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I hope the nice little old lady didn’t see the first airing of that story. She may have had a heart attack.

Photo: Avi Rokach

Ok, I’ve tried to avoid getting into this situation, but it seems many people are expecting me to cover the latest war being waged against us here in Israel. And sure, I’ve expressed my concerns about retaining my sanity if I start attempting to blog updates, but, heck, at least I do not have rockets raining down on me (yet).

I’ll do my best to keep you updated, but am not sure how regularly I’ll be posting updates. So I’ll include a Twitter widget with updates and you’ll have the latest news and links when I am not providing my own.

Note: When posting updates, it won’t be of the solely “newsy” variety. I can’t help but include my brand of punditry and snark.

Spread the word.

You can also find updates over at The Muqata.

10:22PM: Despite reports of a ceasefire, the rockets keep coming.

8:40PM: Hamashole speak with forked tongue:

Hamas official: Gaza militants agree to cease-fire

Hamas fires phosphorus bomb at southern kibbutz

5:22PM: PMO Spokesman Ofir Gendelman posted on his Twitter feed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “has instructed the IDF to target only Palestinian terrorist organizations and to avoid collateral damage as much as possible.”

5:15PM: What a mensch!

Actor John Voight has visited rocket attack victims at Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center

During the visit, Voight said that he has come to witness and report to the American people the harsh reality faced by the residents of southern Israel. He added that he was amazed to see that terror victims were hospitalized next to residents of Gaza and Hebron

5:08PM: Photo of the Day: Subtle, isn’t he?

An Egyptian protester holds an anti-Israel slogan near the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptians protested against the deaths of Egyptian security forces killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants on Thursday in the Sinai. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

5:00PM: From the Boy, Were They Wrong Department:  

4:50PM: More on our peace-loving Egyptian neighbors.

4:05PM: This would almost be funny but for the fact it isn’t.

Hamas Foreign Minister Mohammed Awad has been conducting talks with various contacts in international and regional organizations in an effort to stop Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported on Sunday.

According to the report, Awad contacted the United Nations several times.

What is sadder is the fact the UN will likely act to stop Israel.

3:45PM: From the IDF Spokesperson blog earlier today:

2 rockets hit so. of Ashkelon, Israel, threatening 112,900 Ashkelon residents; city Pop. = 1/3 of Florence, Italy Pop.

3:25PM: Our “peace partner” Jordan has condemned palestinian terrorists targeting of innocent civilians Israel’s targeting of terrorists in Gaza.

1:18PM: Some of the palestinian-fired rockets have landed in Egypt. No word yet on whether Egypt expects us to apologize.

1:15PM: Clearer footage of Egyptian Flagman.

1:08PM: The IAF has struck Gaza, targeting a terror cell about to fire rockets at Israel.

12:00PM: The man killed in last night’s rocket attacks on Be’er Sheva was on his way to his nine-month pregnant wife after hearing air raid sirens and becoming concerned for her safety.

11:38AM: Here’s another news item from the Theater of the Absurd:

Hamas has been holding talks with the Islamic Jihad over the weekend in an effort to convince the terror organization to stop firing rockets into Israel and resume the de facto truce that has been in place for two years, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported on Sunday.

This comes hot on the heels of Hamas taking responsibility for firing grad rockets at Be’er Sheva.

Do as we say, not as we do?

11:15AM: Anti-Israel cartoonist Carlos Latuff has created the following cartoon depicting the Egyptian who took down the Israeli flag from our Cairo embassy as a super hero.

As one of his commenters states “This drawing pix is now the facebook profile for most Egyptians.”

11:05AM: Another head-scratching news ticker update from Ha’aretz:

Islamic Jihad leader travels to Cairo in attempt to return calm to region (Ch. 10)

Yes, I’m sure their goal is calm in the region.

10:28AM: You’d think CNN could find a better image to illustrate a report on our predicament, say an image that doesn’t make us look like the aggressors.

Then again, this is CNN.

10:22AM: Egypt is not happy with our statement expressing regret for the border deaths of five of their policemen, killed during exchanges of fire with terrorists. 

Ok, I guess it is too much to expect them to express condolences for the Israeli lives lost during the terror attack, but to demand an apology from us?

Meanwhile last night, Egyptian protesters removed the Israeli flag from our embassy in Cairo..and were quite happy about it.

Peace!

10:05AM: More than 100 rockets have been launched from Gaza into Israel during the past 3 days. And that’s not including the multi-staged terror attack near Eilat, which claimed the lives of 8 people.

9:38AM: Update from the Ha’aretz news ticker:

Spain FM: It is time to recognize Palestinian state (Ch. 10)

Sends a clear message, doesn’t it? Fire more rockets into Israel, and you can accelerate the process towards getting your state.

But we already knew Spain has a terror appeasement policy, so no surprises there.

9:35AM: So far this morning, terrorists have fired rockets and mortars towards Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva, with the Iron Dome system successfully shooting down 4 of them.

One rocket hit a school building in Be’er Sheva, causing no injuries as students “Israeli soldiers” are currently on summer break.

A few weeks ago, CNN ran an article called Ten must-read blogs from the Middle East (an article I just noticed today).

The featured blogs are written by people living in the following places:

• Egypt (2)
• Bahrain (2)
• Saudi Arabia
• Yemen
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Gaza

That’s right. CNN’s top 10 Middle Eastern blogs are all from Arab or Muslim places – some of which are represented more than once -  including palestinian-controlled Gaza. Yet no blog from Israel is included.

Nice balanced approach, CNN.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will apparently be able to muster a majority of his diplomatic-security cabinet to approve an additional 90-day freeze on West Bank settlement construction in exchange for an incentive package from the United States.

But Netanyahu’s majority will be a razor-thin one, made possible only by Shas ministers’ agreement to either abstain or absent themselves from the vote.

Shas chairman Eli Yishai said yesterday that his party would take this step “if it is made clear in a letter from the president of the United States that construction will take place in Jerusalem immediately, and that after 90 days, it will be possible to build everywhere, without restrictions.”

Shas’ abstention would presumably give Netanyahu a 7-6 majority for the freeze, since votes in favor are expected from himself, three other members of his Likud party (Yuval Steinitz, Gideon Sa’ar and Dan Meridor ), both Labor ministers (Ehud Barak and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer ) and Yaakov Neeman, an independent affiliated with Yisrael Beiteinu. The six opponents are expected to be the three Yisrael Beiteinu ministers (Avigdor Lieberman, Uzi Landau and Yitzhak Aharonovitch ) and the three remaining Likud ministers (Moshe Ya’alon, Silvan Shalom and Benny Begin ).

Netanyahu briefed his forum of seven top ministers on the American proposal Saturday night and the rest of the cabinet yesterday morning. But he said the package is not yet final; certain details remain to be worked out.

“When the work is finished, I’ll bring the matter to the diplomatic-security cabinet for a discussion and vote,” he promised.

But it seems unlikely that such a vote will be held this week. Defense Minister Ehud Barak left for Europe yesterday and will return only on Thursday, while U.S. President Barack Obama returned to Washington from his trip to Asia only yesterday, and must still approve the verbal understandings that Netanyahu reached with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week. Then, if Obama does approve the deal, he must ensure that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agrees to resume talks with Israel on the basis of a three-month freeze. Only after that will the understandings be finalized into a presidential letter and sent to Israel for the diplomatic-security cabinet to approve.

Nevertheless, Obama indicated yesterday that he does expect the deal to go through.

“I think it is promising,” he told reporters upon arriving in the U.S. yesterday, referring to the news from Israel.

“I commend Netanyahu,” he added, according to Reuters. “It signals he is serious.”

At a meeting of ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud party yesterday, four ministers vocally opposed the deal, with the most vehement being Ya’alon, one of two vice prime ministers.

“Extending the freeze is a honey trap,” he warned. “It will send us down the slippery slope, and the freeze will lead us to another crisis with the American administration at the end of the three months, and maybe even sooner.”

Shalom, the other vice prime minister, also assailed the proposal, saying the biggest problem was not the three-month freeze, but the concomitant U.S. pressure to begin immediate negotiations with the PA on borders during this time.

“It’s a strategic mistake to condition an American veto [in the UN Security Council] and diplomatic assistance from Washington on a continuation of the settlement freeze,” he added, referring to two elements of the promised American incentive package. “These are things that ought to be self-evident based on the two countries’ alliance.”

Netanyahu, explaining why he thought Israel should accept the American offer, told the ministers, “an international situation has developed that must be taken into account. There’s an American proposal here that mandates serious discussion. In any case, we will talk about all the issues [with the PA], not just about borders.”

The prime minister’s aides said later that he has no intention of complying with the U.S. demand to discuss borders first, noting that he told Clinton last week “all the issues must be on the table.”

But he also told Clinton that Jerusalem should be the last item on the agenda, due to its sensitivity.

Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor, a Likud member of the inner forum of seven top ministers, told Haaretz in an interview published today that if the three-month freeze does lead to renewed talks with the PA, Israel should seek to obtain a final border that roughly follows the route of the separation fence and leaves the large settlement blocs as part of Israel (see page 7 ).

If Israel does not withdraw from most of the West Bank, he said, the result will be “a binational state that will endanger the Zionist enterprise.”

Despite the opposition both within Likud and from some of its coalition partners, it seems the coalition would survive a decision to extend the freeze.

Yisrael Beiteinu, though opposed to the extension, has already made it clear that it will not quit the coalition over this issue, and the same goes for Shas. The only party that has threatened to quit is Habayit Hayehudi, which comprises three MKs. It is not yet clear whether they will follow through on their threat.

But coalition members were not the only ones who objected to the proposed deal: MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al ) deemed the American offer “dangerous, as it enables the Israeli government to continue building in East Jerusalem while giving a green light for construction throughout the territories at the end of the three months. The United States is a partner in the greatest waste of time in history.”

In contrast, MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima ) urged the government to agree to the freeze, even though he himself is a settler. “Ideological and political obstinacy will lead to a binational state,” he warned. “We as settlers must put Israel’s national interests above all and accept the American proposal.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

4:18PM: Surprisingly tame CNN video on the Israeli football league, including the Judean Rebels team that contains “settler” and palestinian players.

1:30PM: According to Ynet’s coverage of Leobardo’s visit to Israel, DiCaprio’s mother is a man.

1:20PM: Israel to Norway: You suck.

Serious diplomatic conflict: Israel is accusing the Norwegian government of funding and encouraging blatant anti-Israel incitement.

According to reports received by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Trondheim Municipality is funding a trip to New York for students taking part in the “Gaza Monologues” play, which “deals with the suffering of children in Gaza as a result of the Israeli occupation.”

The play, written by a Palestinian from Gaza, will be presented at the United Nations headquarters. It joins an exhibition by a Norwegian artists displayed in Damascus, Beirut, and Amman, with the help of Norway’s embassies in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

The exhibition shows killed Palestinian babies next to Israel Defense Forces helmets, which are reminiscent of Nazi soldiers’ helmets, and an Israeli flag drenched in blood.

The Norwegians are also helping the distribution of a documentary film called “Tears of Gaza” to festivals across the world. According to the Foreign Ministry, the film deals with the suffering of Gaza’s children as well, without mentioning Hamas, the rockets fired at Israel, and Israel’s right to defend itself.

The film shows Gazans chanting, “Itbah al-Yahud,” but the Norwegian translation says “slaughter the Israelis” instead of “slaughter the Jews”.

In addition, a book written by two Norwegian doctors who were the only foreigners in Gaza to give interviews during Operation Cast Lead was published recently. The book, which accuses IDF soldiers of deliberately killing women and children, is a bestseller in Norway and has been warmly recommended by none other than Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

The Israeli Embassy in Norway strongly protested the authorities’ involvement in Israel’s demonization. “The open and official Norwegian policy talks about understanding and reconciliation,” a senior Israeli official said Sunday evening, “but ever since the war in Gaza, Norway has become a superpower in terms of exporting multimedia aimed at de-legitimizing Israel, while using the Norwegian taxpayer funds for creating and transporting this multimedia.” 

Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said in a meeting with Norwegian parliament members that “such activity pushes away the chance for reconciliation and encourages a radicalization in the Palestinian stand which prevents them from compromising.”

The Norwegians responded to the Israeli criticism by saying that the government supports the freedom of expressions and will not intervene in artistic content

“The Gaza Monologues”? Israel haters are constantly comparing Gaza to a concentration camp, but this is the first time I’ve heard it compared to a vagina.

10:35AM: Gillermania! My favorite Israeli spokesperson Dan Gillerman does not hold back from criticizing US President Barak Obama.

9:25AM: The Road to Hope convoy “activists” have been released, and the captain of the ship to be charged based on evidence provided by the following video.

9:15AM: I wonder how Hizbullah are going to spin this.

How about Israel kidnaps old Lebanese woman before being forced to return her?

Photo: The IDF Spokesperson's Unit

An IDF force patrolling along the northern border Saturday detected an 80-year-old woman whose clothes had tangled in the Lebanese side of the border fence. The troops informed United Nations personnel stationed at the area and rescued the woman together.

The elderly woman was caught in a part of the fence which was adjacent to a mine field and when it became clear the Lebanese Army could not assist her, the IDF stepped in.

A joint military force pulled the woman into Israeli territory while the Lebanese Army observed the rescue operation. After making sure the woman was not injured UNIFIL representatives contacted the Lebanese Army and coordinated her return to Lebanon via the Rosh Hanikra crossing.

I’m just surprised the Lebanese Army did not shoot at us. It’s what they do.

6:18AM: Please bear with me. The computer gremlins are harder than expected to overcome, and it may come down to buying a new computer.

In the meantime, if you would like to help, please click on Support Israellycool -> Donate at the top of the page.

"How long are you going to extend THIS freeze, Mrs Clinton?" (Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed Monday to the Middle East urging both Israel  and the Palestinians to find ways to clear the “hurdle” posed by a looming expiration on the Jewish settlement construction moratorium.

Flying to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Clinton repeated US President Barack Obama’s call on Friday for Israel to extend the 10-month moratorium on settlements that is due to expire on September 26.

But she left the door open to creative solutions, urging both sides to make reciprocal gestures that would maintain the momentum in the direct negotiations that were launched in Washington on September 2.

Clinton was due to hold the second round of negotiations in Egypt with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. She was also to meet President Mubarak of Egypt, a key Arab mediator.

“We believe that the moratorium should be extended,” the chief US diplomat told reporters before her plane landed in Shannon, Ireland for refuelling.

“At the same time we recognize that an agreement that could be forged between the Israelis and the Palestinians on actions that would be taken by both sides that would enable the negotiations to continue is in the best interests of both sides,” she said.

“This has to be understood as an effort by both the prime minister (Netanyahu) and the president (Abbas) to get over a hurdle posed by the expiration of the original moratorium in order to continue negotiations,” she said.

Meanwhile, Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu is to present his ideas for ending the impasse.

Tuesday’s meetings are taking place in an atmosphere of uncertainty, since the Palestinians have said that they will walk away from the negotiations if the government does not extend its 10-month settlement construction freeze that expires at the end of the month, and Netanyahu has said that while the end of the moratorium will not be met by a massive building boom in the settlements, he does not intend to extend the freeze, and building for natural growth will continue.

One official said Netanyahu’s true challenge is to convince the Americans that his proposal to build quietly, along the parameters of construction that took place under the previous government when it was engaged in negotiations with the Palestinians, is a reasonable demand. If the Americans accept the proposal, the Palestinians will have little choice but to do so as well, the official said.

The Palestinians, however, are showing no flexibility on the matter, with chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat saying that a refusal to stop the construction would lead to the failure of the entire peace process.

The palestinians have stated they will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and have not ended terror in the 17+ years of the “peace” process. I suggest Netanyahu point this out, instead of implicitly accepting the idea that a building freeze is the answer.

And while he’s at it, perhaps he can point Hillary to this article.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:30PM: Looks like we offed another terrorist.

Unless it was a palestinian who just happened to be holding an RPG.

5:50PM: Either the American, Swedish, Spanish embassies in Tel Aviv have been threatened, or we are seeing a rise in the phenomenon of drug-addict diplomats.

5:20PM: That’s what I’m talking about.

Support for Israel among Americans has jumped following the resumption of Middle East peace talks, according to poll findings released Tuesday.

A poll conducted for the Israel Project, a pro-Israel non-profit group based in the United States, showed a strong majority believing that the Israeli government is committed to making peace with the Palestinians.

Of 800 people questioned, 58 percent thought the U.S. should support Israel – a jump of 7 percent on a similar poll in July.

Seven percent thought the U.S. should support the Palestinians, while six percent said America should back neither side.

A majority of respondents (58 percent) also thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was committed to making peace, while 40 percent thought the same of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“Support for Israel among Americans remains strong and steady,” said pollster Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies.

The poll of 800 likely voters conducted between September 9 and September 12 by Public Opinion Strategies and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

4:15PM: The IDF has found that two palestinians killed on Sunday along the Gaza border were not engaged in terrorist activity after all.

They just happened to be standing next to a palestinian holding an RPG.

12:48PM: Israel has reportedly bought the @Israel twitter account from a Miami porn site owner!

It sounds shadier than it is, but the facts are these: The nation of Israel has finally secured the @israel Twitter account from a Spanish citizen living in Miami, a man who also happens to own a porn site.

You might be tempted to pass judgment and assume that the Miamian (excellent demonym, Miami!) is perhaps a savvy web denizen, the type who buys boatloads of domain names, hoping that one day a company will pay for one. But that’s not the case at all, and it appears he was just as eager to get rid of the @israel Twitter account as Israel was to get it.

The man’s name? Israel Meléndez. Meléndez secured the account back in 2007, apparently not aware that any online mention of the word Israel is likely to create a firestorm, and let the account go fallow as a result. “My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the state of Israel,” said Meléndez. The New York Times adds that those dozens of replies included “a flood of anti-Semitic or anti-Israel comments.”

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the transaction, and noted that despite his disuse of the account, Meléndez did not let it go for free. The account is part of Israel’s recent push into social networking, which includes Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recently opened accounts on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. Israel is eager to shape the conversation about itself, and views the @israel account as a key way to do so.

12:38PM: I have long maintained that Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth is no peace activist, but rather someone who hates Israel and is working towards our destruction.

In a recent interview with the Tehran Times, she has let down her guard and admitted as much.

Q: Do you believe that we will have a two-state solution in one territory at the end? Israel and Palestine side by side?

A: With Avigdor Lieberman ruling over Palestine, it would never be likely. But I’m interested in the one-state solution idea primarily because it scares the hell out of Israel.

12:35PM: There’s media bias..and then there’s this.

Washington hopes to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to a framework agreement within one year, yet the two sides remain deeply divided over even relatively minor issues, such as the Palestinian reluctance to recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Wow.

9:22AM: Abbas to Arab states: Show me the money!

On the eve of the resumption of direct peace talks, the Palestinian Authority on Monday expressed hope that the Arab countries will finally keep their promises to help the PA financially.

Most of the Arab countries have failed to meet their previous pledges to provide the Palestinians with financial aid, the PA said. With the exception of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Arab world was continuing to ignore the Palestinians’ repeated requests for help, the PA added.

Last week, PA President Mahmoud Abbas complained that the Palestinians haven’t seen “one cent” of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Arab countries promised them, especially during the latest Arab summit in Libya last March.

Abbas said he raised the issue with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during their meeting in Tripoli last week and voiced hope that the Arab countries would finally live up to their promises.

Earlier this week and under pressure from the US administration, the UAE agreed to donate more than $40 million to the PA budget.

According to a PA official, the donation is needed to pay salaries of civil servants and members of the Palestinian security forces.

The official pointed out that the UAE and Saudi Arabia were the only Arab countries who have made significant donations to the Palestinians in the past two years.

However, the official said that this year the two countries donated less than half of what they gave the PA last year.

In 2009, Saudi Arabia gave the Palestinians $240m. In comparison, the Palestinians received only $30m. from the Saudis between January 1, 2010, and the end of last month.

Hatem Abdel Kader, a former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs, said that most of the Arab countries refuse to give the Palestinians money. One of the reasons was the way the PA government was approaching the Arab countries.

“The Arabs are upset because the Palestinian Authority goes to the Americans and asks them to put pressure on the Arab governments to give money,” he said, noting that he recently visited Qatar to raise funds for Arab residents and institutions in east Jerusalem.

“The Arab governments have told me that they are offended by the way the Palestinians are asking for financial aid – through the Americans.”

According to figures released by the PA, only 22 percent of the $530m. received since the beginning of this year arrived from Arab donors. The rest came from Western countries and organizations, including the US.

“The Arab world doesn’t care about the Palestinians,” complained another PA official. “We have to beg them for money each time we face a crisis.” Because of the failure of the Arab donors to fulfill their commitments, the PA has been recently facing “financial difficulties,” he said.

The situation is bad, the official added. “We have about 150,000 employees, half of them living in the Gaza Strip, who need to feed their families. Without the money, we will lose control.”

8:50AM: The disgraceful CNN story on supposed IDF abuse – including sexual abuse – of palestinian children, which I posted about yesterday.

8:42AM: JPost reports:

A senior official traveling with Netanyahu reacted to Palestinian threats to bolt the talks should Israel refuse to extend the settlement building moratorium saying, “We are going there looking for something else, it’s not an all or nothing proposition.”

The official pointed out that if Israelis and Palestinians are not able to find a compromise solution on this matter, then how will it be possible for them to overcome more difficult issues later in the negotiations.

“Israel is looking for ways not to ‘blow up’ the talks and to help make them work,” said the official.

I wonder if that particular choice of wording was deliberate.

5:54AM: Netanyahu may also want to bring up this type of thing as an impediment to peace.

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Rooms start at only $170. Click here for more details.

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Israel on Saturday denounced Iran’s fueling up of its first nuclear power plant as “totally unacceptable” and called for more international pressure to force Tehran to cease any uranium enrichment.

Israel, widely assumed to be the only Middle East country to have nuclear weapons, has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence, raising concerns Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

In a statement issued after the Islamic Republic celebrated the launch of its reactor in Bushehr, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said: “It is totally unacceptable that a country that so blatantly violates resolutions of the (United Nations) Security Council, decisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its commitments under the NPT (non-proliferation treaty) should enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy.”

“The international community should increase pressure on to force Iran to abide by international decisions and cease its enrichment activities and its construction of reactors,” Levy said.

The United States, Israel and some other Western countries fear Iran’s nuclear is aimed at produce atomic weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear power solely for energy production.

Meanwhile, Iran’s threat against the world if attacked indicates the cause for concern with their nuclear program to begin with.

Earlier Saturday, Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised a global response if his country is attacked.

“Our options will have no limits… They will touch the entire planet,” he said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:26PM: RIP Gaza’s “Crazy Water” water park? (hat tip: Michael).

Hamas ordered the “Crazy Water,” water park in Gaza closed due to men and women mixing at parties held in the park, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the Hamas government claimed that the park was actually closed for only three days, because it did not have a proper permit. “Men and women are mixed throughout Gaza,” the spokesperson said. “The closing is just a warning.”

3:15PM: Irish Israeli supporter Cliona Campbell has hit back at an anti-Israel tool who called her a “brainwashed, ill-educated grunt” (see final update).

2:40PM: Let the direct talks begin!

1:20PM: Introducing the Zionist-Conspiracy-O-Matic.

11:18AM: Here is Itay Shechter’s “Yamulke” goal during the Hapoel Tel Aviv vs Red Bull Salzburg Champions League qualifying soccer match.

Believe it or not, he received a yellow card for this.

After scoring the third goal for his team, Shechter pulled one of his half a kippah (cap worn by Jewish ritual), it was placed on his head and ran to the center court, where he knelt and began to pray. After that, the match referee, the Portuguese Pedro Proença took out a yellow card.

The Israeli daily Jewish Chronicle, the Austrian public protested the festivities to consider it as an act of provocation. The Israeli player said he did so because a fan presented him with a yarmulke and made a promise to put it if you score a goal.

“I had no intention to provoke anyone, just in how the entire Jewish people, watching the game on television, would be happy,” said the striker.

10:00AM: How Hizbullah’s Al-Manar TV reports the news:

[click on image to enlarge]

9:48AM: According to Kuwait’s al-Rai newspaper, US officials have said damning evidence demonstrating Hizbullah’s involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is expected to be published by American newspapers in the next few days.

9:34AM: Richard Landes looks at the CNN reporting of the recent Lebanon-Israel border clash.

7:52AM: A future new immigrant?

American Jewish astronaut Garrett Reisman is considering aliyah (immigration) to Israel, according to Minister of Science and Technology Daniel Hershkowitz, who met with Reisman during a recent trip to the United States.

Reisman, 42, told Hershkowitz that the question of whether or not he will live in Israel will be decided based on his ability to find suitable work.

I somehow don’t think that will be a problem.

7:35AM: Trust AFP to turn a graphic on Israel’s painful disengagement from Gaza in to another example of their bias.

Graphic on the 2005 evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. Today the coastal territory is run by the militant Islamist movement Hamas while Israel has an iron grip on its airspace and sea lanes, maintaining a total blockade on both while tightly restricting land access. (AFP/Graphic)

In other words, Hamas – who not only rule Gaza but interfere in almost all aspects of life there – are said to “run” Gaza, and Israel – who withdrew 5 years ago but regulates the passage of certain goods that could be used as weapons – “has an iron grip on its airspace and sea lanes, maintaining a total blockade on both while tightly restricting land access.”

7:18AM: Last week, I posted about Iranian taekwondo fighter Mohammed Soleimani’s refusal to compete against Israel’s Gili Haimovich in the championship match of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore.

Now more of the same at the 2010 WPC Swimming World Championships.

Israel added two golds to its medal haul on Saturday at the 2010 WPC Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven behind the performances of Inbal Pezaro and Itzhak Mamistvalov. During the heats, two Iranians refused to enter the pool with Israeli blind swimmer Zohar Batar, who joked afterward that she never saw her Persian rivals.

Can someone please explain to me why Iran is even allowed to compete in international sports events?

6:35AM: Latma channels Tom Jones for their latest song parody.

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September specials at the Okeanus Hotels in Israel.  Suites, Sea, and Style.

Rooms start at only $170. Click here for more details.

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AP

Following the shooting incident which took place on Tuesday (Aug. 3) along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the UNIFIL force stationed in the region has issued official statements specifying that the IDF soldiers who were shot while pruning a tree were in fact within Israeli territory.  According to the statement, “the trees being cut by the IDF are located south of the Blue Line on the Israeli side.”

The official UNIFIL statement describes Lebanese and Israeli reservations which were voiced in 2000 when the Blue Line was identified as the line of withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. “However,” it continues, “both Lebanon and Israel confirmed to the UN Secretary General that, notwithstanding their reservations, identifying the Line was solely the responsibility of the United Nations and that they will respect the Line as identified. The UN position is that the Blue Line must be respected in its entirety by all parties. “

UNIFIL is in contact with both the parties to keep the situation under control and to ensure that there is no violation of the Blue Line in this area.

In an attempt to keep the current situation under control and to prevent any further violations of the Blue Line, UNIFIL Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas has called an “extraordinary tripartite meeting” with Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and IDF officials. The meeting is scheduled to take place Wednesday evening (Aug. 4) in the Ras Al Naqoura UN post in southern Lebanon. The meeting will “address the serious situation that developed in the last two days” and will attempt to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

But I’m not sure the Lebanese got the memo.

In Beirut, Information Minister Tareq Mitri acknowledged that the area was south of the line, but said it was still Lebanese territory.

..nor our so-called peace partners Jordan.

Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai spoke with his Lebanese counterpart Saad Hariri to emphasize his government’s support for Beirut.

“Rifai expressed Jordan’s support for Lebanon, saying the kingdom rejects any aggression against Lebanon,” Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said.

Meanwhile, the US response was better than this, but disappointing nonetheless.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday that the firing by Lebanese armed forces on Israeli troops near the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday, which killed one Israeli officer and seriously wounded another, was “totally unjustified and unwarranted” while calling on both sides to show restraint.

The Lebanese shooting on Tuesday prompted an Israeli response which left two Lebanese soldiers dead, as well as a Lebanese journalist.

“We don’t want to see this happen again,” the State Department spokesman said, echoing sentiments he had voiced the previous day. Israeli officials expressed disappointment on Tuesday with the U.S.’s “neutral” response to the shooting incident, in calling on both sides to show restraint. The U.S.’s failure to assign blame on Tuesday prompted Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren to hold talks with senior administration officials, demanding a harsher response.

Crowley did point the finger at the Lebanese army, but was careful to voice support for the Lebanese side as well, saying “we support the government of Lebanon. We support efforts by Lebanon to increase its ability to exercise its sovereignty over its entire country.”

“We appreciate the work of the United Nations both to hold this meeting today, you know, to create the cease-fire yesterday. We’re going to be working intensively to see that tensions along this border are eased.‬”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:42PM: Honest Reporting asks the questions that need to be asked regarding the presence of 5 photographers at routine IDF maintenance work that led to the Lebanon-Israel border clash.

8:38PM: IDF soldier dancers: The Next Generation.

8:34PM: G-d bless Reginald Levy.

1:58PM: Even though UNIFIL found Israel was not to blame for Tuesday’s clash, UN officials have nevertheless found something to blame Israel for.

At a critical juncture during Tuesday’s fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier, the Israeli general responsible for liaison with UN peacekeepers did not pick up his phone, three UN officials said yesterday.

It was the first time since the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli war that the multinational UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) was unable to communicate directly with key officials of the Israeli military, formally known as the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

“At some point at the height of the incident, IDF-Tel Aviv command closed contact with Unifil,” one UN official told The National.

Communication did eventually resume, but no formal ceasefire ended the fighting. Instead, the official said, “both sides just stopped shooting”.

At that point, a large force of peacekeepers was deployed and Unifil’s deputy commander, Santi Bonfanti, was sent to survey the area by helicopter.

“When they stopped shooting, Unifil took the action of flying in the deputy commander, and we said: ‘We’re flying in, don’t shoot.’ It probably froze a situation that still had the ability to escalate,” the UN official said.

A senior Israeli military spokesman yesterday denied that its forces were ever out of contact with Unifil, and said that there was a Unifil liaison officer present at all times.

Meanwhile, in the same report, UNIFIL admits they are useless.

UN peacekeepers did not escape the confrontation unscathed. Al Manar TV reported that in some cases, villagers attempted to block Unifil vehicles from fleeing the combat zone, demanding that they return and fight. But current and former Unifil officials said that at that point in the conflict, it was out of peacekeepers’ hands.

“I’ve been in these situations before,” said Timur Goksel, a former Unifil spokesman. “When everybody is determined to shoot each other, there’s nothing you can do.”

Maj-Gen Alain Pellegrini, the French officer who was Unifil force commander from 2004-2007, said: “The problem is, in cases such as this, if you intervene to protect the IDF, for instance, Unifil will be accused by Hizbollah or the people of protecting the Israelis, and collaborating with the enemy. On the other side, if we do the same with the Lebanese, Israel will accuse Unifil of collaborating with Hizbollah.”

1:50PM: Apparently, it’s not just Israel that thinks UNIFIL is pretty useless.

Lebanese media have lashed out at the UN Interim Force, which includes Indonesian soldiers, in Lebanon, calling it an “impotent” bystander after a deadly border skirmish between Lebanese and Israeli forces.

“The impotent international forces beat a retreat, left the place of combat and watched the unfolding events from afar,” said the daily As-Safir, which is close to the Shiite movement Hezbollah.

UNIFIL had asked its soldiers only to “make a show of arms … against enemy forces,” the newspaper said on Wednesday. It had “encouraged [the enemy] with its reticence, without effectively intervening to prevent the Israeli aggression,” the newspaper alleged on Wednesday.

Lebanese and Israeli troops traded deadly fire on their tense border on Tuesday in the worst clash since the 2006 war between the Jewish state and the Shiite Hezbollah. Two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer were killed.

The Al-Anwar daily mocked the multinational force, saying it “fulfills its role perfectly” when things are calm.

“But … when confrontations flare it is only a simple spectator, which contacts the two parties to try to restore calm and then submits a report to the Security Council,” the newspaper said.

Daily An-Nahar daily said: “The question is, what to do if the incident is repeated … in particular regarding the claimed role of UNIFIL.”

“Why did UNIFIL not help the army, at least by offering first aid?” it questioned, citing senior sources involved in calming the border tension.

It said an organization such as UNIFIL was “obliged to deal with the evacuation of casualties.”

On Tuesday, Hezbollah-run Al-Manar television aired images of two Indonesian soldiers, presumably from UNIFIL, leaving the site of the skirmish in a shared taxi.

New TV, which also sympathizes with Hezbollah, spoke of the “escape” of UNIFIL soldiers.

I could not find the aforementioned footage, but I did find this footage of UNIFIL soldiers being attended to by local medics in a village near the fighting.

11:00AM: Jailed Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghouthi – who many have advocated releasing from Israeli jail – has said palestinians should quit talking with Israel and get back to “resistance.” (i.e. terrorism)

With the help of “international solidarity movements.”

Talks with Israel have reached an impasse and their continuation harms Palestinian national interests, jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi said Wednesday.

Speaking with lawyer Elias Sabbagh at the Hadarim detention center where Barghouthi is serving several life terms, the Fatah leader slammed what he described as a trend which suggests talks are the alternative to “fruitless negotiations.”

Barghouthi called on rival Palestinian factions to enter into a unity deal and “reactivate” the popular resistance movement in cooperation with international solidarity movements as a viable alternative to negotiations.

And we already know he’s talking about terrorism and not mere “non-violent resistance.”

8:42AM: The Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington has received an envelope with a white powdery substance.

Embassy spokesman Jonathan Peled says the FBI took the envelope Wednesday evening for testing. There were no injuries.

D.C. fire and EMS department spokesman Pete Piringer says the envelope was found in the embassy’s mailroom. Piringer says hazardous material teams are conducting tests.

He says there are no illnesses or threats associated with the envelope and the building was not evacuated.

Embassy spokesman Jonathan Peled says the envelope was sent to the embassy, and not someone in particular. Peled says officials do not know who sent it and it wasn’t opened.

I’m guessing it’s not cocaine.

6:08AM: CNN adopts a “Lebanese army confused by location of Blue Line” approach, ignoring other possible (more likely) explanations such as “staged Hizbullah provocation.”

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The Israeli Defense Forces revealed on Wednesday aerial photographs of sites at the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, where the IDF suspects Hezbollah  is storing various weapons and even operating headquarters and control centers.

Colonel Ronen Marley, commander of the western brigade at the northern border, commented on the rearmament of Hezbollah: “An event can take place today, or a year from now; I am ready for it to happen by surprise. We are operating in different ways to thwart any event – if one should take place, we will know how to handle it.”

Colonel Marley added that the Hezbollah has recently been collecting intelligence on IDF forces, and sometimes operates in civilian guise. The organization was also engaged in infrastructure works that would prepare it for future fighting.

A senior military source claimed that increased cooperation between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah is giving them an operational advantage and increases their effectiveness ahead of a clash with the IDF. However, the IDF emphasized that despite reports of a new radar operating in Syria, this claim was not familiar to them.

The material presented by the military revealed that 23,000 residents live in the village where al-Khiam Detention Center was operating while the IDF controlled the safety zone in southern Lebanon.

According to information obtained by the security establishment, Hezbollah was now preparing the grounds for the next round of battle with Israel.

The army noted that some 90 activists were operating in the village vicinity, most of them belonging to special forces that are preparing – as soon as they receive the order – to lie in wait for IDF forces, alongside a “welcome” of various demolition charges, anti-tank missiles and pits filled with explosives.

The IDF decided to present the information in order to demonstrate Hezbollah’s scope of activity against Israel, four years after the Second Lebanon War.

The information also revealed that hundreds of short-range mortar shells and rockets have been stored in al-Khiam, and as in the past, intentionally placed adjacent to public institutions, schools and medical facilities.

A military source told Ynet that the images from al-Khiam are not exclusive, and that similar operations were taking place in the entire area. “What you see in this village, you can see in all villages in southern Lebanon. There are some 20,000 activists whose job is, in fact, to act against IDF forces from within the village. When the time comes, they will give our forces a real fight,” the source said.

From the IDF Spox:

The following declassified intelligence maps as well as the 3D animated clip illustrate how Hezbollah, in the four years since the Second Lebanon War, has turned over 100 villages in South Lebanon into military bases. These maps and the 3D clip illustrate how Hezbollah stores their weapons near schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in the village of al-Khiam. They follow similar tactics in villages across southern Lebanon, essentially using the residents as human shields, in gross violation of UN Resolution 1701. al-Khiam was used as a rocket launching site during the Second Lebanon war.

During the Second Lebanon war, Hezbollah stored their weapons in open areas for the most part, which enabled the IDF to locate and destroy their stores. In the four years since then, Hezbollah has pursued a tactic of moving their weapons into civilian villages, essentially institutionalizing the tactic of using human shields on a large scale.

Hezbollah Activity in South Lebanon Since the 2nd Lebanon War

3D animated video clip of the Lebanese village, al-Khiam:

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:34PM: Tell us how you really feel (language warning)

6:35PM: Further to my previous update, the Jewish Chronicle reports on the British Foreign Office’s reaction:

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Ambassador expressed a personal view on Sheik Sayyed Fadlallah, describing the man as she knew him.

“We welcomed his progressive views on women’s rights and interfaith dialogue. But also had profound disagreements – especially over his statements advocating attacks on Israel.”

Fadlallah had called on Palestinians to target Jews, saying: “All of Palestine is a war zone and every Jew who unlawfully occupies a house or land belonging to a Palestinian is a legitimate target. There are no innocent Jews in Palestine.”

6:30PM: If you thought Octavia Nasr’s praise of deceased terrorist Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah was bad, check out this blog post from British Ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy.

The passing of decent men

One of the privileges of being a diplomat is the people you meet; great and small, passionate and furious.  People in Lebanon like to ask me which politician I admire most.  It is an unfair question, obviously, and many are seeking to make a political response of their own.  I usually avoid answering by referring to those I enjoy meeting the most and those that impress me the most.  Until yesterday my preferred answer was to refer to Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, head of the Shia clergy in Lebanon and much admired leader of many Shia muslims throughout the world.  When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person.  That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith.  Sheikh Fadlallah passed away yesterday.  Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon’s shores.  I remember well when I was nominated ambassador to Beirut, a muslim acquaintance sought me out to tell me how lucky I was because I would get a chance to meet Sheikh Fadlallah. Truly he was right.  If I was sad to hear the news I know other peoples’ lives will be truly blighted.  The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints.  May he rest in peace.

4:25PM: In a yet-to-be-aired interview with Israeli television, US President Barack Obama said that Israel is right to be skeptical about the peace process, and while there is hope for peace in the Middle East, he is not “blindly optimistic”.

1:28PM: The dancing IDF soldiers have not been punished after all.

Well, not really.

The dance that rocked the net will get a sequel. Colonel Amir Abulafia, commander of the Benjamin Brigade, summoned on Wednesday two of the soldiers who participated in the IDF dance video, which was uploaded onto YouTube and became an instant hit worldwide.

Abulafia told the two squad commanders that they did not act appropriately by participating in the video while donning their uniform, armor and weapon – but because their behavior did not display any moral flaws, he decided to give them an educational assignment.

The two will star in an educational IDF video that will attempt to prevent similar incidents in the future.

I’d prefer to see them heading our PR department.

9:14AM: They don’t make blind men like they used to.

A Hebron-area family said their home was attacked by settlers on Sunday evening, when their blind grandfather was at home alone.

Hasan Al-Matour, 65, from Sa’ir village north of Hebron said he heard stones being thrown at his house, and “knew that settlers accompanied by troops were there.”

The family said that when they returned home, several window panes were broken.

Alternatively, he can sniff a settler with no problem.

8:38AM: Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu interviewed by CNN’s Larry King.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

6:08AM: Introducing our latest weapon: Zionist Death Snakes.^TM

West Bank residents have reported an increase in poisonous snakes across districts with the reptiles leaving their burrows and nests as temperatures rise, in search of food.

Hussein Al-Tawil, 44, said he was called on by residents in the Al-Hawooz area of Hebron to kill a large, 25-year-old snake. Al-Tawil said the reptile lives in a nearby well and eats pigeons raised by the residents.

The snake, he said, is causing a state of fear among Al-Hawooz residents.

Snake experts in Hebron told Ma’an that they will be following up the issue and will notify the public when the snake is caught.

Meanwhile, a Tulkarem resident said the district has become infested with snakes and that local clinics lack anti-venom.

5:55AM: CNN senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, yesterday tweeted her regret over expressing her sadness upon hearing of the death of Hizbullah terrorist Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.

Today she really regrets it – CNN has fired her.

CNN on Wednesday removed its senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, from her job after she published a Twitter message saying that she respected the Shiite cleric the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died on Sunday.

Ms. Nasr left her CNN office in Atlanta on Wednesday. Parisa Khosravi, the senior vice president for CNN International Newsgathering, said in an internal memorandum that she “had a conversation” with Ms. Nasr on Wednesday morning and that “we have decided that she will be leaving the company.”

Ms. Nasr, a 20-year veteran of CNN, wrote on Twitter after the cleric died on Sunday, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah … One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

Ayatollah Fadlallah routinely denounced Israel and the United States, and supported suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Ayatollah Fadlallah’s writings and preachings inspired the Dawa Party of Iraq and a generation of militants, including the founders of Hezbollah, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Some supporters of Israel seized on the Twitter posting almost immediately. A Web site called Honest Reporting that says it is “dedicated to defending Israel against prejudice in the media” asked, “Is Nasr a Hezbollah sympathizer? This is disturbing enough given that the group is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and is committed to the destruction of Israel.

“And which of Fadlallah’s individual views does Nasr admire?”

CNN officials became aware of Ms. Nasr’s message on Monday, and a spokesman said Tuesday that it was an “error of judgment” on her part. “CNN regrets any offense her Twitter message caused. It did not meet CNN’s editorial standards. This is a serious matter and will be dealt with accordingly,” the spokesman said. Ms. Nasr apparently deleted the post at some point.

In a follow-up blog post on Tuesday evening, Ms. Nasr said she was sorry about the message “because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah’s life’s work. That’s not the case at all.”

She said she used the words “respect” and “sad” because “to me, as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman’s rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of ‘honor killing.’ He called the practice primitive and nonproductive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam.”

She continued, “This does not mean I respected him for what else he did or said. Far from it.”

Her explanation was apparently not sufficient for her CNN bosses. Ms. Khosravi wrote in the memorandum, “At this point, we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward.” Her exit was first reported by the Web site Mediaite.

I guess she is going to have to change her Twitter name from octavianasrCNN. Perhaps octavianasrPressTV?

Two of Netanyahu’s aides have recently returned from Cairo, and his office is making an effort to show good will by establishing a shortened “black list” of items that will not be allowed into Gaza as part of the easing of restrictions on the Strip.

The items list includes everything Israel has defined as “weapons” or “combat equipment”. It is set to be presented to the Foreign Ministry Monday just hours before Netanyahu’s trip.

In addition, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to meet Monday afternoon with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and sources say he may present him with the list as well.

Israeli officials believe the main issue Netanyahu will discuss with Obama is the decision to move forward to direct talks with the Palestinians. After 15 months of publicized disagreement, many believe the US president will attempt to make peace with Netanyahu.

“The US is demanding of Israel the prevention of embarrassment, such as construction in east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, once the direct talks begin,” Israeli diplomats said. “This is despite the fact that Obama knows Abu Mazen was dragged into these talks against his will.”

A Labor minister said the issue of West Bank construction was also sure to come up, if not during this meeting then certainly during the next. “It’s true the Palestinians haven’t done enough, but we can’t have the bulldozers coming in during the talks,” he said.

A Foreign Ministry source said Obama was eager to spur the direct talks, and that he expects Netanyahu to make moves in which a majority is guaranteed, such as in the government or the Knesset.

Obama is also expected to discuss with Netanyahu the easement of restrictions on Gaza as well as the coordination of talks between Israel and the Palestinians with Egypt and the EU. Their meeting will also deal with Iran and the new sanctions imposed by the US.

Here’s hoping that at least gets Netanyahu a dinner invitation.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:52PM: The IDF soldiers in the flash mob I posted earlier today (3:50PM update) could face disciplinary action.

10:32PM: Besides being utterly biased, terrorist-supporting CNN editor Octavia Nasr  “Causes breast cancer-autism” according to her Twitter bio.

That’s one heck of a resume.

Meanwhile, is it just me or doesn’t she look like the lovechild of a Kardashain and Miss Piggy?

10:04PM: Welcome to Gaza, the world’s only “open air concentration camp” with classic cars.

7:34PM: Nobel peace prize winner Robert Aumann explains the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of game theory.

Reuben and Shimon are placed into a small room with a suitcase containing $100,000 of cash. The owner of the suitcase offers them the following: “I’ll give you all the money in the suitcase, but only on the condition that you negotiate and reach an amicable agreement on its division. That’s the only way I will give you the money. ”

Reuben, who is a rational person, appreciates the golden opportunity presented to him and turns to Shimon with the obvious suggestion: “Come, you take half the amount, I’ll take the other half, and each of us will go away with $50,000.” To his surprise, Shimon, with a serious look on his face and a determined voice says: “Listen, I do not know what your intentions are with the money, but I’m not leaving this room with less than $90,000. Take it or leave it. I’m fully prepared to go home with nothing.”

Reuben can not believe his ears. What happened to Shimon? he thinks to himself. Why should he get 90%, and I only 10%? He decides to try to talk to Shimon. “Come, be reasonable,” he pleads. “We’re both in this together, and we both want the money. Come let’s share the amount equally and we’ll both come out ahead.”

But the reasoned explanation of his friend does not seem to register on Shimon. He listens attentively to Reuben’s words, but then declares even more emphatically, “There is nothing to discuss. 90-10 or nothing, that’s my final offer!” Reuben’s face turns red with anger. He wants to smack Shimon across his face, but soon reconsiders. He realizes that Shimon is determined to leave with the majority of the money, and that the only way for him to leave the room with any money is to surrender to Shimon’s blackmail. He straightens his clothes, pulls out a wad of bills from the suitcase in the amount of $10,000, shakes hands with Shimon and leaves the room looking forlorn.

This case in Game Theory is called the “Blackmailer Paradox.” The paradox emerging from this case is that the rational Reuben is eventually forced to act clearly irrationally, in order to gain the maximum available to him. The logic behind this bizarre result is that Shimon broadcast total faith and confidence in his excessive demands, and he is able to convince Reuben to yield to his blackmail in order for him to receive the minimum benefit.

Arab – Israel Conflict

The political relationship between Israel and Arab countries is also conducted according to the principles of this paradox. The Arabs present rigid and unreasonable opening positions at every negotiation. They convey confidence and assurance in their demands, and make certain to make absolutely clear to Israel that they will never give up on any of these requirements.

Absent an alternative, Israel is forced to yield to blackmail due to the perception that it will leave the negotiating room with nothing if it is inflexible. The most prominent example of this is the negotiations with the Syrians that have been conducted already for a number of years under various auspices. The Syrians made certain to clarify in advance that they will never yield even an inch of the Golan Heights.

The Israeli side, which so desperately seek a peace agreement with Syria, accept Syria’s position, and today, in the public discourse in Israel, it is clear that the starting point for future negotiations with Syria must include a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, despite the critical strategic importance of the Golan Heights to ensure clear boundaries that protect Israel.

How to Avoid Failure

According to Game Theory, the State of Israel must make some perceptual changes to improve its position in the negotiations with the Arabs, and to ultimately win the political struggle.

A. Willingness to renounce agreements: The present Israeli political approach is based on the assumption that an agreement with the Arabs must be reached at all costs, because the present situation, with the lack of an agreement, is simply intolerable. In the “Blackmailer Paradox,” Reuben’s behavior is based on the perception that he must leave the room with some amount of money even if it is the minimum. Reuben’s inability to accept the possibility that he may have to leave the room empty-handed, inevitably causes him to surrender to extortion and to leave the room in shame as a loser, but at least with some gain. Similarly, the State of Israel conducts its negotiations from a frame of mind that does not allow her to reject suggestions that do not conform to its interests.

B. Consideration of repeat games: Based on Game Theory, one should consider a one-time situation completely differently from a situation that repeats itself again and again, for in games that repeat over time, a strategic balance that is neutral paradoxically causes a cooperation between the opposing sides. Such cooperation occurs when the parties understand that the game repeats itself many times, therefore they must consider what will be the impact of their present moves on future games, when the fear of future loss serves as a balancing factor. Reuben related to the situation as if it were a one-time game, and acted accordingly. Had he announced to Shimon that he was not prepared to concede the part due him, even in light of a total loss, he would change the outcome of the game, for the future, although it is quite likely that he would leave the room empty-handed in the current negotiation. However, if both encounter a similar situation in the future, Shimon would recognize Reuben’s seriousness and have to reach a compromise with him. Likewise, Israel must act with patience and with long-term vision, even at the cost of not coming to any present agreement and continuing the state of belligerence, in order to improve its position in future negotiations.

C. Faith in your position: Another element that creates the “Blackmailer Paradox,” is the absolute certainty of one side in its positions, in this case the position of Shimon. Full certainty creates an internal justification of one’s convictions, and in the second round serves to convince his opponent that his positions were right. This results in the opponent’s desire to reach a compromise even by acting entirely irrationally and distancing him from his opening demands. Several years ago, I talked to a senior officer who claimed that Israel must withdraw from the Golan in any peace settlement because, from the Syrian point of view, the land is sacred and they will not give up on it. I explained to him, the Syrians convinced themselves that this is sacred ground, and it was this that succeeded to convince us as well. The deep conviction of the Syrians, causes us to surrender to the Syrian dictates. The present political situation will be resolved only if we convince ourselves of the justice of our views. Only total faith in our demands will be able to convince the Syrian opponent to consider our position.

Like all science, Game Theory does not presume to express an opinion on moral values, but rather seeks to analyze the strategic behaviors of rival parties in a common game. The State of Israel plays such a game with its enemies. Like every game, in the Arab-Israeli game there are particular interests that shape and frame the game and its rules. Unfortunately, Israel ignores the basic principles that arise in Game Theory. If the State of Israel succeeds in following these base principles, its political status and its security will improve significantly.

4:38PM: Honest Reporting deals with Octavia Nasr’s cheerleading for a dead terrorist.

4:34PM: CNN’s Octavia Nasr upon hearing of the death of Hizbullah terrorist Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah yesterday:

Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot..

In case you were wondering how it is that CNN seems so biased against Israel.

4:30PM: Almost one third of a sample of Israelis are hoping Germany wins the World Cup.

The German national soccer team is generally not considered one of the most popular in Israel, but it seems this year’s FIFA World Cup is leaving its mark. A poll conducted Sunday by Yedioth Ahronoth and the Dahaf Institute, headed by Mina Tzemach, showed that almost one-third of Israelis would like to see coach Joachim Löw’s team win the Cup.

The poll’s findings are based on answers by 500 respondents, comprising a representative sample of the adult population in Israel.

According to the findings, 31.1% of the male population in Israel (27.7% of the general sample) would like to see Holland take the cup home. Germany, surprisingly, comes in second place, with 30.5% of the male population (25.1% of the general sample) hoping to see striker Miroslav Klose and his teammates win the international championship.

As for me, I am not rooting for Germany (I’d rather see the Dutch win) and would prefer to see the German team routed.

3:50PM: IDF flash mob in Hebron!

12:55PM: Do you remember the weird pro-Israel music video of the century I blogged about back in May?

Looks like it has really taken off.

The music video appeared, without much fanfare or explanation, in April. Its three stars—La Tigresa del Oriente and La Pequeña Wendy, both from Peru, and Delfín Hasta El Fín, from Ecuador—all populist specimens of unironic camp, were already YouTube stars. Maybe that’s why “En Tus Tierras Bailaré,” an inexplicable, Spanish-language musical tribute to the beauties of Israel, with a title that translates to “In Your Lands I’ll Dance,” has effortlessly racked up nearly 4 million views and spawned countless tributes and parodies. But where did it come from? Why did three South Americans team up to sing about their love for Israel and their plans to dance in Jerusalem? And why does the video superimpose their dancing on shots of the Tel Aviv skyline and—of all things—Hamantaschen?

Some commenters saw a Zionist conspiracy (when they weren’t expressing disdain for the video’s “bad taste”). But could the Israeli government, or any sympathetic organization, have masterminded something so anarchic, brazenly neglecting to tout Israel’s holy sites and instead pitching the Azrieli Mall highway bridge? Another theory: Maybe the artists were spontaneously moved by their love for Israel on their way home from an evangelical church. Yet others speculated it was all a big prank staged by an Israeli backpacker trawling the Incan ruins of Peru, who thought it’d be funny to juxtapose their song with footage of the Tel Aviv pride parade.

In truth, credit (or blame, if you prefer) lies with a different set of rootless cosmopolitans: several creative-class Argentine Jews (and one quarter-Jew) living in Madrid, Buenos Aires, and New York, only one of whom has actually been to Israel, and none of whom even met the singers during the video’s production. Their intention, these impresarios say somewhat vaguely, was to fight preconceived notions that Israel is a sad and scary place.

“It’s not a song in favor of Israel,” said Gastón Cleiman, an advertising man in Buenos Aires who wrote the song’s lyrics and who, along with Sebastian Muller, dreamed up the idea. “It’s a song against prejudice.” Cleiman is freelancer; Muller works for an interactive firm in Madrid whose clients include Nike and Coca-Cola. Both men swear the project was their own initiative, with neither official money nor messaging. The music was written by Gaby Kerpel, another Argentine Jew, who also scored De La Guarda and Fuerza Bruta and is part of a Latin electronic collective known as Zizek and performs reinterpreted Colombian cumbia under the alter ego King Coyo, and the video was directed by Picky Talarico, better known for directing Latin mega-stars’ videos and high-profile commercials.

It started with Muller and Cleiman, who were channeling their mutual obsession with the millions-strong YouTube sensations Wendy (who, at 8, recorded sugary-voiced videos about her thirst for breast milk and beer), La Tigresa (a surgically enhanced hairdresser from the Peruvian Amazon fond of leopard print and reborn as a singer at 65), and Delfín, an amiable but stone-faced Ecuadorean whose first rise to his feet in indignation had been for a disco-beat ode to 9/11.

“One sees them and is seduced,” Cleiman said, speaking in Spanish. “These are things upon which you cannot force reason, because then surely you will find defects. But the truth is, you cannot stop watching them.”

“I feel they are doing something new that relies on authenticity,” Muller, who studied film at Tel Aviv University, told me earnestly, in Hebrew. “They haven’t learned the rules of how to communicate with images. It’s a kind of dogma without consciousness.”

Muller conceded that some of the singers’ fan base was ironic or mocking. “For many people, the combination of authenticity, of pop-culture kitsch and the bizarre is an ugly aesthetic,” he said. “But once you break from your prejudice, you can get to a different approach. Once you break those barriers, you are free.” He likened the process of changing one’s perception of the video—in part because of its pure addictiveness—to changing one’s view of Israel.

That’s the argument he presented to the singers, too. “They also had preconceived notions about Israel,” Muller said. “So, we said, what do they think when people write negative things about them on the Internet?” All three signed on.

This time, parts of the Internet responded with enthusiastiasm, bringing the performers unimagined international fame and tributes. The breathlessly heralded “pasito de Delfín” dance in “En Tus Tierras Bailaré” has spawned homages by someone in an Iron Man costume in a park, by well-off children in a kiddie pool, and by at least one woman in drag.

***

Sitting in a Manhattan bar, Talarico, the video’s director, recalled how pleased he was when Muller forwarded him YouTube comments complaining that the video looked like the work of a beginner student, and a not very good one.

Talarico’s usual clients are the likes of Julio Iglesias, Nelly Furtado, and Juanes, but when Cleiman called and asked him to recommend a director for “En Tus Tierras Bailaré,” Talarico volunteered himself.

“I have this concept of art as being when you manage to do something without your mind interfering, without being led by preconceptions and prejudices,” he said. “For me, there’s always an opinion, there’s always self-consciousness. I think these people don’t have that. So, I think they’re true artists.”

Cleiman had written the lyrics to Kerpel’s music on a boat to Uruguay, trying to mimic the imperfect rhyming and simplicity of the singers’ previous work. “I’m trying to remember a phrase of Picasso’s—It took many years for me to learn how to paint like a child,” he said.

All of them had labored to make themselves invisible, befitting a video that Alma Guillermoprieto, writing on the New York Review of Books blog, saw as evidence of “the chaotic transformation of a culture that has always had an infinite and joyful capacity for self-invention. This is not outsider but insider art of the deepest sort, forged in a hot-hot crucible, and it is we who stand on the outside, peering wistfully at the screen.” For the Argentines involved, cultural insiders by profession but arguably outsiders as Jews and in a country that has always held itself apart from Latin America, the wistful peering was in awe, at footage shot in Peru and Ecuador by local directors given only the loosest instructions.

“After 200 music videos and 400 commercials, it was like an undoing,” said Talarico. “A deconstruction.”

He intentionally used footage of Israel that defied logic. “If we were doing a corporate video for Israel and we had a voice-over saying, ‘Visit Jerusalem,’ then fine, we use Jerusalem. But this was not like a video of a party where you can see the brand of whiskey.” It’s not clear to him whether the video changed the way anyone thinks about Israel, but it doesn’t really matter that much to him. “With Israel, there’s something in my blood”—he has a Jewish grandparent—“but if someone had approached me to do this video for Afghanistan or Argentina, I would have done it too.”

Meanwhile, the video’s wild success has meant the artists now have mobility beyond the virtual. La Tigresa has already been brought to Buenos Aires by a party promoter, where patrons at a chic restaurant she ate in burst into “En Tus Tierras Bailaré,” where she was stopped in the street for photos and hailed as a gay icon. Kerpel wants to collaborate with Wendy Sulca. Agencies are calling Cleiman and Talarico, seeking to tap this confusing enthusiasm.

And Muller is seeking partners or donors for a worldwide tour that would span Latin America, Miami, New York, and end up in Israel. “That’s our dream and their dream,” he said. “They already know a lot about the country because we showed it to them. And they have a connection. But they want to be there physically.”

For the record, I think I was the first to blog about the video, so would like to think Israellycool contributed in a small way to its popularity.

12:42PM: The Turks are threatening to break off ties with Israel unless we meet certain demands.

Turkey’s foreign minister has warned that diplomatic ties with Israel will be cut in the wake of the recent flotilla crisis unless certain conditions are met, the Turkish press reported Monday.

“The Israelis have three options: They will either apologize or acknowledge an international-impartial inquiry and its conclusion. Otherwise, our diplomatic ties will be cut off,” Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters on Saturday during a visit to Kyrgyzstan.

Here’s hoping we tell Turkey to get stuffed.

8:38AM: Photo of the day:

A photo-cutout of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and Israeli flags are fixed on a car following a slomen march protest through a highway on the outskirts of the coastal town of Herzliya on July 4, 2010, the seventh day of a 200-kilometre (120-mile) of a march from Shalit?s family hometown of Mitzpe Hila near Israel's northern border with Lebanon to the Jerusalem residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to mark four years since he was captured by Palestinian militants in Gaza in June 2006. AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, compare the sign to that seen in Mecca:

Where is the real apartheid?

5:55AM: Besides being US Independence Day, yesterday was also the day Operation Entebbe was carried out 34 years ago.

Here is some vivid “live” footage of the Entebbe hostages returning to Israel, which was released only a couple of years ago.

Translation of voice over:

July 4th 1976, 2 pm. heads os state and IDF are waiting. one more glimpse at the watch. these hidden footages bring us back Yitzhak Rabin as PM, and his security minister Peres with full hair…
in few minutes the fir More..st Hercules will land, bringing the Entebbe hostages back home.
historic moments frozen in the camera landscape.
this is a silence history- the voices were not recorded.
the wheels are touching down the runway, the door is open and the hostages,shocked and excited, are coming out one by one. some of them didnt even notice rabin and peres which came to congrats them… the two, which back then were rivals, the same as partners, decided about this operation togheter.
the passengers are first welcomed by the Lod airbase personal. a hug and a cry of releif.
one of the hostages is Michelle Bakus, the captain of the kidnnaped Airfrance plane, which insisted to stay with the israeli passengers at the Entebbe terminal (after the non-israerlis were released), guidence by his sense of responsebility to their fate.
he is about to be rebuked for this in France, but in Israel he will be highly estimated.
the fighters which were hurt during the operation are also taken down from the Hercules, and also 6 injured hostages.
the buses are taking the free hostages to their first meeting with the families.
they are silence, each one is with himself, here a cigarette, there half a smile. till someone is taking out a “sabra” liqueur and pass it to everyone else.
slowly realizing they are back home. in a moment they will hug their dear ones.
the special forces are also getting down from the plane. so is the truck which carried their breaking in equipment, and yes… this is the black mercedes- the double of Idi Amin’s vehicle, which will later be memorized in movies.
and the sights are exciting like 32 years havnt pass.
in the other side of the runway, far from the eye another Hercules is landing.
Rabin and Peres at first conversation with the Sayeret Matkal special forces.
Rabin thanks them for their courage and achivment, and the fighters are telling how Yoni Nethanyau died, where the hostages were held and how much terrorists were taken down.
and another picture for memory- the aircrews which participated in the operation.
what was Rabin thinking here while watching the landing planes? maybe about the difficult decision to semd this fighters so far away, maybe about the amazing success and the heavy price which was payed – the death of the Sayeret Matkal commander and 3 of the hostages.
32 years has passed and the taste of that sweet moment, a moment of bravery and unity is coming back, a history which its ok to embrace. “

“A majority of governments recognize the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as illegitimate under international law,” the church body said at its annual conference in Portsmouth.

The church body will now encourage Methodists across the UK to follow suit.

The motion stated that the boycott of goods “from illegal Israeli settlements” was in response to a call by the World Council of Churches – which advocates divestment from Israel – and by Palestinian civil society and “a growing number of Jewish organizations in Israel and worldwide.”

“The Methodist Conference notes the call of the World Council of Churches in 2009 for an international boycott of settlement produce and services and the support given for such a boycott by Christian leaders in Palestine in the Kairos document, Palestinian civil society and a growing number of Jewish organizations both inside Israel and worldwide and calls on the Methodist people to support and engage with this boycott of Israeli goods emanating from illegal settlements,” the church said.

—-

In a statement released after Wednesday’s vote, the church body said the decision, which carried unanimously, had the goal of ending “the existing injustice.”

“This decision has not been taken lightly, but after months of research, careful consideration and finally, today’s debate at the conference,” said Christine Elliott, secretary for external relationships. “The goal of the boycott is to put an end to the existing injustice. It reflects the challenge that settlements present to a lasting peace in the region.”

I always have to laugh at these Christian groups who oppose Israel and claim Israel is illegally occupying palestinian land. Does this mean they believe that their hero JC was also illegally occupying palestinian land when he lived in places such as Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Jericho?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:00PM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation on Gilad Shalit,  as a response to the mounting pressure from the Shalit family to conduct a prisoner swap.

Netanyahu, who will talk with US President Barack Obama about the issue on Monday, gave the soldier’s family little reason for optimism, and explained why the decision is so complex.

“I look into the pained eyes of Shalit’s family and feel the pain with them,” he said. “I also look into the eyes of hundreds of families who have been hurt by terror and feel their pain. In the same breath, I think of all those whose loved ones will be murdered if Israel’s principles are breached and murderers are released. As prime minister, I must take all this considerations into account.”

“The call to pay any price is a natural cry from the hearts of his fathers, mothers, grandparents, brothers and sisters,” he continued.
“As a brother, as a father, as a son, I understand this cry from the depths of my heart. But before me I see, as does every Israeli prime minister, the security of all the State’s citizens. The State of Israel is willing to pay a heavy price for the release of Shalit, but it cannot say ‘at any price.’ This is the truth, and I am saying it now. We will continue to make every effort… to bring Gilad home quickly. But this will be done while maintaining the security of Israel’s citizens.”

“The people of Israel are united in their desire to bring Shalit home,” the prime minister confirmed. “There in nobody who has met the Shalit family who doesn’t think to himself, ‘Gilad could have been my son, or my brother, or my grandson.’ Therefore the family’s response is natural, and the desire to give them support is also natural.”

Netanyahu, who said he had agreed to a deal which would involve the release of 1,000 Palestinians, also spoke about the dangers of releasing prisoners.

“Israel has decided a number of times to release terrorists and murders in return for the release of Israelis,” he said. “The most famous case is the Jibril deal, in which 1,150 were released. Almost half went back to terror. They went back to murdering hundreds of Israelis and constituted the hard core of the second Intifada. And there were other cases, like the Tenenbaum deal, in which 400 were released, and murdered 26 Israelis since they were released in 2004.”

“The decision to release terrorists is a difficult and complex decision for any government,” Netanyahu continued. “Because of the complexity, as opposition leader I refused to criticize the Olmert government on this issue. The public pressure and demands should not be directed against the government, but against Hamas – a terror organization that does not even allow the Red Cross to visit Shalit.”

“In the deal presented by the German mediator, to which I agreed, there were 1,000 terrorists – that’s the price I am willing to face to bring Shalit home,” the prime minister added, but clarified that he would not agree to their return to the West Bank. “I stick to two principles – the terrorists must not return to Judea and Samaria, and no arch-terrorists will be released. I agreed to the mediator’s deal, but no response has yet been received from Hamas.”

4:24PM: CNN reports on IAF strikes on Gaza sites overnight. Note the scare quotes.

The Israeli air force hit a weapons manufacturing facility and “terror” sites in Gaza overnight, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said Thursday.

This is CNN.

3:02PM: I know I have mocked the Jerusalem Post in the past for photo-caption combination screw-ups, but here they get it spot on.

1:18PM: More information has come to light on the secret meeting between Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkish media on Thursday provided further details of the secret meeting that led to a coalitional storm  in Israel. Local newspapers detailed how the meeting, between Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was concealed. The NTV network reported that the two agreed to meet again in secret.

The meeting was held behind the back of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were aware of the meeting and gave Ben-Eliezer their blessing.

Meanwhile, a Turkish official confirmed that the meeting was held in Brussels, and said it had taken place at Israel’s behest, in an attempt to overcome the crisis between the two countries.

“The meeting took place in Brussels yesterday at Israel’s behest,” the official told AFP, “We sent a letter to Israel expressing our expectations and these expectations were raised again in the meeting.”

A Turkish newspaper reported that the meeting, which was the first meeting between Israeli and Turkish officials since the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla, was also kept a secret from local ministers.

According to Sabah newspaper, the meeting was held in a luxury hotel in Brussels, Belgium, and began at 12:30, local time. It lasted some two-and-a-half hours. The parties initially considered holding the meeting in Luxembourg, Zurich or Strasbourg.

The report said the hotel room was booked under a third party’s name in order to keep the meeting a secret. The two ministers reportedly discussed ways to restore ties between Israel and Turkey.

Turkish network NTV reported that the meeting was also kept secret from Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis and Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker, who were in Belgium with the foreign minister.

Hurriyet newspaper reported that the foundations for the meeting were laid during a meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting with US President Barack Obama, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Canada, which Davutoglu also attended.

According to the report, the Ben-Eliezer-Davutoglu meeting focused on the matter of the ships that are still in Israel. The Turkish foreign minister reportedly laid out the terms for returning the ships from Israel.

He secretly took off in his private jet from Ankara to Zurich.

The Turkish newspapers also reported on Lieberman’s anger at the secret meeting. On Wednesday, the foreign minister’s office called it “a violation of all normal procedures,” and said “it undermines the trust between the foreign minister and the prime minister. The foreign minister intends to clarify the incident.”

The meeting was mediated by an Israeli business man and the American ambassador in Ankara.

Meanwhile, Ha’aretz has picked up on the Obama connection, glossed over in the above report.

A senior Israeli official’s secret meeting with the Turkish foreign minister was apparently held due to pressure from the Obama administration.

9:32AM: According to The Wall Street Journal, Iran has equipped Syria with with a sophisticated radar system to help thwart a surprise Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

8:52AM: High-ranking Hamashole Mahmoud “The Wart” al-Zahar demonstrates why all those who support or otherwise enable Hamas (including the flotillards) support Israel’s destruction, and those who posit Israel should talk with Hamas (including Russia, Jimmy Carter and even Israelis like Shaul Mofaz) are off their meds.