More on the offending ad here.

The IDF has found that the 17-year-old palestinian girl killed yesterday in a clash between soldiers and Gaza terrorists was hurt by Israeli fire, after initially saying she was likely killed by palestinian fire. It is not yet clear whether the victim was in close proximity to the terrorists, or that troops erred while aiming their mortar fire.

While this is obviously a tragic incident, it goes to show you the IDF really does investigate such incidences (take note Amnasty International).

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

2:04PM: The palestinian woman carrying the toy gun and acting suspiciously at the checkpoint did, as I suspected, have a death wish.

An officer of the Civil Administration who interrogated the wounded woman asked her why she acted the way she did. She showed him bruise marks on her hands and said she wanted to kill herself after having been abused in her house. The woman is an 18-year-old, married with a child.

10:10AM: Transformers: Moonbats in Disguise? The second Transformers movie has apparently done what Ahmadinejad is trying to do – wipe Israel off the map.

What really caught my attention was how the movie deals with Israel and the Middle East. As with much of what is wrong with how Israel gets reported on in the media, this is a sin of omission rather than commission. The final battle between the Autobots, along with their mostly American allies, and the Decepticons, led by the Fallen (a Monty Python worthy evil villain), takes place around an Egyptian Pyramid, along the border with Jordan. For those of you not familiar with the geography of the Middle East, here is a map of the area in question.

[map provided in post]

As you can see, while Egypt is very close to Jordan, there is a little resort town called Elat separating Egypt from Jordan. I have been to Elat; it is a beautiful place, perfect for anyone with a sense for political humor. From Elat you can look out and see Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia; all this while remaining firmly in the State of Israel. For some strange reason Michael Bay failed to notice that Israel lies between Egypt and Jordan. (This is all the worse as Steven Spielberg is listed as a producer. One would have hoped that he would have jumped on such a mistake.)
This removal of Israel becomes even more ridiculous when the humans put out a call for help to the Egyptian military, whose country they are in, and the Jordanians and several Jordanian helicopters take part in the battle, mainly by getting blown out of the sky. Last I checked the Middle East superpower in the air is Israel, not Jordan. Why couldn’t we have Israel jets shooting it out with the Decepticons to save the world? This could have even been a good opportunity to stick in a peace process message by having Israel fight alongside the Muslim countries of Egypt and Jordan. Particularly since, even in real life, Israel is at peace with both of these countries.

Meanwhile this Arab writer seems to like the idea.

I thought: if only our real-world conflicts could be solved in the same manner, and if only the director Michael Bay were leading the Middle East peace process.

In his movie you can travel from the Pyramids of Giza to the Valley of the Kings and Queens in Luxor and on to Petra in Jordan in a remarkably short period of time. This is the closest Jordan and Egypt have ever been, geographically or politically.

At the same time, Mr Bay appears to have nullified the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which began the process of the establishment of Israel in the Mandate of Palestine; in the movie, Israel appears not to exist, thus facilitating the effortless movement from Egypt to Jordan. Rafah Crossing, who needs it?

While I cannot get inside Michael Bay’s head, it sounds like he deliberately wanted to paint the Muslim countries as the “good guys”, instead of (including) Israel.

From the sounds of this movie, I do not even think Megan Fox could save it.

9:02AM: Aussie Dave’s words for the wise: If you are a palestinian passing through a checkpoint designed to stop terrorists from getting into Israel and killing civilians, if you are holding something that looks like a real gun, you might want to listen when the IDF asks you to stop.

Unless, of course, you actually want them to shoot at you.

8:55AM: Xinhua has an interesting report on Gaza honor killings, albeit one which unbelievably places some of the blame for their increased incidences with Israel!

M.M., a 34-year-old male resident of Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City never regretted the killing of his sister, who he believed had slept with a stranger.

“I protected the honor and dignity of my clan, and now I can walk down the street holding my head high,” said the man, who spoke on condition of only using the abbreviation of his name.

Having served three years in prison for the murder, M.M. thought it was a proper price to pay to keep his family’s reputation.

His case was ruled as passion killing by the local court and was given a much lighter penalty than first class murders, because it was categorized as “honor killing”, in which a woman was murdered by her male relatives, often her father or brothers, for sex outside marriage.

Honor killing is not entirely rare and insular in the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip of 1.5 million population, where Israel’s blockage since June 2007 has increased people’s poverty as well as ideological isolation.

Seven women were killed by their family members in the name of “honor” in Gaza since the beginning of 2009, while two were killed in 2008, and eight in 2007, according to a report by the Gaza-based Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR).

“The area is a closed conservative community, and the case of honor killing is one of the most complicated cases we have to deal with,” said Mustafa Ibrahim, a researcher in the ICHR in Gaza. “Women victims were too frightened to ask us for help and protection, and people involved in those cases refused to talk.”

Ibrahim said that local women, who developed love relationship with men before they got married, had to keep the whole thing confidential, or their lives would be compromised. Parents would never have their daughters hanging out with male friends alone.

The blockage shattered the dreams of young lovers, who did not get blessings for marriage from their families and would like to seek a new life together outside Gaza.

“I don’t think we will ever be as open-minded as the western world,” said M.M., adding that what he did was out of both family pride and the strict Palestinian norms.

Mona al-Shawa, a female Palestinian human rights activist said the phenomena in Gaza is an old yet new one, and is deeply rooted in the local culture and tradition, “which holds women fully responsible for their families’ honor and dignity.”

“On the contrary, men rarely got penalized for immoral behavior,” she said.

In the Islamic law known as Shari’aa, the punishment for committing adultery should be 80 whips for single man and woman, but if the two were married (to different wife and husband), they would be stoned to death.

Gaza sociologist Dr. Fadel Abu Heen said before people commit honor killing, “they would go through severe mental stress and anxiety.” In many cases, they would choose not to kill and keep the “family disgrace” as a top secret.

Palestinian law is clear about first degree murder cases, and most of the murderers receive life sentences. But as honor killings exist not only in Gaza but most of the Arab world as a “custom”, the killers usually receive 3 or slightly more years in prison.

Al-Shawa has called on the Palestinian legal authorities in both Gaza and the West Bank “to increase the years of the court’s sentence against those who committed honor killing against female family members.”

Xinhua reporters tried to speak to several women in Gaza, who were victimized by their brothers and fathers, but survived their injuries. But they all declined to give interviews, saying “it might harm the reputation of their families.”

Khalil Abu Shamala, director of Gaza-based Al-Damir human rights group, said “honor killing is considered as one of the most serious human rights violations. People who committed the crimes should not get away with light punishment.”

He added that it should be women “who get protected by the law, not those men who tried to murder their sisters or daughters, for suspected love affairs.”

Hassan El Juju, Gaza Chief Justice of Supreme court believed that a person should never be allowed to take the law with his own hands and comprise the legal system.

“Whether it is honor killing or not, the matter should be raised to the judicial system to be taken care of by the justice of law,” said el-Juju.

8:45AM: Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren speaking to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.

While I don’t agree with everything he says, he’s certainly articulate.

8:42AM: Another Free Gazan twit tweet:

From a Bahraini kidnapped passenger, “We have achieved our goals from this trip, we broke the siege morally, we are well, thanks be to god”

Which is really an admission that this trip was not about getting actual aid to the palestinians, but rather staging a propaganda event against Israel.

A close political ally of US President Barack Obama has said that Obama was asking Israel for a moratorium on “settlements”, and a relaxing of conditions in the “West Bank” consistent with Israel’s security requirements, in exchange for the palestinians’ adhering to their security conditions and responsibilities, and the Arab world being given a set of responsibilities that has not been given in the past.

“And if the Arab world fails to deliver,” Wexler said, “you can rightly say that all bets are off.”

The palestinians have failed to deliver since Oslo began. And not only are all bets not off, but there’s now more in the kitty.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:40PM: Palestinians have accused the IDF of killing a palestinian girl and injuring others during an exchange of fire with palestinian terrorists. But the story has as many holes as swiss cheese.

Ma’an news reported that the dead girl was 17-year old Hiam Abu A’yesh, killed after shrapnel struck her family home , but Hamas later reported the victim was 3-years-old. Meanwhile, Ma’an reported that 11 were injured in the incident, while other palestinian sources had the number as at least 5.

Meanwhile, an initial IDF probe found that the girl was killed by palestinian mortar shells.

8:18PM: Here’s an interview from 2007 in which George Galloway makes very clear his support for terrorism and generally behaves in his usual reprehensible manner.

8:12PM: German Chancellor Angela “Steve” Merkel needs to be reminded that we don’t just follow orders.

5:55PM: Meanwhile, Free Gaza’s Houida Araf – referred to as an “Israeli citizen” despite her commitment to Israel’s destruction – has told of the “horrors” she and a fellow numbskull endured at the hands of the evil Israelis, including having to sleep on “on a cockroach-infested cement floor.”

So I guess all 21 of the Free Gaza tools were sleeping in the same room then.

5:50PM: From the Free Gaza twits’ Twitter page over 4 hours ago:

Our website down for a day, probably hacked. We are working on getting it back up. For now, we will post here. Stay tuned.

From the Free Gaza mailing list, 5 minutes ago:

website was down due to a traffic spike,
I was traveling and couldn’t work on it,
now it is back online,
andrea

Yet another example of Free Gaza’s willingness to blame everything on Israel (yes, you know that is who they were going to blame the website hacking on), rather than doing some fact-checking up front.

5:55AM: Chief Hamashole Khaled Mash’al explains what is behind Obama’s positions on the Middle East conflict: the success of “resistance” (aka terrorism).

Change!

The report was mainly written by Marc Garlasco, who had famously blamed Israel for the very ambiguous Gaza beach blast in 2006 and whose credentials as an expert are equally ambiguous.

I didn’t have time to look at the report too carefully, but it follows the normal HRW playbook of doing everything possible to blame Israel for not being perfect.

The main example was the famous case of Israel bombing what appeared to be a group of men loading a truck with missiles.

To support its statement, the IDF released video footage of the attack, made available online, probably taken by the drone that launched the missile. It showed a group of at least one dozen men casually loading cylindrical objects crossways onto an open truck immediately before the missile struck. At least five more men are seen standing around the vehicle.The IDF video does not show any secondary explosions, which would have indicated the presence of weapons-grade explosives or propellants at the site. Nor was the destruction at the site consistent with the presence of rockets. Had the truck been carrying Grad rockets with warheads, the truck and adjacent buildings would have been destroyed. Even without warheads, the propellant in the rockets would have destroyed the truck.

Credible doubts about the attack arose on December 31, when the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released an interview with the owner of the truck, Ahmad Samur, who said that he was transporting oxygen canisters used for welding, and not Grad rockets. According to Samur, his family was trying to move the canisters from the metal workshop he owns to protect them from looters. He denied any connection to Hamas or any other Palestinian armed group. Eight civilians died in the attack, Samur said, including three children and Samur’s son ‘Imad, age 32. Two others were severely wounded.

As HRW mentions, the video is widely available.

While HRW is probably right in that the cylindrical objects were probably not Grad missiles as they appeared, its only advice to the IDF was to notice that the objects were smaller than Grad missiles are and try to identify them better before firing. (As it was, the video shows that the IDF watched the activity for over two minutes before firing.)

However, the objects were being taken from the vicinity of a metal workshop – the places that Qassam rockets are typically built. It is a very reasonable assumption that these were weapons of some sort. HRW doesn’t even consider that the IDF might have a case in targeting these men. Would an average soldier looking at this video be able to make such an assumption that these are oxygen tanks, knowing that at that very moment there were dozens of rockets being fired at Israeli communities daily? I cannot blame the IDF for their decision – but HRW, of course, does.

One other interesting fact. HRW lists the names of those killed during the attack, and says that eight civilians were killed and none had any connection with any terror group. However, one of them, Ashraf Sayed Khamis al-Dabbagh, was identified as a “militant” by the PCHR. (#366.)

One other person I noticed from the report, Adham Hamdi al-’Adani, killed when the IDF hit near a Gaza school, is this person depicted in an Al Qassam Brigades martyr poster, #33 in the PCHR list:

He is identified here as a member of the Al Qassam Brigades Deir al-Balah Battalion.

This is not to say that these bombings weren’t mistakes. Most of the victims do not appear to have been terrorists, and the IDF should – and does – do everything necessary to avoid killing civilians. There are articles and video that show the IDF aborting bombings when they see civilians in the area, evidence that the HRW seems to ignore in its reckless quest to damn Israel as being indiscriminately violent.

However, HRW either ignored evidence that some of the “civilian” victims they are talking about were actually terrorists or it didn’t do any reasonable research (typing the names into Google should have been enough.) This is either sloppy work or it is purposeful deception on HRW’s part.

Ha’aretz on Monday’s meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell:

Israel, U.S. inch toward deal on settlements

Ynet  on the same meeting:

Barak, Mitchell remain disputed on settlements

I guess it’s all about the glass being half empty or half full.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:45PM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the fourth of July US Independence Day reception at the American ambassador’s residence in Herzliya:

“We have a brave relationship with the United States, a bond that President Obama himself defined as unbreakable; Indeed, our bond with the US is unbreakable.”

9:40PM: Yet more proof that the Arab states really don’t care that much about the palestinians when it comes down to it.

Nativity Church deportees who left Gaza last week were detained at Jordan’s Queen Alia International Airport after Egyptian authorities refused to allow the men to return to their port of origin.

The two men, Nadir Abdul Aziz and Issa Abu A’ahour, were deported from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip in 2002 following the siege of the Church of the Nativity and its negotiated end which saw the thirteen men dispersed to locations in Gaza and Europe with promises not to return to the West Bank.

Abdul Aziz and Abu A’ahour left Gaza on Tuesday using Jordanian passports via the Rafah crossing, and flew to Jordan where they had arranged to live with their wives and children, from whom they have been estranged since their deportation.

As West Bankers supported in part by the Palestinian Authority, who negotiated their release, the men said previously that they felt at risk in their non-native Gaza, particularly following the Hamas takeover and waves of internecine fighting.

The men were denied entry into Jordan and when authorities called Egypt to notify airport officials that they were being deported to their port of origin, Egyptian authorities said they would not receive the men. They remain in custody at Queen Alia International Airport.

The families of both men have appealed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to convince either the Egyptians or the Jordanians to host them, so far without success.

Paging Tom Hanks.

8:42PM: Introducing what the AP refers to as “the first serious Palestinian attempt at animation” (I don’t know if I would go that far)

The 30-minute film is inspired by the story of a Gazan woman whose battle against breast cancer included fighting inept Palestinian doctors and indifferent Israeli soldiers, documented in a report by the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights after she died in 2004.

—-

In early 2004, the 28-year-old woman who inspired “Fatenah” felt a lump in her breast but Palestinian doctors dismissed her concerns. One doctor told her having children would cure her lump, but the cancer quickly spread and she had to undergo a double mastectomy.

Israeli activists had to lobby courts to let the woman enter Israel, because she did not have a valid ID — Israeli officials had halted procedures for Palestinians to obtain them at the time. She often missed appointments because soldiers wouldn’t let her cross into Israel.

The climactic scene in “Fatenah,” where a female Israeli soldier demands she disrobe for a security check occurred in September 2004, according to the Physicians for Human Rights report.

Weakened by cancer, the Gazan woman lay on the floor because there were no chairs in the border crossing at the time, the report said. She opened her long Muslim robe to reveal a T-shirt and stuffed bra to disguise her mastectomy, but was sent back to Gaza.

It wasn’t clear why she failed the security check, the report’s author said. The Israeli military said it would look into the report’s description.

Here’s the trailer:

This truly sounds like a tragic story, but I somehow doubt it includes various realistic scenes to provide context, such as:

• Another palestinian patient using her travel permit issued to her for medical reasons, to attempt to attack an Israeli hospital (thus necessitating the strict checks)
• The thousands of palestinians that have been treated in Israeli hospitals
• The PA pulling palestinian patients from Israeli hospitals

8:05PM: At the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan – a place put on the map by Borat, the character who advocates throwing Jews down the well – those who would readily wipe Israel off the map and really throw Jews down the well have left their mark.

Carrying out their threat, the Iranian representatives staged a walkout during President Shimon Peres’s keynote address at the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning, refusing to return as long as the Israeli leader spoke.

“We have come to listen to religious leaders,” Iranian delegation member Mehdi Mostafavi told The Jerusalem Post,” and Peres is not a religious leader.”

When asked if he would speak to the attending Israeli chief rabbis or any of the American rabbis present, Mostafavi, an adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: “We’ll see.”

Meanwhile, one of them spoke to the Israeli press.

Another member of the Iranian delegation, one of Mostafavi’s aides, spoke with Israeli journalists during the joint exodus through the hallways of the Astana convention center, ascertaining that “Israel won’t attack us [Iran]; we’re not afraid of Israel or the United States.”

“Your president is a stealer of lands and a conqueror, and we’re not willing to hear him,” the delegate continued. “Peres represents an abominable Zionist personality, and his place is not here [at the interfaith conference].”

Now that’s progress!

Meanwhile, our optimistic President saw the positive side.

Speaking with some of the Israeli businessmen in his entourage shortly after the session’s conclusion, Peres marveled at the fact that the only people to leave the hall during his speech were Iranian delegate Mostafavi and his two aides.

“Don’t belittle what just happened,” the president said. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a Muslim [delegate] leave the room completely alone. Iran has learned that it is all alone.”

“This religious conference bears an atmosphere that is an asset to Israel,” Peres added.

4:20PM: Separated at Birth? Crazed Free Gaza tool Cynthia McKinney and crazed cartoon character Sideshow Bob.

(hat tip: CJ)

2:45PM: From the Free Gaza twits’ Twitter page:

Two released, 19 still imprisoned. Keep up the phone calls, emails, anger at what has happened. Remember 11,000 Palestinians also imprisoned.

Remember, that figure of 11,000 includes those who planned and executed terror attacks against innocent people. So please do not refer to these Free Gaza tools as “peace activists.”

11:32AM: Bruno leading a discussion on Hamas..or is that Hummus?

9:15AM: After proving to be failures at the genocide game, we have now scored an epic fail at kidnapping, making known our decision to deport within the next few days the 21 Free Gaza terror supporters.

I mean, what kind of kidnappers are we? No long detention? No ransom? No violence?

Meanwhile, after making it abundantly clear on Twitter yesterday that they did not want to stay in Israel..

Website overwhelmed. Boat towed. Passengers turned over to immigration, ironic since we don’t WANT to be in Israel. They were kidnapped.

..we are hearing a different message from the Free Gaza tools now, or at least their relatives.

Hana Araf, of Meilia village in the Galilee, uncle of Houida Araf, one of the Israeli-American citizens on the Gaza-bound boat said, “We haven’t managed to get a hold of her, and we haven’t received any information. We are worried. They can’t deport her, and we will fight for this to the very end.

“She has an Israeli passport. She is a citizen of the state, and Israel has no right to detain her.

6:17AM: After being intercepted yesterday by the Israeli navy, who prevented them from reaching Gaza due to there being a naval blockade and security hazards, the Free Gaza tools continue to play the media, making this all about their people being “kidnapped” and in danger, as well as the people of Gaza not receiving the aid on board.

This, despite the fact that Israel obviously has no intention of harming these people and has stated that the aid can get transferred to Gaza through coordination with the relevant Israeli authorities.

For those of you in the U.S., the information below is really important and may be very helpful. What we know now is that the boat is being towed to Ashdod. That is all we know. Greta

Dear Friends,

Within the past hour the Free Gaza boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, was boarded by the Israeli Navy, and according to Free Gaza’s Tweet, http://twitter.com/freegazaorg, the Israeli military has issued a statement saying they have taken over the boat.

My contact at the U.S. State Department returned my call 40 minutes ago to say that they are in touch with the Israeli government and have been since the boat was surrounded some 6 hours ago. Overall, our State Department seeks to assure the safety of all on board and would like to see the boat get through as it is carrying humanitarian relief and cement to the people of Gaza, specifically aiding non-governmental organizations.

This is the right time to call your Senators and Representative to ask their senior staffer for foreign policy to place 2 urgent calls on your behalf. Ask them to call the Israeli Embassy and to call the U.S. State Department – and to call you back with what they learn.

Your Senators and Representatives, as strong supporters of Israel, are best positioned to urge the Israeli government to assure the safety of the crew (with four Americans on board, including former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Free Gaza Movement chairperson attorney Huwaida Arraf, International Solidarity Movement co-founder and filmmaker Adam Shapiro, and nurse / filmmaker Kathy Sheetz) and allow passage of the boats, crew, and humanitarian relief cargo to Gaza. They can express concern and counsel restraint. They can make their calls in private, no problem, and their calls are the ones that always get a response. Please note that when Senate and Congressional staffers call the U.S. State Department, it strengthens the State Department’s hand in negotiations with the Israeli government.

Do your best to connect with each senior staffer for foreign policy, but if you cannot get through to that key person just let the receptionist know your concern for the Free Gaza boat. Numbers matter now – so please ask your friends to call their Senators and Congresspersons too.

I contend that this was Free Gaza’s end game. They knew they would not be allowed through to Gaza, and were determined to create an incident and try to paint Israel in a bad light. This was not about the aid getting to Gazans.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has ripped the Red Cross a new one over a report released yesterday highly critical of Israel and which focused on the plight of palestinians in Gaza.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said it was “scandalous” that the report “completely ignored the detention of an Israeli hostage under absolute isolation for three years, and in breach of every elementary human right.”

Palmor said the Red Cross had failed miserably in its responsibility to visit prisoners. “What is more, it evades the question of his [Schalit's] inhuman detention and of the role of that case in bringing about the current crisis,” said.

Palmor said the crisis in Gaza had been brought on by “the Hamas junta,” and that the Red Cross knew perfectly well “what Hamas needs to do to dramatically improve the situation.”

Disregarding Schalit and Hamas in a report on the Gaza Strip, Palmor said, “does not add to the credibility of the Red Cross’s important mission, nor does it contribute to finding a real solution to the Gaza problem.”

The “bread and butter” of the Red Cross mission was to visit prisoners, and its failure to visit Schalit reflected poorly on the organization, Palmor said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:30PM: Some more tools turned away:

Canadian journalist and writer, Naomi Klein, and her husband were detained for a number of hours at Erez Crossing when they sought to cross into the Gaza Strip. According to the two, IDF soldiers on the site reprimanded them.

REPRIMANDED! It is only a matter of time before Free Gaza asks that you register your outrage over this Israeli aggression by contacting all embassies & consulates.

6:38PM: Human Right Watch has accused the IDF of failing on six occasions to verify the targets of aerial drones during Operation Cast Lead, resulting in 29 civilian deaths.

In response, the IDF has questioned the report’s credibility, saying it appeared to be based on “unnamed and unreliable palestinian sources” whose military expertise was “unproven.”

6:32PM: Finally, some common sense from the pains of Spain.

Spain’s National Court on Tuesday decided to shelve an investigation launched by one of its judges into a July 2002 air strike by the Israel Defense Forces on a Hamas target in the Gaza Strip, judicial sources said.

Leading Hamas militant Saleh Shehadeh was killed when the Israel Air Force dropped a one-ton bomb on his apartment building in Gaza. The explosion destroyed the building and killed 14 other people, most of them women and children. Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu had argued that it could constitute a crime against humanity.

6:28PM: Ha’aretz reports on the Free Gaza boat’s  interception by the IDF, including this important bit of information:

The army said humanitarian goods found on board the boat will be transferred to the Gaza Strip, subject to authorization.

6:00PM: Yet another indication that Free Gaza are more interested in painting Israel in a bad light than actually getting aid to Gaza.

The IDF added that any entity wishing to transfer humanitarian aid can do so through land crossings, after coordinating with the relevant Israeli authorities.

5:15PM: The IDF has confirmed that it took control of the Free Gaza boat:

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed the report. Israeli military sources said there was no violence after the small ferry, sailing from Cyprus with activists from the US-based Free Gaza Movement, was intercepted off Gaza.

“The vessel, which was sailing under a Greek flag, left Larnaca, Cyprus on Monday en route to Gaza. After it was made clear that the boat was headed for Gaza’s shore, it was told that Gaza was under a naval blockade. In light of this and the security hazards in the region, its entrance to Gaza was forbidden,” the army said in a statement.

The army stressed that despite the warnings, the boat continued sailing toward the Strip. “The Navy vessel’s crew took control of the boat and led it to the Ashdod port,” said the military.

Meanwhile, Free Gaza are still playing up the “We’ve been kidnapped” angle, milking this situation for all it’s worth.

4:20PM: And again:

IOF (their derogatory way of referring to the IDF – ed) released a statement saying they’ve taken over the boat. Call the Israeli officials. Register your outrage over kidnapping our people.

4:10PM: From the twits’ Twitter page:

They’re about to come on board, they’re about to come on board. Then the line went dead. If true, Israel illegally boarded Spirit.

3:38PM: From the Free Gaza mailing list:

Dear Friends,

We have unconfirmed reports from al-Jazeera that Israeli Occupying Forces have stopped and boarded the Spirit of Humanity. We’re not sure if our folks are being arrested yet or not.

More to follow…

Hamas accused Israel of being behind recent rumors of an imminent prisoner exchange, calling them “test balloons.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak dismissed these same rumors and called them potentially “damaging.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:02PM: Wow.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy criticized Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman last week and told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he should “get rid of that man”.

Channel 2 reported Monday that during Netanyahu’s meeting with Sarkozy in Paris the latter said the prime minister should appoint Opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni in Lieberman’s place. “With her and (Defense Minister Ehud) Barak you can make history”, he was quoted as saying.

“I have always accepted Israeli foreign ministers, and I loved to have Tzipi Livni here at the Elysee, but with (Lieberman) I can’t,” he was reported as saying with a wave of his hand.

When Netanyahu answered that “in private talks he sounds different” the French president reportedly replied, “In private talks Jean-Marie Le Pen is also a nice person.”

When the prime minister rejected the comparison to extreme rightist Le Pen Sarkozy reportedly agreed that the comparison was not a just one.

The Prime Minister’s Office stated to Ynet in response that “the prime minister does not react to the content of talks he holds, however he expresses his profound respect for the foreign minister”.

Lieberman’s public relations advisor, Tzahi Moshe, said Sarkozy’s comments against the foreign minister were “serious and intolerable”, as they constituted “the intervention of the president of a respected democratic country in the affairs of another democratic country”.

“We expect every political institution in Israel to condemn this blatant intervention of a foreign country in our private affairs, no matter what its political stance,” Moshe added.

8:45PM: Ha’aretz reports on a near miss.

A 27-year-old woman was seriously injured after driving her car off the third story of a parking lot at Jerusalem’s Malha shopping mall Monday.

An initial investigation found that the woman mistakenly went into reverse after becoming confused while driving in the parking lot.

The car fell from the third story and became stuck in a tree trunk below.

Sorry, I can’t resist.

8:10PM: After being stopped in Cyprus for a few days, the terror supporters of Free Gaza are now on their way to Gaza.

And they are seemingly not completely broke, since they could afford a website redesign, including this page for live updates (they may need to resolve some of those pesky technical difficulties, however, since according to their live map, the boat is somewhere off the coast of California).

Meanwhile, they’ve joined the Twitter bandwagon, with comments such as this:

We left this morning, one boat, 21 passengers, 20 olive trees, one symbolic bag of cement.

And this:

Working on it. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update. It’s not over until the fat lady sings, and we have no one who is fat on board.

I take that as confirmation that Lauren Booth is not joining them this time.

1:40PM: Yet another example of anti-Israel activists who have no qualms about being loose with the truth.

A major Dutch promoter of boycotts against Israel was last week rebuked for misleading consumers by spreading messages which run “contrary to the truth,” according to a precedent ruling by Holland’s national advertising board.

The Advertising Code Committee recommended on Tuesday that the Amsterdam-based organization Peace – which describes itself as a consumer group – cease its current campaign against the sale of Israeli products.

Peace’s activities came under the committee’s scrutiny following a complaint by the Israel Products Center, a Netherlands-based online store specializing in Israeli goods. In February the center’s managers complained that a flier which Peace has been circulating has damaged them by targeting their livelihood and brand.

The flyer was circulated inside national and local newspapers. It called for a boycott of Israeli products from the West Bank, but also told readers about “wholesale fraud using false papers and labels” concerning the origin of Israeli products.

Critics of Peace’s campaign said that in so doing, Peace was in fact calling for a boycott of all Israeli products. The advertising committee found the campaign created the false impression that the Israel Products Center was engaged in illegal activity. Furthermore, the committee said Peace misled readers by suggesting that the sale of products from the West Bank was illegal.

You won’t be surprised to learn that German’s Jewish community are not too happy with the idea.

Actually, horrified would be a more accurate term.

The news that Britney Spears may hit the silver screen as the star of a Holocaust-era romantic tragedy has raised eyebrows in Germany. The plot calls for the pop-star to travel back in time to a concentration camp — and the Central Council of Jews in Germany says the idea is “reprehensible.”

After the 2002 cinematic flop “Crossroads,” few would have been surprised if teen-talent-turned-adult-disaster Britney Spears never again appeared on the silver screen. According to reports this week, though, Spears is weighing a return to acting — and it is a comeback that Jews in Germany are viewing with extreme distaste.

Spears, who is currently in the process of successfully resuscitating her recently languishing music career with her global “Circus” tour, is reportedly reviewing a script for a film tentatively titled “The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton.” The flick would see her playing a character named Sophia LaMont who travels back in time to fall in love with a Jewish concentration camp prisoner named Eton. In a tricky critique of ongoing anti-Semitism, the script concludes with the lovebirds travelling back to the present day before being killed by Nazis.

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has said she is horrified at the prospect of Britney making a Holocaust film. “In films that deal with the Holocaust, the script should be carefully chosen and the cast picked with care,” Knobloch told the German tabloid Bild. “It is reprehensible to combine the issue of the Holocaust with Britney Spears in an attempt to secure financing for the film ‘The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton.’ Ethical considerations should have priority.”

And let’s face it. Casting Britney Spears in any movie is unethical.

Israel is reportedly holding talks with Egypt on a new cease-fire agreement in Gaza, due to fears that despite the relative calm in Gaza fighting might resume in the near future, and Israel’s ability to carry out another offensive like Operation Cast Lead is curtailed because of the likely opposition of the international community (especially the Obama administration).

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:28PM: Israeli Opposition leader Tzipi Livni has criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for trying to reach a new ceasefire with Hamas, or more specifically “formulating direct or indirect deals with Hamas, which could legitimize the organization in exchange for a mere few days of quiet.”

While I agree with her, I can’t help but think she just likes to oppose whatever Netanyahu does, rather than having any principles of her own.

10:22PM: Ha’aretz reports:

The Dead Sea will be eliminated next week from a contest to choose the seven natural wonders of the world, because of a Palestinian boycott over the participation of an Israeli settler council.

The New 7 Wonders of Nature is a global Internet contest under the slogan: “If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it.” In 2007 it chose the new seven man-made wonders of the world.

Its rules state that if a nominee site is located in more than one country, all countries in which it is located must form an Official Supporting Committee (OSC) by July 7.

Israel and Jordan have both done so for the Dead Sea, which they share, but the Palestinian Authority has decided against.

Meanwhile, I would like to nominate the PA as a wonder of the world, since although it is not a country, people treat it as such.

8:00PM: Interesting report about an Israeli-Persian radio station that is supporting the Iranian protesters.

Meanwhile, I am a bit late to the party with this next story, but it is worth reprinting in case you haven’t seen it yet.

Iranian anti-regime activists are hoping for an Israeli technological hand to help them fight the Islamic Republic. As of now, hundreds of protesters have been killed by the regime, which is evidently using Arabic-speaking armed thugs from Hizbullah to help perpetrate the violence.

“Dear Israeli Brothers and Sisters,” writes Iranian dissident Arash Irandoost, “Iran needs your help more than ever now. And we will be eternally grateful. Please help opposition television and radio stations which are blocked and being jammed by the Islamic Republic (Nokia and Siemens) resume broadcast to Iran. There is a total media blackout and Iranians inside Iran for the most part are not aware of their brave brothers and sisters fighting and losing their lives daily. And the unjust treatment and brutal massacre of the brave Iranians in the hands of the mullah’s paid terrorist Hamas and Hizbullah gangs are not seen by the majority of the Iranians. Please help in any way you can to allow these stations resume broadcasting to Iran.

“And, please remember that we will remember, as you have remembered Cyrus the Great’s treatment of you in your time of need,” Irandoost concludes, signing his blogged call for help “Your Iranian Brothers and Sisters!”

In an interview with Israel National News, Iranian expatriate pro-democracy activist Amil Imani said that Irandoost’s message represents the sentiments of much of the youth in the streets in Iran. They have a strong belief in the technological know-how of the Israelis to overcome the Iranian regime’s attempts to block communications.

“This is going to be the most massive, impressive revolution of the 21st century,” Imani said, “and we’re seeing it live.” However, he added, it is now too dependent on Internet communications, so the protesters are very much in need of outside assistance to fight the technological and information war.

More generally, Imani said, the Iranian people are lionizing any leader of any nation who comes out strongly against the Islamic Republic at this time.

According to Imani, at least 500 people have been killed by Iranian government forces, with another 5,000 injured. But the hospitals are no longer safe, he added, as the gunmen from the basiji militia enter the emergency wards looking for
We will remember, as you have remembered Cyrus the Great’s treatment of you in your time of need.

Therefore, Imani said, sympathetic doctors have taken to treating the wounded wherever they can, including in private homes.

Even outside Iran, tens of thousands of protesters are out in the streets every day, especially in the United States and Europe. Imani said he thinks the phenomenon represents unprecedented unity in the Iranian expatriate community.

As for the basijis themselves, Imani reported, many of them are Lebanese and Palestinian Authority Arabs hired by the regime to do its bidding. Iranians reportedly captured seven basijis who spoke no Persian, only Arabic. According to Imani, 10,000 more Arab hired guns arrived in Tehran to serve the mullah-led regime.

But they are not the only ones thinking about guns at this point. Some Iranian protesters, Imani reported, have taken to threatening their oppressors, “God have mercy on you if we decide to [take up] arms!”

“There is no turning back,” Imani concluded.

7:50PM: Israel has warned the incoming Lebanese government that they will be held responsible for any incomings from Hizbullah.

5:46PM: Two face masks: The below palestinian man and Israeli woman are both wearing face masks, for completely different reasons.

One because of a swine flu scare, the other to demonstrate solidarity with the Iranian people.

Can you guess which is which? The captions hold the answer.

A Palestinian man wearing a face mask walks in Burka village near the West Bank city of Nablus June 28, 2009. Residents of the West Bank village took precautions on Sunday after Israeli media reported a family of 11 was infected by the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK HEALTH)

An Israeli woman lights a candle during a demonstration in Tel Aviv in support of Iranian opposition protestors. Iran’s opposition leaders rejected a panel set up to hold a partial recount in the disputed presidential vote as political deadlock continued to grip the Islamic republic. (AFP/Jonathan Nackstrand)

5:22PM: Introducing our latest weapon: Zionist Well Toxins of Death.^TM

Israeli soldiers poured dirt, stones and toxic chemicals in the only well in the hamlet of Khirbat Makehl near the village of Ya’bad in the northern West Bank overnight on Saturday, according to Palestinians in the community.

The village’s official representative, Walid Hamdan, said soldiers riding in three military jeeps entered the community overnight and sabotaged the well. The chemicals caused the water to change color and taste, he said.

The 80 cubic-meter well is the only source of water for the village of 70 to 80 families, Hamdan said.

So the moral of the story is they should not throw the Jew down the well. We might just poison it.

5:12PM: Ynet reports:

Jackson fans in Israel mourn his death

Dozens of Israeli Michael Jackson fans gathered at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv Saturday night to mourn the loss  of their beloved pop icon.

Hardly a huge turnout.

Meanwhile, Michael Freund has some harsh words for him (hat tip: Shy Guy)

While much of the world mourns the untimely death of the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, it is worth recalling one of Mr. Jackson’s more unfortunate qualities: he was an anti-Semite.

In case you think I am making this up, allow me to refresh your memory.

Back in November 2005, Jackson was caught on tape in a voicemail to one of his former business managers calling Jews “leeches”. The tapes were played on ABC’s Good Morning America program, and Jackson was heard saying, “They suck…they’re like leeches. It’s a conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose.”

And in 1995, Jackson provoked a firestorm of protest when he released an album called HIStory containing a song entitled “They don’t care about us” which had the following lyrics: “Jew me, sue me” and “Kick me, kike me”. He subsequently promised to re-record the song and delete the offending lyrics.

But then, in February 1996, Jackson nonetheless released a video of the song in which he had re-instated the brazenly anti-Semitic remarks.

So before you go shedding a tear in Michael Jackson’s memory, take a moment and consider the hate that he spewed against Jews, both in private and in public.

And then maybe you’ll consider saving those tears for someone far more deserving.

6:15AM: Here is Israel’s Omri Casspi being selected by the Sacramento Kings at no.23, in the first round of the NBA draft.