Want to learn how to shoot with top Israeli anti-terror experts? Click here for more details.

******************************************************************************************

The PA has been waging a diplomatic campaign against Israel for the past two weeks over what it terms “provocations” on the Temple Mount

According to reports that have reached Israel about Fayyad’s meeting with the ambassadors, the PA prime minister described last Sunday’s clashes as “an assault by extremist religious settlers on the Temple Mount compound” and said it was “a provocation planned in advance that was aimed at sabotaging the peace process and derailing [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama’s peace initiative.”

Warning that the situation on the mount was flammable and could swiftly deteriorate, he added, “I remind you that this is where the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, after [Ariel] Sharon’s visit” to the mount in September 2000. “The Palestinians’ popular response stems from the Israeli aggression, and we are liable to lose control over events.”

Sounds like a threat to me.

Of course, if there is another “intifada”, just know that it won’t be a spontaneous outpouring of emotion, but something very deliberate and planned.

Meanwhile, even the Left wing Ha’aretz knows where the blame for this recent violence lies.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:50PM: Israeli television has shown pictures proving the Islamic movement had prepared for the riots, hiding rocks inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, contrary to Arab claims that Israel started the confrontation by denying Arabs entry to the Temple Mount.

As the Jerusalem Post reported:

Earlier Monday, Jerusalem police explained their decision to allow only worshipers over the age of 50 into the Temple Mount, revealing that wheelbarrows filled with rocks had been discovered throughout the Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday.

Palestinians had filled the wheelbarrows with stones and bricks in preparation for riots in the Old City, police assessed.

The discovery of the wheelbarrows, in addition to intelligence information and the call on Palestinians to “come and defend” Al-Aqsa, led the police to restrict entrance to the Temple Mount.

It’s 2000 all over again.

10:32PM: The PA continues to show its true colors, urging its people to “confront” Israel and imploring the world to stop us from worshiping our religion in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority on Monday evening condemned Jerusalem’s decision to restrict entrance to the Aqsa Mosque compound, calling on Palestinians to confront Israel in light of the “Israeli aggression.”

“We call on the Palestinian public to confront Israel and its plans, that are intended to prevent the Palestinian people from fulfilling their aspirations of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied territories,” read a statement issued by the government of PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad in Ramallah.

The PA government publicly decried “Israel’s attempts to conduct Jewish prayer services in the Aqsa compound” and urged the world “to force Israel to halt is efforts to Jewify the city.”

Earlier Monday, Jerusalem police explained their decision to allow only worshipers over the age of 50 into the Temple Mount, revealing that wheelbarrows filled with rocks had been discovered throughout the Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday.

There is no chance of peace with a people who deny our thousands-year connection to the land of Israel and the holy city of Jerusalem, and will resort to violence at the drop of a hat.

3:50PM:

Palestinian women take part in a protest in Gaza City calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails October 5, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA POLITICS CONFLICT)

Palestinian women take part in a protest in Gaza City calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails October 5, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA POLITICS CONFLICT)

I’m thinking of conducting my own protest….calling for the release of palestinians from really bad photograph poses.

10:25AM: The latest Richard Goldstone interview with CNN.

Pay special attention to the following:

• Goldstone stating “We didn’t look at whether Hamas is entitled to use military force to gain independence for the palestinian people. We looked at what methods Hamas used,” (1:06) the implication being his acceptance of the notion that Hamas’ aim is solely to gain independence for the palestinians, rather than being its stated aim to rid the land of the Jews.
• Goldstone’s claiming a lack of time did not allow his team to find that Hamas did, in fact, operate out of civilian areas  (1:20), despite the ease of accessing such evidence on YouTube.
• Goldstone stating definitively that the infrastructure to Gaza had no military justification, mentioning specifically the bulldozing of agricultural land (2:30). I am no military expert, but I can imagine military purposes such as establishing a buffer zone. Goldstone does not even entertain this prospect, and states his views as fact.
• Goldstone repeating the laughable idea that both sides (i.e. including Hamas) can now use the report as a roadmap for investigating themselves (5:55)

7:20AM: Our peace partners, the Jordanians, are doing the best to calm the situation on the Temple Mount.

By adopting the palestinian narrative of events, of course.

Jerusalem is a “red line” to Jordan, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said here on Sunday.

“UNSC permanent members are urged to act immediately and shoulder their responsibilities, so as to halt Israeli unending violations,” Judeh told reporters, adding that Israel must be pressured in order to actually commit to achieving peace and re-launching negotiations.

“Dangerous violations, such as allowing Jewish extremists to barge into courts of Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as continuing excavations in Muslim holy places, destroying houses and displacing the Arab population in a bid to alter the demographic landscape in East Jerusalem are all condemned and rejected,” Judeh stressed.

Earlier today, Judeh, in a meeting with EU Middle East representative Marc Otte, warned against the Israeli escalation and violations in occupied East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque.

In a related development, the Jordanian foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador in Amman and handed him an objection note over unremitting violations on Muslim and Christian holy places in East Jerusalem.

“All Israeli procedures are illegal, as they signify a breach to Israel’s commitments in its capacity as an occupying force in the West Bank,” a ministry statement said.

Such procedures, the statement carried on to say, represented a major obstacle before efforts to launch serious negotiations that would result in achieving the two-state solution, and eventually, inclusive peace.

Want to learn how to shoot with top Israeli anti-terror experts? Click here for more details.

******************************************************************************************

Hamasholes have promised Egyptian negotiators they will deliver a Book of Psalms sent to Gilad Shalit from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Assuming they live up to their promise (itself a big assumption), this will be another benefit of yesterday’s announced (lopsided) terrorist-for-videotape exchange deal, which put the going rate for a palestinian at around one shekel.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:25PM: Bibi’s a Zayde!

7:57PM: Chutzpah, Hamas style.

The mother of Fatima al-Zag, a Palestinian female imprisoned in a Zionist jail, burst with joyful ululation as soon as she heard Hamas movement’s announcement that her daughter will be one of 20 females prisoners that will be released soon.

—-

Fatima al-Zag, better known as Om Mahmoud, 40 years old, mother of four children, was kidnapped by Zionist security forces at Erez crossing between Gaza Strip and the occupied in May 2007. She had been pregnant at that time and she gave birth to her fourth baby boy Youssef in a Zionist hospital in January, this year.

Youssef stayed with her custody as she was in prison, where he became the youngest prisoner in the world. Mohamed al-Zag said his wife Fatima was kidnapped as she was coming back with her nephew who had a surgery at a Zionist hospital in 2007.

Ahh yes. At the time she was “kidnapped,” she just happened to be on her way to perpetrating a suicide bombing, something that would have also ensured young Youssef would never make it to “youngest prisoner in the world.”

6:55PM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stating the consequences of the international community endorsing the Goldstone Report:

1:12PM: Shame on the Red Cross, for seeming to care way more about the soon-to-be-released palestinian terrorists (most of whom don’t have blood on their hands for the sole reason they were caught in time) than kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Two Red Cross representatives arrived at the Hasharon Prison Thursday, to interview the 19 female Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released in exchange for a proof of life video of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Marc Linning, who oversees the Red Cross division charged with the welfare of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, told Ynet that the visit is expected to last about two hours and is meant to ensure that none of the women fear persecution upon returning to their homes.

The Red Cross, he added, must ensure that they do not fear for their safety and that they return to their townships of their own accord. Released prisoners, he said, “Sometimes experience harsher things outside of prison.”

Lining further said that the Red Cross will monitor the women’s reintegration in society, and if need be, provide them with the necessary documentation proving they were in an Israeli prison.

When asked why no Red Cross delegate has been to see Gilad Shalit, Lining said that the situation of the Hamas-held solider was “entirely different.

8:38AM: The palestinians expect the United Nations Human Rights Council to agree to pass the Goldstone Report on to the UN General Assembly in New York, and possibly on to the Security Council.

8:10AM: Here’s the latest interview with Richard Goldstone. Pay special attention to the following:

• Goldstone insisting that the report has opened up a huge debate within Israel (which is not at all my impression; if anything, there is a consensus that the report is one-sided, with even the likes of B’tselem and David Landau, former editor-in-chief of Ha’aretz, criticizing it)
• Goldstone claiming the IDF intentionally targeted civilian sites!
• Goldstone speaking about the Hamas courts system, all the time with a straight face

6:30AM: From the palestinian Ma’an News agency:

Judging by the picture, I’d speculate he was also impersonating a middle aged man.

******************************************************************************************

Want to learn how to shoot with top Israeli anti-terror experts? Click here for more details.

******************************************************************************************

US President Barack Obama told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday that he was dissatisfied with their recent foot-dragging on getting Israeli-Palestinian talks restarted.

A senior White House source yesterday told Haaretz that “during the tripartite meeting Obama strongly expressed his impatience.”

The source said the meeting was “businesslike” but not cordial. Netanyahu and Abbas voiced their opinions but did not attack.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, National Security Adviser Uzi Arad and Netanyahu adviser Yitzhak Molcho also attended the 45-minute meeting. The American side included U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, envoy George Mitchell, U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones and Obama adviser Dennis Ross.

Obama scolded Netanyahu and Abbas. “We’ve had enough talks,” Obama said. “We need to end this conflict. There is a window of opportunity but it might shut.”

Obama made it clear during the meeting that he was interested in resuming the negotiations between the sides “about all outstanding issues” based on the talks and signed agreements since the beginning of the Oslo process 16 years ago.

“There’s an historical record of the entire past negotiations and there are principles,” he said.

“We won’t start the negotiations from scratch, we will not take the historical record and toss it aside. Nor will we wait for the perfect formula.”

He also said: “It’s difficult to disentangle ourselves from history but we must do so. The only reason to hold public office is to get things done. We all must take risks for peace.”

“We cannot continue the same pattern of taking tentative steps forward and then stepping back,” Obama told reporters as he sat down for the meeting.

“Success depends on all sides acting with a sense of urgency.”

The U.S. president said both sides must get formal peace negotiations back on track. “Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations,” Obama said. “It is time to move forward… Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:26PM: Here is what US President Barack Obama had to say about Middle East peace in his speech to the UN General Assembly.

For his part, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised the speech:

“I commend this important speech of Obama’s and his call to renew the peace process without preconditions. I commend his unequivocal support of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” he said.

Not so former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton.

11:00PM: Ynetnews reports:

Egypt’s culture minister on Wednesday blamed a conspiracy “cooked up in New York” by the world’s Jews for keeping him from becoming the next head of the UN’s agency for culture and education.

Farouk Hosny was defeated on Tuesday by Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova in a tight race for the position of UNESCO chair.

“It was clear by the end of the competition that there was a conspiracy against me,” Hosny told reporters at the airport upon his return from Paris.

“There are a group of the world’s Jews who had a major influence in the elections who were a serious threat to Egypt taking this position,” he said.

Yep. His defeat sounds like a real loss for culture and education.

7:00PM: David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee, writes of the Goldstone report’s “three strikes.”

Excerpt:

In fact, Mary Robinson, who, as a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wasn’t exactly known for her warm disposition toward Israel, turned down an offer to lead the Council’s investigation.

“Unfortunately, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution seeking a fact-finding mission to only look at what Israel has done, and I don’t think that’s a human rights approach,” Robinson said in March.

3:50PM: Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, CNN interview Sept 22, 2009:

I think what is important is that we’re moving on to talk peace. And I hope to make peace.

Any time we have encountered an Arab leader who wanted to make peace, we made peace. [Egypt's] Anwar Sadat came. Menachem Begin of the Likud made peace.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in a letter to UN Security Council:

“Israel’s nuclear capabilities cannot evade world attention.”

Ain’t peace grand?

2:45PM: Today’s ‘Duh’ moment is brought to us by Israel’s Foreign Minister, courtesy of the Jerusalem Post.

11:45AM: Anti-Israeli blogger Richard Silverstein has been caught lying again.

By yours truly.

6:00AM: Welcome to Gaza, the world’s only “concentration camp” with coffee shops containing flat screen televisions

Palestinian watches US President Barack Obama, left, meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on TV in a coffee shop in Gaza City, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders shook hands at the start of their first face-to-face meeting Tuesday, hosted by Obama, but the small gesture was unlikely to translate into a quick resumption of peace talks. Netanyahu and Abbas remain far apart on key issues, including Israeli settlement expansion and the agenda of future talks. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

5:48AM: Say what you want about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The man can speak.

Update: I personally don’t “get” Twitter in the sense of understanding the big attraction with it, but I am cogniscent of the fact that it is big. That’s pretty much why I signed up a while back, and post updates on there. And it’s pretty much why I ask that you follow Israellycool by going here and becoming a follower.

CNN’s US election night stunt, in which reporter Jessica Yellin and rapper will.i.am appeared on set as three-dimensional “holograms”, was little more than smoke and mirrors, physics experts say.

In what was billed as a world-first, Yellin appeared to be beamed from Chicago into the network’s New York studio for an interview with anchor Wolf Blitzer. But, in fact, Blitzer was looking at little more than a red mark on the floor.

Blitzer made every attempt to hide the fact that the hologram was fake, saying “Jessica, you’re a terrific hologram” and that he liked the hologram because “we can have a more intimate conversation”.

Yellin likened herself to a character from Star Wars, saying, “It’s like I follow in the tradition of Princess Leia.”

A second “hologram” interview was aired between another anchor, Anderson Cooper, and will.i.am, who, like Yellin, was in Chicago for President-elect Barack Obama’s election night celebrations.

“It looks exactly like in Star Trek when they would beam people down, that’s what it looks like right here,” Cooper said.

But Hans Jurgen Kreuzer, theoretical physics professor and holography expert at Dalhousie University, told CBC news in Canada that the so-called holograms were simply 2D images superimposed onto the TV broadcast.

The images were in fact tomograms, or images captured from all sides – in this case by 35 high-definition cameras set in a ring inside a special tent – reconstructed by computers and displayed on the screen.

A real hologram would have meant the images were projected into space, which did not occur as Blitzer and Cooper could not see their interview subjects.

It’s good to know that CNN cannot be honest about anything.

Update: I almost missed this:

To perform its stunt, CNN used technology from Vizrt, based in Norway, and SportVu, based in Israel.

Very impressive.

Now if they could only report the news objectively and accurately…

[warning: (allusion to) bad language]

I’m guessing she can take it in her stride, especially considering it is nothing compared to her famous Frank Drebin moment of 2006.