First, he sat in a chair covered with Evil Zionist cooties.

Now he’s been photographed in the same room as an evil Zionist. Smiling.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh (L) smiles next to Israel's IAEA ambassador Ehud Azoulay as they attend an IAEA bord of governors meeting at the United Nations headquarters in Vienna November 18, 2011. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer

At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before we see Dr. Ali Asghar Soltanieh groping the Israeli IAEA ambassador’s butt.

Senior Israeli officials said Tuesday night that the International Atomic Energy Agency report stating that Iran has been working on developing a nuclear weapon design proves that the former UN nuclear watchdog chairman “was an Iranian agent”.

On Wednesday, ElBaradei rejected Israel’s accusations and called them “false.” His response was published on the website of the Egyptian daily al-Youm al-Saba’a.

The former IAEA chairman, Mohamed ElBaradei, is an Egyptian diplomat who even won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. 

For years he defended the Iranian nuclear program, claiming that it was peaceful, thus allowing the Iranians to continue their activity with the nuclear watchdog’s seal of approval.

According to one of the state officials, the new report published Tuesday proves “just how much he was working for the Iranians.

“He simply rescued Iran and was constantly busy covering up for them, causing serious damage by allowing the Iranians to fool the entire world and play for time. History may judge him as the person who helped Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.

“The things exposed now are not new. These are old things which were hidden and not published,” the official added. “Now it turns out that ElBaradei led an active policy of concealment and disregard. This is very serious. He is a despicable person.”

“ElBaradei didn’t just mess us up, he messed up the entire sane world,” added Uzi Eilam, former head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Agency. “He was dishonest his entire term. He is the one who stopped the Security Council from imposing serious sanctions, providing the Iranians with precious time.”

I’m not sure ElBaradei was an actual Iranian agent, but he certainly seems to have deliberately given Iran a helping hand.

And speaking of ElBaradei and giving hands, I have long noted his resemblance to a family favorite.

But judging by this photo of him, it looks like he can go the other way.

That’s Dr. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, pictured at an IAEA meeting last month, seated at the Israeli delegation’s desk while conducting his official business.

Damn occupier!

As Foreign Policy notes:

The Islamic Republic’s official representatives are generally barred from speaking with Israeli diplomats or even uttering the word Israel, preferring to describe their regional enemy as “that Zionist entity.”

But sometimes you just really need a place to sit.

And sometimes you really need to photoshop your way out of a situation.

(Found via Ynet)

"Come out, come out little wormie."

Iran’s nuclear program has experienced serious problems, including unexplained fluctuations in the performance of the thousands of centrifuges enriching uranium, leading to a rare but temporary shutdown, international inspectors are expected to reveal Tuesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. unit that monitors nuclear programs, will provide no explanation of the problems. But speculation immediately centered on the Stuxnet worm, a computer virus that some researchers say appears to have been designed specifically to target Iran’s centrifuge machines so that they spin out of control.

Iran denies the worm caused any problems.

No country has claimed responsibility for developing the virus, although suspicion has focused primarily on Israel and the United States. James L. Jones, who until recently was President Obama’s national security adviser, declined to comment on the worm when asked about it Monday at the Aspen Institute.

The Associated Press first reported on the centrifuge shutdown, which was confirmed by a person familiar with the report. The official said the shutdown is mentioned in a much-anticipated IAEA report expected to be released Tuesday.

U.S. officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Even before the Stuxnet attack, the Natanz facility that houses the centrifuges had not been operating at full capacity, according to experts and U.S. officials.

Olli Heinonen, a former top IAEA official, said Monday at a meeting sponsored by the Arms Control Association that 3,772 centrifuges at the facility were being fed uranium gas and 5,084 machines were idle. “This indicates that there is a problem,” he said.

Heinonen also said that Iran appears to have suffered a setback in its efforts to develop a second-generation centrifuge capable of enriching uranium more quickly. Iran’s centrifuges are based on a Pakistani copy of a decades-old Dutch design, and Heinonen said Iran may have trouble obtaining the raw materials – such as high-strength carbon – for an upgrade because of international sanctions.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

4:55PM: Israel hater Baroness Moroness Jenny Tonge is up to her old tricks.

A controversial British politician has accused Israel of being the “cause of terrorism” and has said that the West’s treatment of Muslims was caused by what she called “Holocaust guilt” and the “power of the pro-Israel lobby”.

Accoring to a report published in the European Jewish Press website, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Jenny Tonge made the comments in the British House of Lords on Friday during the Strategic Defence and Security Review, which defines how the British government is to handle the priorities identified in its national security strategy.

“The treatment of Palestinians by Israel is held up as an example of how the West treats Muslims and is at the root cause of terrorism worldwide,” said Tonge. “Even Tony Blair has now admitted this publicly. Why do we let it continue? Is it Holocaust guilt? We should be guilty — of course we should. Is it the power of the pro-Israel lobby here and in the USA? I do not know.”

Tonge also said that she feels “sorry for the people of Israel”, since as she put it “their government’s policies have made that country the cause of a lot of the world’s problems, yet now they are seen as the remedy and the base for the West to fight back.”

If only she’d realize her dream of becoming a suicide bomber..in a “work accident”. 

1:42PM: According to a Washington Post and ABC network poll, 70% of Americans support adopting the Israeli behavior profiling system and its implementation in US airports.

12:06PM: Israel’s Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat has gone to town on boycotters of the newly constructed center in the “settlement” of Ariel.

The debate over the boycott of a West Bank cultural center by a group of theater professionals intensified on Monday, with the Culture and Sports Minister calling the boycotters “ignoramuses”.

I prefer to think of them as “numbskulls.”

9:28AM: If they gave out prizes for Chutzpah, the other contestants would complain the competition was rigged, since this man would seem to win too many times.

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday slammed the Knesset’s passing of the National Referendum Law which will require either a Knesset super-majority or a national referendum in order to hand over any annexed territories as part of a future peace deal.

“With the passage of this bill, the Israeli leadership, yet again, is making a mockery of international law,” said Erekat. “Ending the occupation of our land is not and cannot be dependent on any sort of referendum.”

Of course, Erekat knows all about making a mockery.

9:06AM: Here’s the CBC documentary mentioned in yesterday’s post, which presents evidence against Hizbullah in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

6:04AM: Internationally known media analyst and founder of Media-Ratings, Philippe Karsenty (who I have met), discusses the al-Dura hoax on Canada’s Michael Coren show.

5:50AM: The Knesset yesterday passed the referendum law which requires a public majority and the votes of 60 Knesset members ahead of any withdrawal from the Golan Heights or east Jerusalem.

Of course, there’s only one spin for this when it comes to the AP.

Israel’s parliament has passed a bill that could complicate peace efforts with the Palestinians and Syria by making it very difficult for any government to make territorial withdrawals.

Pressuring Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

(SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

The head of the UN atomic watchdog is asking for international input on how to persuade Israel  to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in a move that is sure to add to pressure on the Jewish state to disclose its unacknowledged  nuclear arsenal.

In a letter made available Wednesday, Yukiya Amano asked foreign ministers of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 151 member states to share views on how to implement a resolution demanding that Israel “accede to the” Non-Proliferation Treaty and throw its nuclear facilities open to IAEA oversight.

—-

Amano’s April 7 letter comes seven months after IAEA member states at their annual conference narrowly passed a resolution  directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program, with 49 of the 110 nations present backing the document, 45 against and 16 abstaining.

The result was a setback not only for Israel but also for Washington and other backers of the Jewish state, which had lobbied for 18 years of past practice – debate on the issue without a vote. It also reflected building tensions between Israel and its backers and Islamic nations, supported by developing countries.

The resolution “expresses concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities,” and links it to “concern about the threat posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons for the security and stability of the Middle East.”

Ahmadinejad must be peeing his pants with joy at the moment.

The world is seriously messed up.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top) 

7:15PM: She’s baa-aack.

4:40PM: Antisemitic cartoon of the day.

44:05PM: Britain’s answer to Barack Obama, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, would like to allay fears that he is anti-Israel. And H’aretz is more than willing to provide him with the platform.

Though Cleggmania is rife in the U.K., Jerusalem is sunk in a Clegg-pression.

“Clegg is bad news for Israel,” one official here said. “His party is running on a human rights platform, and the atmosphere is hostile to Israel. We remind the Liberal Democrats of South Africa during apartheid. Even if Clegg decides not to take the foreign portfolio, the very fact that Liberal Democrats sit in the cabinet is likely to mean trouble for us.”

In the wake of the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead, the Liberal Democrats asked for an arms embargo on Israel, and to suspend its preferential trade status with the European Union. The party was also behind the demand to mark Israeli products made in the West Bank.

In December, Clegg was at the head of the list of signatories of a letter attacking the Israeli government for the blockade on Gaza. “The confinement and punishment of an entire population is no way to bring about peace for all of the people of the Middle East,” the letter read.

Most of the bad blood was created by Baroness Jenny Tonge, a former Liberal Democrat MP, who became a member of the House of Lords in 2005. A year earlier, Tonge announced that if she were a Palestinian living under occupation, she would herself have become a suicide bomber. In 2006, she said that the pro-Israel lobby exerted a “financial grip” on her party and on Britain.

In February, she went even further and called for an investigation into claims that IDF soldiers who were sent to aid Haitian earthquake victims were involved in harvesting body organs from the dead. Her remarks caused a storm and Clegg fired her from her job as shadow health spokesperson.

“Too little, too late,” a member of the British Jewish community said. “In light of the blood libel, he should have expelled her from the party.”

Clegg, who called Tonge’s remarks “wrong, distasteful and provocative,” says that he is “a very staunch defender of the people of Israel, of a very staunch defender of the rights of the Jewish community here in Britain, a community which is feeling quite beleaguered at the moment because of the rise in anti-Semitism and the rise in prejudice generally.”

He recently criticized the cooperation of British Conservatives in the European Parliament with extreme right-wing parties in Eastern Europe, whom he terms, “nutters, anti-Semitic, and homophobic.”

“As to the accusations that I am hostile to Israel, my actions prove the opposite. I have always sharply opposed various efforts to impose academic and cultural sanctions on Israel. I am also one of those who said that Britain should not have participated in the Durban 2 conference when it became clear that it would turn into an anti-Israel event.”

“I have tremendous admiration for the state of Israel and its people. When I visited, I was once again exposed to the genius of this nation, which has managed to maintain a democratic regime and a thriving and open economy, despite its existence under a constant threat. This is a great achievement.

But we must distinguish clearly between the Israeli and the Jewish people on the one hand, and certain actions of the Israeli government on the other. If I have criticism it is focused solely on these actions. I plan to continue to voice my thoughts, which stem from honest and legitimate concern, and in my estimation that the long term interests of the people of Israel are not being met properly at this time.”

Clegg rejects speaking to Hamas “as long as Hamas continues to nurture an extremist ideology of violence and terror. I totally understand the feelings of the residents of Sderot who are under constant missile attacks that are meant to impose terror. My condemnations of Hamas have always been clear and unequivocal, and the same is true of my attitude toward the fact that Israel has the full right to defend its inhabitants. That is the role of every country and every government.

“However,” he adds, “I don’t understand the Israeli strategy regarding Gaza. The imposition of the siege against 1.5 million people, many of them young people who become increasingly itter, and the disproportionate use of force.

Operation Cast Lead did of course bring about a certain neutralization of the attackers and the missile attacks ¬ but did it reduce the bitterness prevailing between the peoples, did it weaken Hamas’ position, and did it guarantee Israel’s long-term security interests? I’m not at all certain.”

Clegg comes out against Israel’s “continued development of the illegal settlements,” he welcomes the approaching proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and as far as Hamas is concerned, he says: “The only way to deal with Hamas is to work to split the organization between the extremists who want to destroy the peace process and those who are willing over the long term to recognize Israel and to work to find a solution in a non-violent manner.”

Clegg rejects out of hand the claim that the British public is today the most “anti-Israel” in Europe.

“Operation Cast Lead and incidents like falsifying documents in Dubai do create tension, but just as I would never treat any public criticism of some activity or other of the British government as an anti-British attitude, in the same way, British criticism of the policy of the Israeli government should not be treated as ‘anti-Israeli,’” he says.
In December 2009, 51 of the 63 members of the Liberal Democrats stood behind a draft bill in the Parliament in support of universal jurisdiction, which allows private citizens to apply for the arrest of Israeli politicians for alleged war crimes while they are on British soil.

But here’s what you need to know about Nick Clegg.

(L-R): Mrs. Clegg, Mr. Clegg, Archbishop Grigorios of Thyateira & GB, and Mr. Auchi

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, who is coming into the upcoming British elections in an enhanced position is close, very close, to Nadhmi Auchi.

If you care about shady characters behind those who rule I suggest you indulge yourself in a crash course on Mr. Auchi.

His personal fortune in excess of two billion Sterling makes him Britain’s 32nd richest person. He has lived in Britain since 1980.

Nahmi Auchi supports Hamas, providing aid and comfort to the terror group.

Auchi has funded the notorious George Galloway in his ‘Viva Palestina’ aids convoy with which he tried to break the blockage on Gaza.

Auchi recently said, “In the past the Arab community has not actvely participated  in British political life (!). I believe this is changing and we are now close to finding a party that is not only sympathetic to our views but whose policies actively seek to address our concerns”.

Nadhmi Auchi made these remarks at a fund raising banquet in honour of Nick Clegg.

Auchi established the Anglo-Arab Organisation to promote understanding between Britain and the Arab world.
Auchi funds one of the most anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, websites in Britain.

Auchi’s Middle East Online website promotes material from well-known anti-Israelis, including Jeff Gates who runs the anti-Israel ‘Criminal State’ blog.

Lord Steel, former Liberal Democrats leader, is a director of Auchi’s main company, General Mediterranean Holdings, the centre of his global empire that includes hotels, leisure, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunication firms.

The banquet was organised under the Anglo-Arab Organisation banner.  Alan Duncan, a Conservative Shadow Minister, is listed as a patron.

At the banquet, Clegg said that ‘the Arab community’s values sit deep in the soul of the Liberal Democrats. I feel that there is a conjunction of aspirations, hopes, and values between members of the British Arab community and many of the things that the Liberal Democracts stand for today’.

The Liberal Democrat leader has condemned Israel’s action in Gaza saying “We will not stand aside when unimaginable human suffering is taking place”.

Nahmi Auchi was convicted of fraud in the French Elf-Aquitaine oil company trial in 2003. He was given a suspended sentence.
Auchi is also involved in the case of a convicted Chicago fraudster, Tony Rezko, who was involved in a land deal with Barack Obama. A US court revoked Rezko’s bail when prosecutors discovered that Auchi had wired Rezko $3,500,000 from a Lebanese account.
Auchi is banned from into the US.  Since 2003 Auchi has invested heavily in Iraq.

In short, Nick Clegg is a puppet of Arab interests and connected with an Arab billionaire and fraudster.

—-

Britain may already be lost to Muslim domination and interests but if Clegg is close to Downing Street power, as is likely following the televised debates, then caring british Jews can already hehe nails being driven into the coffin of their vital interests in that lost nation.

12:56PM: Quote of the day:

“I don’t want to exaggerate, but these are the same explanations we heard in Nazi Germany after World War II.”

- Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon reacting to Richard Goldstone’s excuse for sending 28 black South Africans to death during the apartheid regime, that he was a part of the system and had to respect the laws of the state.

Tou to the che.

6:12AM: Richard Goldstone says he has no regrets about the Goldstone Report, nor sending black South Africans to their deaths.

Judicial decisions Richard Goldstone made in South Africa that resulted in sending black South Africans to their deaths under the apartheid regime have nothing to do with his report on the Gaza war, he told Haaretz yesterday.

The comments came in response to an article in which he was accused of being in no moral position to judge Israel because he was involved in capital punishment in the apartheid regime.

The article in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily said Goldstone, who headed the UN committee that accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the Gaza war of 2008-2009, was responsible for sending at least 28 black South Africans to their deaths when they appeared before him in court.

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s no connection to the appointment I had in South Africa to these accusations,” said Goldstone, who calls himself pro-Zionist. “I took an appointment to the bench, as did a number of liberal judges, and we had to uphold the law of the country. It was a moral dilemma to do that, but the approach was that it was better to fight from inside than not at all. The moral dilemma came up when I had to apply the law.”

Goldstone said he sentenced only two people to death directly, but upheld a majority of appeals in the Supreme Court, as one of three judges on a panel.

“The law at the time stated that when there were aggravating circumstances, the death penalty was obligatory,” he said. “The regrets I have now are the same that I had at the time. I have not changed my position on this. It was unpleasant to be involved in capital punishment – then and now. And I’ve always been against the death penalty. But when I accepted the position to the bench I had to honor the oath of office.”

Regarding the UN report on the Gaza war, for which many Jewish groups have attacked Goldstone, the judge said he has no regrets about the position he took.

“I felt that because I was Jewish, it would be hypocritical not to get involved in the Middle East,” he said. He said he advises Israel to have an open public inquiry into the war crimes allegations.

Goldstone said he was “extremely upset” by the attacks and by the effect they have had on his family.

Some members of the Jewish community had tried to keep Goldstone away from his grandson’s recent bar mitzvah in Johannesburg because they objected to his position on Operation Cast Lead.

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When asked about Israel’s nuclear program, Obama at first refused to address the issue, instead insisting to talk about the US and its commitment to reducing American nuclear weapon stockpiles.

“Initially you were talking about US behavior, and then suddenly we’re talking about Israel. Let me talk about the United States,” the president said. “I do think that as part of the NPT, our obligation, as the largest nuclear power in the world, is to take steps to reducing our nuclear stockpile. And that’s what the START treaty was about, sending a message that we are going to meet our obligations…as far as Israel goes, I’m not going to comment on their program.

However, although initially saying he will not address Israel’s nuclear program, Obama continued, pointing out that the US is calling on all nations to sign the NPT.

“What I’m going to point to is the fact that consistently we have urged all countries to become members of the NPT. So there’s no contradiction there,” he said. “And so whether we’re talking about Israel or any other country, we think that becoming part of the NPT is important. And that, by the way, is not a new position. That’s been a consistent position of the United States government, even prior to my administration.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:44PM: Ronald Lauder, the President of the World Jewish Congress, has written the following letter to US President Barack Obama (it will be published tomorrow in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post):

Dear President Obama:

I write today as a proud American and a proud Jew.

Jews around the world are concerned today.  We are concerned about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel.  We are concerned that the Jewish state is being isolated and delegitimized.

Mr. President, we are concerned about the dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel.

The Israeli housing bureaucracy made a poorly timed announcement and your Administration branded it an “insult.”  This diplomatic faux pas was over the fourth stage of a seven stage planning permission process – a plan to build homes years from now in a Jewish area of Jerusalem that under any peace agreement would remain an integral part of Israel.

Our concern grows to alarm as we consider some disturbing questions.  Why does the thrust of this Administration’s Middle East rhetoric seem to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks? After all, it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who refuse to negotiate.

Israel has made unprecedented concessions.  It has enacted the most far reaching West Bank settlement moratorium in Israeli history.

Israel has publicly declared support for a two-state solution.  Conversely, many Palestinians continue their refusal to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

The conflict’s root cause has always been the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.  Every American President who has tried to broker a peace agreement has collided with that Palestinian intransigence, sooner or later.  Recall President Clinton’s anguish when his peace proposals were bluntly rejected by the Palestinians in 2000.  Settlements were not the key issue then.

They are not the key issue now.

Another important question is this:  what is the Administration’s position on Israel’s borders in any final status agreement?  Ambiguity on this matter has provoked a wave of rumors and anxiety.  Can it be true that America is no longer committed to a final status agreement that provides defensible borders for Israel?  Is a new course being charted that would leave Israel with the indefensible borders that invited invasion prior to 1967?

There are significant moves from the Palestinian side to use those indefensible borders as the basis for a future unilateral declaration of independence.  How would the United States respond to such a reckless course of action?

And what are America’s strategic ambitions in the broader Middle East?  The Administration’s desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known.  But is friction with Israel part of this new strategy?  Is it assumed worsening relations with Israel can improve relations with Muslims?  History is clear on the matter:  appeasement does not work.  It can achieve the opposite of what is intended.

And what about the most dangerous player in the region?  Shouldn’t the United States remain focused on the single biggest threat that confronts the world today?  That threat is a nuclear armed Iran.  Israel is not only America’s closest ally in the Middle East, it is the one most committed to this Administration’s declared aim of ensuring Iran does not get nuclear weapons.

Mr. President, we embrace your sincerity in your quest to seek a lasting peace.  But we urge you to take into consideration the concerns expressed above.  Our great country and the tiny State of Israel have long shared the core values of freedom and democracy.  It is a bond much treasured by the Jewish people.  In that spirit I submit, most respectfully, that it is time to end our public feud with Israel and to confront the real challenges that we face together.

Yours sincerely,
Ronald S. Lauder
President
World Jewish Congress

(hat tip: One Jerusalem)

5:55PM: Please tell me that isn’t an Israeli flag covering the palestinian smuggler’s face.

In this photo taken Sunday, April 11, 2010, a Palestinian smuggler stands inside a tunnel in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Gaza's Hamas rulers have ordered residents to shut smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt indefinitely, cutting off the economic lifeline for 1.5 million Palestinians in the impoverished territory, residents and tunnel operators said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

4:00PM: Can you see anything offensive with this ad?

Well, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has criticized it after a reader complained the image of the Kotel/Wailing Wall and Dome of the Rock misleadingly implied that it was part of Israel, and ordered the Israel tourist office not use it again.

The ASA said that the advert featured various landmarks that were in East Jerusalem which were part of the Occupied Territories.

It ruled that the advert breached truthfulness guidelines and ordered that it not be used again, adding: “We told the Israeli Tourist Office not to imply that places in the Occupied Territories were part of the state of Israel.”

It said: “The ASA noted the itinerary image of Jerusalem used in the ad featured the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, which were both in East Jerusalem, a part of the Occupied Territories of the West Bank.

“We noted the ad stated ‘You can travel the entire length of Israel in six hours – imagine what you can experience in four days’, and ‘Visit now for more itineraries in Israel’, and considered that readers were likely to understand that the places featured in the itinerary were all within the state of Israel.

“We understood, however, that the status of the occupied territory of the West Bank was the subject of much international dispute, and, because we considered that the ad implied that the part of East Jerusalem featured in the image was part of the state of Israel, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism stated that the advert provided “basic, accurate information to a prospective UK traveller who wanted to know what to expect in Israel”.

It said that it was “entirely accurate to assert that a visitor to Israel could visit Jerusalem as part of a short visit”, adding: “Had the ad omitted a reference to a visit to the city of Jerusalem, it would have been incorrect and potentially misleading.”

In response to the complaint, the ministry said that Israel “took responsibility to support the religious sites of all denominations, a commitment which also formed part of the obligations of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority signed in 1995″. The ministry added that “the agreement placed the upkeep of holy sites and the determination of tourist visiting hours under Israeli jurisdiction”.

The ministry also maintained that the present legal status of Jerusalem had nothing to do with the point at issue.

It said this was “only of relevance if there was an attempt to interpret the straightforward message of the ad in a manner that went beyond what consumers were likely to understand from the ad.”

Unbelievable.

The British probably think taking these stances will curry them favor with their future Islamic overlords when the inevitable happens within the next decade or so (hat tip: Joe in Australia).

2:35PM: The Israeli Communications Ministry has reportedly blocked the import of Tampods iPads.

If you had thought to buy Apple’s new iPad tablet computer any time soon and bring it to Israel, you may have to change your plans: Starting yesterday, the Communications Ministry has blocked the import of iPads to Israel, and the customs authority has been directed to confiscate them.

The decision follows the refusal of the ministry’s engineering staff to compromise on testing the device’s suitability and compliance with Israeli wireless networks.

It seems however that the engineers made their decision without notifying Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon in advance – and caused an uproar within the ministry.

For now, the ministry has not given the device categorical approval required for wireless devices; and ministry officials say its wireless technology is not compatible with Israeli standards.

“The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its WiFi modem] compatible with American standards,” explained the officials. “As the Israeli regulations in the area of WiFi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel,” said the officials.

The ministry has requested all the relevant information on the iPad from Apple’s Israeli distributor, iDigital, so as to approve importing iPads.

An Israeli who returned from the U.S. yesterday told TheMarker that when he tried to declare his new iPad at customs, it was confiscated. He was told to apply to the Communications Ministry to have it returned. When he spoke to the ministry, he was told: “It is forbidden to bring iPads into Israel; send it back overseas.”

1:56PM: According to the Wall Street Journal, the US is determined to press ahead with reassigning an envoy to Damascus despite knowing that Syria has been arming Hizbullah with Scud missiles.

Actually, not despite. It is because they know about these Syrian misdeeds.

The transfer of Scud missiles to Hezbollah from Syria will not prevent the reassignment of a US ambassador to Damascus, and even proves that such an authority figure is needed there, the Wall Street Journal quoted Washington officials as saying Wednesday.

Officials briefed on intelligence have confirmed that both Israel and the US believe Syria gave Hezbollah missiles produced according to North Korean or Russian technology.

Earlier in his term US President Barack Obama announced that he would reassign an envoy to Damascus, after his predecessor George Bush recalled the ambassador there in 2005, following the assassination of President Rafik al-Hariri.

Obama’s critics say Syrian President Bashar Assad is strengthening ties with extremists in the region, including Iran. But members of the administration say the most recent Syrian provocation is proof that closer contact with Syria is needed, in order to attempt to divert it from this path.

“If anything, we need (an ambassador) in Damascus full time just to ensure that reality gets its day in court now and then,” the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior administration official as saying.

A report on the transfer of the Scud missiles said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who went as an emissary to Damascus on April 1, had raised concerns about the arming of Hezbollah by the Syrian regime.

“These weapons transfers must stop in order to promote regional stability and security,” Kerry’s spokesman, Frederick Jones, said.

The journal added that Hezbollah had denied the weapons transfer and claimed reports on the matter were an Israeli ploy to divert attention from construction in settlements and east Jerusalem.

A Syrian Embassy spokesman in Washington said Israel was trying to cover up its own armament. “It is ridiculous that Israel dictates the agenda of arms control in the region while stifling any discussion of its nuclear arsenal, along with the influx of top-caliber US weaponry,” said Ahmed Salkini.

My head hurts trying to follow that logic.

6:00AM: Wow.

5:45AM: Now that he is no longer on the job, former IAEA (Potato) Head Mohamed ElBaradei is revealing exactly why it should worry us that he ever was.

Former IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is considering contending in Egypt’s presidential elections  next year, expressed his support for the “Palestinian resistance” while slamming Israel.

In a report published Tuesday, the experienced diplomat said that Palestinian violence was the only path open to the Palestinian people, because “the Israeli occupation only understands the language of violence.”

—-

According to the report from the UPI news agency, ElBaradei started the ball rolling with a meeting Monday with members of his movement, thus making it clear to Israel how relations between the states will be after the elections – if he wins. According to Ibrahim Nawar, a senior figure in the movement, ElBaradei also said, “The peace process has become a stupid joke which we talk about without achieving any progress.”

The former International Atomic Energy Agency leader criticized the fence which Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak set up along the Gaza Strip border. The fence “hurts Egypt’s reputation,” he said. “It appears to be participation in the siege of Gaza, which has become the world’s largest prison.”

“The logical solution to the problem,” he continued, “would be to close the tunnels and open border crossings while creating a free trade zone in Rafah where Palestinians can trade and then return to Gaza.”

ElBaradei also sent a message to his supporters, who have invested great hope in him for the presidential elections in 2011, to put pressure on Mubarak for democratic reforms. He called on all the opposition parties to boycott the parliamentary elections, due this year, if amendments are not made to the constitution to ensure transparency.

The participation of the opposition in the elections under current conditions, he said, will end in a landslide victory which will only grant further legitimacy to Mubarak’s regime.

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Then things got weird.

Australian Federal Police officers were involved in a hit-and-run car accident in Tel Aviv early this morning, just hours after landing in Israel to investigate how three forged Australian passports were used in the assassination of top Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Mr Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20 in what Dubai police have alleged was an assassination carried out by Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad.

After hiding out at the Australian embassy for most of Wednesday, the agents tried to give waiting media the slip as they tried to move to their hotel.

Instead their silver armoured Toyota Prado ploughed into Israeli cyclist Oshra Bar as it sped from the embassy’s underground carpark, and then failed to stop.

Ms Bar was not seriously injured, but told The Age that she had suffered lacerations to her leg.

“I want an apology and a new wheel,” Ms Bar said. “I was hit and I kind of bounced.”

Ms Bar managed to get the license plate of the SUV, which matched the license plate of a car that was later parked in the Australian Embassy car parking space.

She said she had already spoken to a lawyer and had been to hospital for a check-up.

The Australian Embassy last night confirmed that it was investigating the incident but would not confirm whether the car was carrying the AFP agents.

An embassy spokeswoman said as part of the investigation embassy officials had spoken to the driver of the car. She would not say what he had said had occurred.

“We are treating this issue very seriously,” the embassy spokeswoman said. “We have not been contacted by anyone who has been knocked off her bike, or by the police in Israel.”

“I can confirm that an incident did occur involving one of our vehicles. But I cannot comment any further until we know more about what happened.

The spokeswoman said she did have advice from the driver as to “whether something did or did not occur.”

The driver of the car, when asked if he had been involved in a hit-and-run accident, continued walking into the embassy offices and said: “Can you shut the door.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:10PM: Quote of the day:

”This does sound to me like a very weird incident..You have law enforcement officers here from Australia, they are involved in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident, and then are seen escaping from the scene? This is a sketch from Saturday Night Live, it’s new-generation Monty Python.”

- Israeli Foreign Ministry official talking about the Tel Aviv hit-and-run involving Australian Federal Police officers.

6:05PM: Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi gets his own Nike commercial.

5:38PM: Today’s must-read (hat tip: Melvyn):

Is state-sanctioned assassination justifiable, or does it somehow de-legitimise the state that undertakes it? Two articles in this newspaper last week, by Henry Siegman and David Gardner, have been violently critical of Israel in the wake of the assassination of the Hamas arms smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 19 January.

Mr Siegman wrote of how “Israel’s colonial ambitions” and “checkpoints, barbed wire and separation walls” were “turning Israel from a democracy into an apartheid state”, thereby creating a “looming global threat to the country’s legitimacy”. Two days later Mr Gardner wrote of how Israel’s “militarist extroversion” over the Dubai murder demonstrated an “Israeli preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions to complex political and geopolitical problems” which would “widen the international battle-space for tit-for-tat attacks” and “encourage the perception that [Israel] is a rogue state”.

Both commentators are completely wrong. All that the Dubai operation will do is remind the world that the security services of states at war – and Israel’s struggle with Hamas, Fatah and Hizbollah certainly constitutes that – occasionally employ targeted assassination as one of the weapons in their armoury, and that this in no way weakens their legitimacy. As for the “separation walls” and checkpoints that one sees in Israel, the 99 per cent drop in the number of suicide bombings since their erection justifies the policy. There is simply no parallel between apartheid South Africa – where the white minority wielded power over the black majority – and the occupied territories, taken by Israel only after it was invaded by its neighbours. To make such a link is not only inaccurate, but offensive. If Arab Israelis were deprived of civil and franchise rights, that would justify such hyperbole, but of course they have the same rights as every Jewish Israeli.

Far from having any colonial ambitions, Israel wants nothing more than to live peaceably within defensible borders. But equally it demands nothing less.

Furthermore, rather than some kind of knee-jerk “preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions”, the decision to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh – assuming it was sanctioned, planned and carried out by Mossad alone, which is anything but clear at this stage – would have been minutely examined from every political and operational angle. Yet sometimes complex political and geopolitical problems do require the cutting of the Gordian knot, and this was one such.

When Britain was at war, Winston Churchill sanctioned the assassination by its Special Operations Executive of the SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the capture (and killing if necessary) of General Heinrich Kreipe on Crete; ditto Erwin Rommel. Just as with some Mossad operations, such as the disaster in Amman in 1997 when agents were captured after failing to kill Khaled Meshal of Hamas, not all Churchill’s hits were successful. But the British state was not de-legitimised in any way as a result.

The intelligence agents of states – sometimes operating with direct authority, sometimes not – have carried out many assassinations and assassination attempts in peacetime without the legitimacy of those states being called into question, or their being described as “rogue”. In 1985 the French Deuxième Bureau sank Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior trawler, killing photographer Fernando Pereira, without anyone denouncing France as a rogue state. Similarly, in 2006, polonium 210 was used to murder Alexander Litvinenko without Putin’s Russia being described as “illegitimate”. That kind of language is only reserved for Israel, even though neither Pereira nor Litvinenko posed the danger to French and Russian citizens that was posed to Israelis by the activities of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

The reason that such double standards still apply – more than six decades after the foundation of the state of Israel – is not because of the nature of that doughty, brave, embattled, tiny, surrounded, yet proudly defiant country, but because of the nature of its foes. Even though one has to be in one’s seventies to remember a time when Israel didn’t exist, nevertheless there are still those who call the country’s legitimacy into question, employing anything that happens to be in the news at the time – such as this latest assassination – to try to argue that Israel is not a real country, and therefore doesn’t really deserve to exist. Real rogue states such as North Korea might be loathed and criticised, but even they do not have their very legitimacy as a state called into question because of their actions.

Those who wish to understand Israel’s actions and put them in their proper historical context should read Michael Burleigh’s cultural history of terrorism, Blood and Rage. Burleigh quotes a senior Mossad agent saying after the Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes: “If there was intelligence information, the target was reachable and if there was an opportunity, we took it. As far as we were concerned we were creating a deterrence, forcing them to crawl into a defensive shell and not plan offensive attacks against us.”

Is that attitude so very different from the pre-emptive targeted assassination of Taliban leaders that Nato carries out by flying drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan today? Yet are Messrs Siegman and Gardner going to call into question America’s legitimacy? No, that insult is reserved for only one country: Israel.

5:22PM: Syria has offered it’s latest (ridiculous) excuse for the presence of suspicious uranium particles found at a Syrian desert complex bombed  two years ago by Israeli planes.

Delegates inside the meeting told The Associated Press that Bassam Al-Sabbag, Syria’s chief IAEA delegate offered a new theory Thursday, suggesting that Israel had dropped uranium particles from the air after the bombing to implicate his country.

5:08PM: Hamashole founder’s son-cum-Mossad agent Mosab Hassan Yousef talks to Hannity on Fox.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour holds a discussion on Yousef’s story with guests including an Israeli and a Hamashole.

3:10PM: The UK Government is set to amend a law to ensure visiting Israeli officials are not arrested on charges of war crimes.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “the Crown Prosecution Service will take over responsibility for prosecuting war crimes and other violations of international law, ending the current system in which magistrates are obliged to consider a case for an arrest warrant presented by any individual.”

Writing for the Telegraph, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would submit plans to put the CPS in sole charge of “judging the merits of any case brought under international law.”

Brown said the right to prosecute international crimes in Britain had been abused by activists.

“The only question for me is whether our purpose is best served by a process where an arrest warrant for the gravest crimes can be issued on the slightest of evidence,” he said. “As we have seen, there is now significant danger of such a provision being exploited by politically-motivated organizations or individuals.”

1:40PM: Apparently, Woody Harrelson didn’t just play a dumbass on tv. He really is one.

Watch him say, amongst other things, that suicide bombings are not nearly as bad as Israeli military action.

6:05AM: I wonder if this is the same Oshra Bar, the cyclist apparently hit by Australian Federal police officers currently in Israel.

Oshra Bar, 22, described himself (should be “herself” – ed.) as a longtime activist. After high school he (“she” – ed) refused service in the Israeli army.

“It’s impossible to have a democratic state when you have race laws,” Bar said, pointing to “Jewish only” roads in the West Bank and restrictions on the sale of land to Palestinians.

“What is happening here [in Sheikh Jarrah] is a direct continuation of the Palestinian Nakba – the people [Arabs] are being dispossessed again,” Bar said, adding that she believes in a secular, bi-national state with equal rights for all citizens. “I’m here to show that I’m against race laws.”

She looked then toward the police. Her chin down and her dark eyes raised, Bar said defiantly, “I’m not afraid to be arrested.”

But perhaps afraid of being run over.

In early January two black Audi A6 limousines drove up to the main gate of a building on a small hill in the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv: the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence agency, known as the “midrasha”.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, stepped out of his car and was greeted by Meir Dagan, the 64-year-old head of the agency. Dagan, who has walked with a stick since he was injured in action as a young man, led Netanyahu and a general to a briefing room.

According to sources with knowledge of Mossad, inside the briefing room were some members of a hit squad. As the man who gives final authorisation for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza.

Mossad had received intelligence that Mabhouh was planning a trip to Dubai and they were preparing an operation to assassinate him there, off-guard in a luxury hotel. The team had already rehearsed, using a hotel in Tel Aviv as a training ground without alerting its owners.

The mission was not regarded as unduly complicated or risky, and Netanyahu gave his authorisation, in effect signing Mabhouh’s death warrant.

Typically on such occasions, the prime minister intones: “The people of Israel trust you. Good luck.”

My first response to this report was “Wow, that is a lot of detail, especially considering it is coming from sources with mere knowledge only of the Mossad.” Then I looked at the reporter’s name – Uzi Mahnaimi.

Nuff said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

6:40PM: More on today’s new UAV unveiling ceremony, some of which was livestreamed here.

The Israel Air Force on Sunday introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes it claims can fly as far as Iran.

Air force officials said the Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 26 meters, making them the size of passenger jets. They said the planes can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads.

The drones, built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, were first used during Israel’s Gaza war last year.

At an inauguration ceremony Sunday, officials refused to say how large the new fleet is or whether the planes were designed for use against Iran.

6:22PM: Ever wondered what a “martyr” being greeted by 72 virgins looks like?

Ever wondered what happens to a female palestinian when she is “martyred”?

Thanks to Fatah, we need wonder no more!

5:25PM: From the Department of Unfortunate Names (taken from the Ha’aretz site earlier today).

2:35PM; The livestream is up and running.

2:00PM: From Brian of London, over 30 mins ago:

Just got on base for the UAV demonstration. Not sure if I can stream. Waiting for confirmation

It’s not looking good.

1:00PM: Remember to check out our special live coverage of the demonstration of Israeli’s newest Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV), set to start in about 15 minutes, courtesy of special Israellycool correspondent Brian of London.

12:55PM: A man hurled a makeshift bomb at Cairo’s main downtown synagogue this morning, but luckily his throwing skills would not even get him in to an Egyptian cricket team (Yes, apparently they do play cricket in Egypt).

In other news, there is no anti-Semitism in the Arab world.

6:15AM: It seems I am not the only one who noticed the IAEA finally seems to have become honest now that Mohamed ElBaradei is no longer in charge.

Israel praised an International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Thursday that says Iran may be developing a nuclear warhead.

“The new IAEA report deals more sharply and clearly than its predecessors with the military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Friday.

Noting that the report is the first during the term of new IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of Japan, Israel said it “establishes that the agency has a lot of trustworthy information about the past and present activities that testify to the military tendencies of the Iranian program.”

Uranium particles found by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Syria are an indication that a site bombed by Israel in 2007 could indeed have been a nuclear reactor, the organization said in a new report Thursday.

The report included clearer language than previously used in IAEA analysis of the bombed site, known as al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, which Syria claims was not built for nuclear purposes.

“The presence of such particles points to the possibility of nuclear-related activities at the site and adds questions concerning the nature of the destroyed building,” IAEA chief Yukiya Amano wrote in his report to agency member states.

I wonder if this admission is related to the fact that Mohamed “Potato Head” ElBaradei is no longer in charge of the IAEA.

Meanwhile, a Syrian minister has denied everything.

“There was no nuclear reactor!”

Update: Another IAEA ‘Duh’ moment.

Iran may be working on secretly developing a nuclear warhead for a missile, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday in a draft report.

It’s the first time that the the International Atomic Energy Agency has issued such a strong warning about current Iranian nuclear activities.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the IAEA resolution, noting that it was the first in over three years that the agency has adopted against Iran.

But it called for real action on the part of other international bodies to give teeth to international demands on Iran.

“The Iranians are still unconvinced that [international] threats and declarations will lead to sanctions,” a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on condition of anonymity.

“They think they can continue to squeeze this lemon. This reflects an internal debate in the Iranian [regime] over when to give in [to international pressure],” he added.

The IAEA resolution was “a welcome development” because “we believe it strengthens the European and American capability for increasing pressure. The resolution is a real message to the Iranians that the international community is serious.”

The Foreign Ministry urged world powers to make certain the demands on Iran “did not stop with just rhetoric,” according to ministry spokesman Yossi Levy.

“There are two elements that will decide if international pressure is successful,” Levy said. “One is an unbending schedule [for diplomatic talks], and two, a price tag for every Iranian violation. When these are in place, the diplomatic process will have a momentum that will ensure the sanctions on the Iranian regime are painful and effective.”

According to the spokesman, Israel views the IAEA resolution as proof “that the international community is increasingly coming to the understanding that a nuclear Iran is an extremely dangerous prospect.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:30PM: I think this next AP photo provides a clue as to why a “settlement freeze” won’t help palestinians, but quite the opposite.

In this file photo of Tuesday, June 9, 2009, Palestinian men work at a construction site in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim, near Jerusalem. Israel’s defense minister ordered his office on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009, to recruit and train more construction inspectors to enforce a West Bank settlement freeze declared by Israel’s premier last week, while settler leaders vowed to defy the order. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File)

12:55PM: When he’s not making nice with Iranians, Israel’s sole NBA player Omri Casspi is scoring well on the court.

18 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist..that’s what I’m talking about.

6:12AM: On Friday, I posted Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat’s comments about US President Barack Obama:

“I do not envy the prime minister. We are facing an awful administration”

“Within a week, construction will start on housing units (in the West Bank) that had been previously approved, and then we will be accused of being cheaters and scoundrels. I know the prime minister is in distress; it is not easy facing the US president, after the latter dragged him through a series of torments.”

Now other Likudniks have joined the anti-Obama party.

Rank-and-file Likudniks and lawmakers in the ruling Likud party lambasted the Obama administration at a gathering on Saturday, in response to Israel’s decision to temporarily freeze construction in West Bank settlements.

MK Dani Danon organized the meeting after Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) launched a verbal attack over the matter on U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which she branded “terrible.”

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately distanced himself from her comments, the activists at Saturday’s conference leveled further criticism at Obama over the moratorium, which Israel undertook to carry out in the wake of tremendous

“The Obama administration is an enemy of the Jews and the worst regime there ever was for the State of Israel,” said Yossi Naim, the head of the Beit Aryeh regional council, at the Ra’ana meeting. “I announce to Obama: You won’t be able to stop us.”

The mayor of the West Bank settlement of Ariel, Ron Nahman, called Netanyahu’s announcement of the settlement freeze a disgrace.

Directing his comments to Livnat, he said: “I am proud and happy that you said what you said, because you had the public courage to say what most of the public feels ever since Obama came to power.”

Nahman repeatedly referred to the U.S. leader as “Hussein Obama,” omitting his first name.

6:00AM: Over a week ago, Alan Dershowitz stood at Fordham Law School with a copy of the Goldstone Report on the table, which he then proceeded to brilliantly demolish. You can watch it here (hat tip: Noah Pollack)

For the record, Alan Dershowitz had challenged the report’s author Richard Goldstone to a debate, but the latter refused, reportedly saying the following to organizers:

“Professor Dershowitz has conducted a very personal, demeaning and tendentious attack on me in recent months. On no account am I prepared to have a public debate with him.”

To quote a line from Spaceballs, “What’s the matter, Colonel Sanders? Chickennn?!”