this handout picture released by the International Solidarity Movement. Jews took over the Palestinian home in Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday after an Israeli court ruled in their favour in a lengthy land-ownership dispute — a practice repeatedly condemned by the United Nations. REUTERS/International Solidarity Movement/Handout

Wow, Reuters are surely not even hiding their bias if they are publishing pictures from the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement.

Bonus bias points for the wording “An unidentified Palestinian man holds a pipe as he tries to push back Jewish settlers.” Yes, he certainly looks like he merely wants to push them back. As opposed to striking them with it, for example.

4:05PM: Sorry, had no time for updates so far today.

Naa, not really.

In the weeks following the arrest, the family still held hope that the Shin Bet had made a mistake: “We want to believe that everything will turn out to be a mistake, that the Shin Bet is trying to create the impression that they arrested the man responsible for all those crimes just to get others to talk, but we don’t know anything,” Rivka’s sister, Dassi Krief, told Ynet.

Teitel’s wife, said the family, has faith that the situation will resolve itself. “She can’t afford to think that there can be truth to this,” said a relative. “Otherwise she’ll just fall apart. She has to stand by him even in this difficult time.”

Rivka was accompanied by several neighbors when she first attended her husband’s arraignments, but as the case began to unfold, she began attending the hearings on her own.

Now, as the case became public knowledge, the family seems angry and embittered. They feel as if they were all deceived, said Dassi. “It’s very hard. We were all so happy that she married such a good man, and he turned out to be a lunatic. How are we supposed to handle that?

“(…) I think it’s better that we know, but that is what hurt her the most – learning that she has been living a lie. Just last week she told me that she felt cheated and then I realized she knew. She understood.”

Moshe Avitan, Rivka’s brother-in-law, said the family feels exploited: “This man married her while hiding a can of worms. He knew what he was. He started a family without giving his children a second thought.

“This is very hard for us but be can’t ignore this… We’ve already decided to cut all ties with him and his family.”

Rivka, he added, “Is in a complete state of shock. He is a psychopath who was leading a double life… She wants to talk to him and she has plenty to say.

The same goes for his Jewish neighbors.

Meanwhile, the Shvut Rahel community, where Ya’acov resides with his own family, and where police found a cache of weapons near his home, issued a statement Sunday expressing its revulsion to the actions attributed to him.

The community expressed hope that the security establishment would uncover the truth, but also “prays that the suspicions against Ya’acov Teitel will be found to be untrue, and so long as he was not proven guilty we believe in his innocence.”

Not to mention other members of the so-called “settler” communities demonized by all and sundry.

“Acts of the kind allegedly committed by Yaakov Teitel are grave, prohibited and unacceptable. The security forces should be congratulated for discovering him,” Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements, said Sunday.

“Any person of conscience in Israel must rise up in indignation against such acts, as well as against any despicable attempt to use them to gain political capital by blaming an entire community that is not connected – and is in fact vehemently opposed – to such actions,” Dayan added.

Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah, a liberal religious-Zionist movement, said that it “condemns any kind of violence. There is no justification for these heinous acts in the Torah, which espouses kindness and peace. However, we ask that people avoid pointing fingers and casting blame on an entire community because of the acts of one person.”

Reader homework exercise: compare these reactions to those of the palestinians.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:55PM: Some good old fashioned incitement from the palestinian Ma’an News, which use a picture of an Israeli girl praying to illustrate a story on “Jewish terrorists.” [click on image to enlarge]

3:35PM: Quote of the day:

“If you say that this is a Palestinian land, can you mention to me one Palestinian ruler, king, or government that ruled the land? Can you tell me the boundaries of that land? There was never a Palestinian state. Never ever in history was there a Palestinian state. It will be another twist of history that Israel – the Jews – will create the Palestinian state, not Arabs, not anyone else. We will create a Palestinian state.”

- Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon speaking at the London School of Economics last week

3:30PM: From the Department of Crafty Jews:

Israel’s Mossad espionage agency used Trojan Horse programs to gather intelligence about a nuclear facility in Syria the Israel Defense Forces destroyed in 2007, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday.

According to the magazine, Mossad agents in London planted the malware on the computer of a Syrian official who was staying in the British capital; he was at a hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Kensington at the time.

The program copied the details of Syria’s illicit nuclear program and sent them directly to the Mossad agents’ computers, the report said.

3:26PM: Here is former Egyptian Chief of Staff Sa’ad al-Din al-Shazli in an interview with an almost comatose Al Jazeera reporter, in which he says that there will definitely be more Arab-Israeli wars – not because of some supposed Israeli “occupation” of palestinian lands but “based on our belief in G-d, the Koran, and the Prophet Muhammad.”

This coming from a Muslim who looks rather secular.

1:48PM: Swedish blood libel “journalist” Donald Bostrom was booed during his panel at a media conference in Israel. But he seemed defiant and unrepentant about publishing his story.

The hoopla from Sweden spreads to Dimona. Swedish reporter Donald Bostrom, who published a report in the Aftonbladet newspaper accusing the Israel Defense Forces of stealing and trafficking in Palestinians’ organs, was received Monday with boos and shouts during a panel he partook in at a media conference held in Dimona.

The Swedish reporter said that he understands the anger and explained that his infamous article only claimed that the Palestinian families’ allegations need to be investigated. He also said that there was much misunderstanding surrounding the article. “The fact is that the families said what they said. That’s a normal article,” he said.

Interviewer Yair Lapid said, “It is a well-known phenomenon that some of the Palestinian propaganda is lies. It is the weapon of the weak.”

Lapid claimed that he was not at all certain that the Swedish reporter had any basis for the article.

Bostrom responded, “If you are as journalist, you always interview, ask questions, and get answers. Organ trafficking is a global problem.” He said that before he wrote the article, he invested a lot of time researching and spending time in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where he said he interviewed many families off of list given to him. Bostrom said that he chose to publish the story of one of the families, whom he says he interviewed for quite some time and received pictures of their son’s corpse.

Lapid shot back, “To say this without a shred of evidence, that Israel possibly harvested organs from Palestinians who disappeared, in other words, whom we kidnapped, killed, and robbed their organs, is a degrading and monstrous idea.”

In response, Bostrom said that he understands why people are angry, saying that everyone lies while at war. He said that it is difficult for reporters to distinguish between what is correct and what is a lie. “If it were just one family, fine. But there were many families. Mothers have a right to know what happened to their sons,” claimed Bostrom

Bostrom said that everyone would benefit from an investigation into the issue, saying no one had anything to lose. “If it is possible to give an answer to a Palestinian mother that nothing happened to her son, this must be done,” Bostrom asserted.

Bostrom claimed that he never said that the IDF track down Palestinians with the express purpose of harvesting organs. “This is a terrible lie,” he said.

‘Crossing the line’

Lapid concluded, “You are an anti-Semite because you are prepared to believe that there is a possibility that the government and the authorities would take part in such a monstrous thing. The only thing I can say in your favor is that you don’t know you’re an anti-Semite.”

Bostrom said in response, “If we walk in the streets of Stockholm and ask passersby about Israel, the vast majority will respond that they support its right to exist in peace. However, we also have a tradition of criticism, and we will criticize Israel though we support your country.”

Some of the people sitting in the audience did not accept the Swede’s explanations. They called the Swedish reporter a “liar,” and waved banners with “Israel is stronger than anti-Semitism” written on them.

Nor did Bostrom receive a warm welcome when he arrived the night between Saturday and Sunday at Ben Gurion Airport. Dozens of protesters from the Beitar youth movement met him there with shouts.

Incidentally, the Goldstone Report is based on the same principle: publish something based on spurious palestinian claims and then place the onus to investigate them on Israel, who is already comdemned in the court of public opinion by the very publication of the lies to begin with.

Meanwhile, what is Swedish for “Would somebody please show this poor asshole the way out of town.”