This episode is now in the news since it is about to be aired in Germany for the first time.

In case you are wondering:

The similarity between the name “Zeon” and the word Zion is no accident. Throughout the episode the Nazis spew insults at the Zeons and refer to the “Final Decision,” clearly hinting at the Nazis’ Final Solution.

From the Google Map review of his beloved Shamrock Irish Pub.

Thomas ‎ – Nov 15, 2010
Nie wieder! Wollten einen schönen Abend haben…..naja…war wohl nix… Es hat schon damit begonnen, dass der Türsteher schon beim Rückgeld geben beschissen hat… Der Besitzer ist unhöflich. Getränke sind teuer… Hier hin gehe ich NIE wieder!!

Translation:

Never again! Wanted to have a nice evening ….. naja … was probably nothing … It has already begun, that the bouncer has been crappy at giving money back … The owner is rude. Drinks are expensive … NEVER go there I go again!

Feel free to add your own review here, in addition to the other things you can do to help put Reed out of business.

Photo: Zach Goldberger

Muslim hatred in heart of Europe: More than 1,000 Muslims marched Saturday in Berlin and chanted anti-Israel slogans to mark al-Quds Day, set by Iran following the Islamist revolution in the country.

The protestors in the anti-Israel rally were faced by hundreds of Israel fans who also arrived at the site.

Police in the German capital deployed in force to separate the two camps and prevent violent clashes.

The Islamic march was led by Iranian clerics, accompanied by anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Jews living in Europe.

“What’s taking place in Israel is a Shoah for the Palestinians,” one of the radical ultra-Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Beck, told Ynet. “We are waiting for the day Zionism collapses, and then Jews and Muslims would be able to live side by side in peace.”

While the rabbi spoke, protestors behind him were chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Israel is a terrorist.”

The Muslim protestors held up banners accusing Israel of committing war crimes, as well as photographs of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. They chanted “Freedom for Palestine” and “End the killing of civilians in Gaza.”

Before reaching the square where a rally was held, protest organizers urged the marchers to refrain from anti-Jewish chants, which are considered a criminal offence in Germany.

One can assume that the march was rife with antisemitic chants, given what we know about these anti-Israel protesters, and reaffirmed by the fact protest organizers had to make this special request of the protesters.

Notice the quote by the Neturei Karta “Rabbi”. He talks about Jews and Muslims living side by side in peace. If this is what the Muslim protesters truly want, why the antisemitic chants?

And why the Hizbullah flag? (see 1:37 in the following Press TV report) 

People are deluding themselves if they think these protesters are marching for the palestinian right to a homeland.

They are marching for the palestinian right to eradicate the Jewish homeland. And us Jews, while they are at it.

Which makes Berlin quite a chilling place for such a march, when you think about it.

Update: Photos from the march here, including the following of Hizbullah and Hamas flags on display:

Note: At the time, I did not realize for planking, your hands must touch the sides of your body. Holy technicality, Batman!

Note: I do not condone planking in dangerous places.

Update: Thanks to Brian of London for the more professional looking photoshop.

Photo by: Government Press Office / Avi Ohayon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in New Orleans on Sunday that sanctions have hurt Iran but are not stopping Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu said that a credible threat of military action is the only way to ensure that Iran will rethink its nuclear program. According Israeli estimates, the only time that Iran stopped its nuclear program was in 2003, when Iran believed there was a threat of military action.

In other words, Iran is just biden time.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:55PM: And the Most Appropriately Named British MP award goes to..

Two British MPs visited on Saturday two Palestinian lawmakers who are holed up in the Red Cross center in Jerusalem facing expulsion from the city by Israeli authorities.

MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Andrew Slaughter, both members of the Labour Party, met with Palestinian Legislative Council members Muhammad Totah and Ahmad Atoun in the Red Cross headquarters, along with members of the press and peace activist Lubna Masarwa.

The British officials said their visit was intended to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and rejection of Israel’s violation of Palestinians’ human rights.

4:45PM: Looks like Pamela Anderson has been introduced to Israeli driving.

Pamela Anderson has been left shaken up after a minor accident in Tel Aviv, Israel. The actress/model was on her way to meet the celebrity contestants taking part in the country’s upcoming “Dancing with the Stars” show, which she will guest on this week , when her chauffeur-driven BMW collided with a concrete post in a parking structure on the set of the program.

Anderson was quickly transferred to another vehicle and driven to her destination. A source tells WENN, “She was a little shaken but uninjured.”

4:26PM: Boo-frickin-hoo.

4:25PM: Months after their leader claimed to have incriminating evidence linking Israel to the murder of Rafik Hariri, it is becoming increasingly evident that Hizbullah itself was behind it.

Include one Hizbully who was himself turned into worm food.

Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah’s operations officer who was killed in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus, was one of the key figures behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

According to the report, Mugniyah and his brother-in-law Mustafa Badreddine are two out of possible six senior Hezbollah members that will be indicted for the murder by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in charge of investigating the assassination.

Hariri and 22 other people were murdered on February 14, 2005 in a suicide attack in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. An international tribunal was established in 2007 in order to probe the attack and indict those responsible.

Badreddine, one of the candidates to replace Mugniyah as Hezbollah’s operations officer, is the main suspect in Hariri’s murder.

Members of the tribunal have faced difficulty during the investigation, culminating with a recent event in which some 30 furious women managed to chase them away during a visit to a local clinic.

Lebanese prosecutor general Said Mirza instructed to investigate the incident, but Hezbollah officials were quick to deny any involvement.

1:38PM: Dennis Prager describes the Middle East problem in very clear terms.

1:08PM: Photo of the day: I’m willing to bet this is the most covered up she’s been in a long time.

U.S. actress Pamela Anderson is seen at the Western Wall, Judiasm's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson said Sunday she will try her powers of seduction while in Israel on an unlikely audience, ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers. Anderson, an honorary director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is in Israel to participate in the local version of "Dancing with the Stars." (AP Photo/Sebastan Scheiner)

11:35AM: D’oh vey:

A Foreign Ministry security guard prevented an embarrassing diplomatic incident on Sunday: Minutes before German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s arrival, the guard discovered that the head of the ceremony had placed the Belgian flag at the entrance to the building instead of the German one.

Westerwelle visited the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem for a meeting and joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman.

To make the honorable guest feel at home, the head of the ceremony was asked to place the German flag at the entrance to the building. The staff confused the German flag with the Belgian one, which has similar colors but a different structure.

Luckily, one of the ministry’s security guards – most of whom are students and former combat soldiers – spotted the mishap and alerted the head of the ceremony just minutes before the German minister’s arrival. The flag was quickly replaced and an embarrassing incident was averted.

9:32AM: Still on the subject of Pamela Anderson, she seems quite taken by Israel.

9:28AM: Headline of the day: Pamela Anderson calls for ultra-orthodox to go topless

Brilliant.

Meanwhile, she’s apparently knowledgeable in Jewish law.

Surely you will agree that the ways in which animals suffer and die in the fur trade violates Jewish principles, which strictly prohibit causing unnecessary suffering to animals,” she wrote.

6:05AM: Lebanese Journalist Ziyad Noujeim admits that the Lebanese and Arab culture is based on lies and denial, especially when it comes to Israel.

Not to mention bad decor.

An Israeli military report to be released today on the Israel Navy’s deadly May raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla is expected to accuse the navy of failing to sufficiently consider the possibility that the commandos would encounter violent resistance when attempting to keep the ships out of Gaza.

The report is also expected to criticize the navy for not cooperating sufficiently with the Mossad in gathering information ahead of the flotilla’s arrival and to discuss the process by which the raid was approved. It is not, however, expected to call for disciplinary action against particular officers.

—-

The Israel Defense Forces committee investigating the raid, headed by Maj. Gen. (res. ) Giora Eiland, is the first to complete its investigation. The Turkel Committee, appointed by the government to examine whether the raid adhered to international law, has just begun its investigation. A team from the State Comptroller’s Office will be beginning its own probe of the flotilla raid shortly.

—-

Witnesses and various other people who have spoken to Eiland say that his report will be very critical of the army’s conduct in the affair. Eiland is also reportedly critical of the government’s conduct, but the report will not cover politicians.

Eilan may, however, mention the government’s conduct in the press conference he has called for today. The briefing may also be the place to mention the actions of specific people with regard to the affair, if he does not mention them in his report.

It is believed that Eiland is not likely to call for action against individuals involved in the affair because of his record on such things in the past, particularly his report on the abduction of soldier Gilad Shalit four years ago.

Eiland is expected to focus his attention on specific institutions – the navy and its intelligence branch, Military Intelligence, without specifically recommending action against the officers who head these bodies.

The navy is to be the main target of Eiland’s critique of the operation, although his assessment will apparently be tempered by consideration for the navy’s success in several operations in recent years under Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom.

The Turkel Committee is expected to make use of Eiland’s conclusions as a jumping-off point for its investigation of the government’s conduct during the affair.

If the findings of Eiland’s committee and other evidence indicate that soldiers may have committed criminal offenses or war crimes, the military advocate general will be informed, and will then decide whether to open a criminal investigation, the State Prosecutor’s Office informed the High Court of Justice yesterday.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:00PM: Introducing the Odd Couple.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has written a letter to President Hosni Mubarak, in which he wished him health, following the Egyptian president’s recent medical treatment in Germany and reports about his deteriorating health. “We pray to the creator of the universe to send you full and speedy recovery,” he wrote.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hand the letter to Mubarak on behalf of Ovadia, during the leaders’ scheduled meeting on Wednesday.

“For your highness, President of Egypt Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, may his glory be exalted,” wrote Shas’ spiritual leader.

“May you continue to lead you countrymen in majesty, courage and strength, for a lifetime and in peace; may you succeed in all your doings, according to your heart’s desire,” the letter read.

Rabbi Ovadia signed the letter with a warm greeting, “Respectfully yours, in the greatness of your virtue.”

The rabbi and Shas Chairman, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, have kept in close touch with Mubarak for many years. Only recently, journalist Yotam Feldman, who was arrested in Egypt, was released from custody with the help of Yishai’s mediation.

Arab media has been reporting about Mubarak’s deteriorating health condition for many years, and recent reports have rekindled the debate over who will inherit the presidency, with his son, Gammal, leading the race.

However, President Mubarak never confirmed such reports and is due to complete his fifth year of his sixth tenure as president. He has yet to announce whether he will compete in the upcoming elections slated for 2011.

Speculations over Mubarak’s health have increased in recent months following his March trip to Germany, where he underwent an operation to remove a gull bladder. Doubts about his medical situation surfaced again last week after Mubarak made a sudden visit to Paris and met with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

6:26PM: The committee headed by Major-General (Res.) Giora Eiland, which was elected to investigate the flotilla, has handed in its report.

Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eiland Presents the Chief of the General Staff with the Conclusions of his Examination Team

The IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, received the conclusions reached by a team of experts, headed by Maj. Gen. (Res.) Giora Eiland, tasked with examining the incidents that took place at sea on May 31st 2010.

Maj. Gen. Eiland presented the team’s findings and conclusions to the Chief of the General Staff as well as to officers from the General Staff and from other IDF branches and directorates who were involved in the preparations and in the actual boarding of the flotilla. The core of the report was presented the Minister of Defense of Israel as well.

The team was appointed by the Chief of the General Staff to examine the deployment towards the flotilla, the chosen course of action and other possible alternatives, advance preparations, and the operation’s implementation.

The team included eight officers and their examination focused on intelligence, Naval command, the naval commando unit responsible for carrying out the operation, the Israel Air Force, media relations, technological alternatives, medical aspects and legal counsel and international law.

The examination presented various lessons on a broad, systemic level, not only as regards this specific operation (stopping the flotilla).

In terms of the intelligence effort, the team concluded that not all possible intelligence gathering methods were fully implemented and that the coordination between Navy Intelligence and the Israel Defense Intelligence was insufficient. At the same time, the team emphasized that it is not certain that an optimal intelligence effort would create a complete intelligence picture. The team also pointed out that the anticipated level of violence used against the forces was underestimated.

In terms of situation assessments towards the flotilla, the team clarified that the operation relied excessively on a single course of action, albeit a probable one, while no alternative courses of action were prepared for the event of more dangerous scenarios.

Regarding technological alternatives, the team determined that on the day of the incident, decision makers were not presented with alternative operational courses of action other than a full boarding of the flotilla.  The team emphasized the fact that as far as is currently known, no country in the world holds the ability to stop a vessel at sea in a non hostile manner. Therefore statements made on this matter following the incident are unfounded and irresponsible. At the same time, the team determined that alternative courses of action could have existed had the process of preparation begun enough time in advance, and recommended to accelerate the process of examining alternative methods.

The expert team determined that regarding media relations, the preparations made in advance were good. However, the release of press statements and visual materials was delayed due to the need to maintain reliability, the obligation to notify the families of the critically injured soldiers and the long authorization process at the levels above the IDF Spokesperson Unit. The team noted with favor the work of the IDF spokesperson following the incident and emphasized the need for better coordination between the IDF, the foreign ministry and other foreign affairs institutions.

In terms of operation command, the team determined that the location of the commanders during the incident and the presence of the Commander of the Israel Navy at sea during the operation, was proper and fit with the Chief of the General Staff’s view regarding the role of commanders at the front lines of IDF activity. His presence proved effective in terms of the decision making process, saving lives and more. The team praised the Israel Navy combat protocols, the preparations of the Naval Commando Unit, the Navy Command, the Electronic Warfare Formation and the medical evacuation.

The team determined that the Navy Commando soldiers operated properly, with professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness and that the commanders exhibited correct decision making. The report further determines that the use of live fire was justified and that the entire operation is estimable.

The team noted with favor the various stages of medical evacuation of the injured by air and by sea, including the injured passengers of the Mavi Marmara. In addition the team pointed out the serious attitude with which the General Staff and the Israel Navy approached the matter, as expressed in the preparations.

Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eiland noted with favor the degree of cooperation and transparency exhibited by those involved in the examination at all levels. In the summary of the examination Maj. Gen. Eiland determined that the issue should be viewed with perspective, being that the damage caused to Israel is not as severe as it seemed following the incident. In addition, he said that a there’s a tendency to draw general conclusions based on a single incident and that “the fact that the IDF examines itself and others do not, results in that only the errors of the IDF are publicized,” according to Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eiland.

5:32PM: In line with the World Cup mood (ok, it finished last night, but everyone is still talking about it), I present to you the best highlights of Israeli football (hat tip: Israel21c).

5:18PM: Germany has banned the International Humanitarian Relief Organization (IHH) because it has used donations to support projects in Gaza that are related to Hamas.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in a statement that the International Humanitarian Relief Organization was banned Monday because it has used donations to support projects in Gaza that are related to Hamas – while presenting their activities to donors as humanitarian help.

“Under the guise of humanitarian aid, the IHH has long backed, with significant financial assistance, so-called social welfare organizations based in the Gaza Strip that can be linked to Hamas,” he said.

“Donations to so-called social welfare groups belonging to Hamas, such as the millions given by IHH, actually support the terror organization Hamas as a whole.”

Hamas, which runs Gaza, doesn’t recognize Israel. De Maiziere said organizations that directly or indirectly work against Israel’s right to exist lose their right to be active in Germany.

Ha’aretz notes “Despite sharing the name, the German IHH has no connection to the Turkish group that organized the flotilla to break the naval blockade of Gaza that left nine people dead.”

3:40PM: Israel has sent doctors and medical equipment to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the treatment of seriously injured burn victims as a result of the recent fuel tanker explosion.

Following the fuel tanker explosion in the city of Sange in the Demoratic Republic of Congo on July 2, in which more than 250 people were killed and almost 200 injured, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is sending aid to the disaster area through Israel’s National Agency for International Cooperation (MASHAV). A delegation of six doctors from Sheba Medical Center, together with medical equipment, flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo to treat the seriously injured.

The doctors, all specialists in plastic surgery and burns, arrived this morning (12 July) and will be treating people with serious burn injuries in the towns of Sange and Uvira, located in eastern Congo, near the border with Burundi.

The team was sent in coordination with the Congolese authorities and with the blessing of President Joseph Kabila and the Congolese ministers of foreign affairs and health. A UN task force in the field (MUNISCO) came to the aid of the humanitarian mission and was instructed to facilitate the reception of the delegation and to ensure their security during their stay.

12:45PM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Fox News Sunday.

Notice how Netanyahu states he thinks Israel and the PA can make peace. Yet only last year, he stated “Without recognition of Israel as the Jewish state, we simply cannot reach peace.” Since I am not aware of the PA recognizing Israel as a Jewish state (quite the opposite, actually), it looks like the signs are there for a Netanyahu capitulation to palestinian demands.

12:24PM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reportedly told a forum of senior ministers that direct negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas are set for early August.

6:08AM: He has a point:

Member of Knesset Ayoub Kara (Likud) said Sunday that Gaza should be put under Egyptian control. Interviewed on Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew journal, the deputy minister for development of the Galilee and the Negev said that the Arabs, in general, are always talking to Israel about returning to the situation before 1967, when Gaza belonged to Egypt and Judea and Samaria belonged to Jordan.

For the record, Ayoub Kara is a Druze-Arab.

Just saying.

5:50AM: Everyone’s favorite Israeli spokesperson on Fox News, speaking about the stalled Middle East peace talks.

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. “

So they’re sending a boat full of women.

Samar Alhaj, the woman leading the Hizbullah-linked Lebanese boat that is scheduled to try to block the naval blockade on Gaza, said in an interview with a regional Israeli Arabic- language radio station in Nazareth that women were “the new secret weapon” in use against the “thieving enemy.”

Asked on Radio A-Shams by Zohair Bahloul why the ship, Mariam, would only be carrying women, she said, “We are women in order not to give the thieving enemy an excuse to use arms against the ship.” She said the ship would be carrying cancer medication for children, and women suffering from breast cancer and cancer of the uterus due to “chemical bombs” dropped on Gaza by Israel.

Alhaj is the wife of an officer in the Lebanese security service who was jailed for four years for alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Alhaj and her husband met with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on May 22.

Speaking of Israel, she said, “the entity that was not defeated will be defeated by women that will come on the boat. Our weapon is cancer medication.

We don’t have scud missiles or any other missiles, and you will see what they will do to us.”

They also don’t have any other weapons one might associate with women.

However, Kuwaiti daily al-Siyassah reported that famous Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe’s request to join the vessel has been vetoed by Hezbollah on the grounds that her “nudity, degradation and immodest dress” would damage the reputations of all the Arab and European women on board.

Now raise your hand if you just Googled – or thought of Googling – ‘Haifa Wehbe’?

Meanwhile, listening to one of the sponsors of the boat proves very instructive.

Meanwhile, Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian businessman of Palestinian descent who heads the “Free Palestine Organization” and is funding this boat, as well as another that is to carry journalists and parliamentarians, said over the weekend on Hizbullah’s al-Manar television station that he was more and more optimistic that one day these same boats would take “Europe’s refuse [the Jews] that came to my homeland back to their homelands.

“Gilad Schalit should go back to Paris and those murderers go back to Poland, and after that we will chase them until the ends of the earth to bring them to justice for their acts of slaughter from Deir Yassin until today.” Kashlak, a fervent Hizbullah supporter, called Israel a “rabid dog sent to the region to frighten the Arabs. He said he had a message for Israelis: ‘Get on the ships we are sending you and go back to your lands. Don’t let the moderate Arab leaders delude you, [you] cannot make peace with us. Our children will return to Palestine, you have no reason for coexistence. Even if our leaders will sign a peace agreement, we will not sign.’” He said the boat carrying journalists and parliamentarians will carry 12 former American diplomats as well.

Antisemitism and an admission that they don’t want peace. Double whammy.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:30PM: Statement from the Prime Minister’s Office:

Prime Minister’s Office – Statement

Following the Israeli Security Cabinet Meeting   (June 20th 2010)

Israel’s policy is to protect its citizens against terror, rocket and other attacks from Gaza.   In seeking to keep weapons and war materiel out of Gaza while liberalizing the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza, the Government of Israel has decided to implement the following steps as quickly as possible:

1. Publish a list of items not permitted into Gaza that is limited to weapons and war materiel, including problematic dual-use items.  All items not on this list will be permitted to enter Gaza.

2. Enable and expand the inflow of dual-use construction materials for approved PA-authorized projects (schools, health facilities, water, sanitation, etc.) that are under international supervision and for housing projects such as the U.N. housing development being completed at Khan Yunis.  Israel intends to accelerate the approval of such projects in accordance with accepted mechanisms and procedures.

3. Expand operations at the existing operating land crossings, thereby enabling the processing of a significantly greater volume of goods through the crossings and the expansion of economic activity.

4. Add substantial capacity at the existing operating land crossings and, as more processing capacity becomes necessary and when security concerns are fully addressed, open additional land crossings.

5. Streamline the policy of permitting the entry and exit of people for humanitarian and medical reasons and that of employees of international aid organizations that are recognized by the GOI.  As conditions improve, Israel will consider additional ways to facilitate the movement of people to and from Gaza.

6. Israel will continue to facilitate the expeditious inspection and delivery of goods bound for Gaza through the port of Ashdod.

Israel welcomes cooperation and coordination with its international and regional partners in implementing this policy and will continue to discuss with them additional ways to advance this policy.

The current security regime for Gaza will be maintained.  Israel reiterates that along with the U.S., EU and others, it considers Hamas a terrorist organization.  The international community must insist on a strict adherence to the Quartet principles regarding Hamas.

Hamas took over Gaza and turned it into a hostile territory from which Hamas prepares and carries out attacks against Israel and its citizens.  The Israel Defense Forces will continue to prevent the flow into and out of Gaza of terrorist operatives, weapons, war material and dual use items which enhance the military capability of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.   Israel calls on the international community to stop the smuggling of weapons and war materials into Gaza.

Gilad Shalit is approaching four years in captivity.  The international community should join Israel in strongly condemning those who hold him captive and in redoubling their efforts to secure his immediate release.

7:22PM: I’m probably just too keen on Separated at Birth posts, but c’mon, doesn’t the kid on the right look like a young Obama?

Palestinian youths hold signs during a protest against the closure of the Shuhada Street to Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, Saturday, June 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

5:20PM: Interesting (and disturbing) article on the phenomenon of Israelis moving to Germany to live.

5:15PM: Who are these “peace activists” who are organizing the next flotilla?

4:40PM: Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and Robert Thomson, Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones and Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal meet at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

(Photo by Alexander Aleshkin/Epsilon/Getty Images)

Thomson: “Damn, we look alike!”

3:42PM: Senior cabinet members have approved steps toward loosening Israel’s blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Hamashole Mahmoud “Wart” Zahar said in an interview today that palestinians should initiate rocket attacks on Israel from the West Bank.

#wearesuckers

6:18AM: Propaganda of the day: In case you missed that they named the (Hizbullah-linked) ship heading to Gaza The Virgin Mary, someone has decided to make it slightly more obvious.

6:12AM: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, has resigned.

A replacement for Shalev has not been announced, but Israel Radio reported that Yaffa Zilbershatz, the head of Bar-Ilan University’s law school, and Yossi Gal, CEO of the Foreign Ministry, are being considered for the job.

Bring back Dan Gillerman!

6:05AM: Quote of the day (from Thursday evening, actually):

The Rocket Man star refused to bow to pressure and follow in the footsteps of musicians like The Pixies and Elvis Costello and scrap his concert in response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza strip.

“Shalom, we are so happy to be back here! Ain’t nothing (sic) gonna stop us from coming, baby!”

“Musicians spread love and peace, and bring people together. That’s what we do. We don’t cherry-pick our conscience.”

- Elton John, who went ahead with his Israel concert

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Which puts him to the right of so-called human rights organizations, the Israeli Left and, heck, the US administration.

It also indicates that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Either that, or Abbas is not too perturbed.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:00PM: Code Pink’s US Army Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright, who bills herself as an eyewitness to the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara and the “murder” of “nine innocent civilians,” admits she did not actually see the clash between the IDF soldiers and the armed passengers (via IMRA).

7:48PM: Photo of the day.

12:06PM: PJTV’s Richard Landes discusses Hamas’ blocking of humanitarian aid into Gaza (hat tip: Michael).

11:56AM: So-called “human right activist” and sister-in-law of Tony Blair, Lauren Booth, is finding it increasingly difficult to contain her hatred of Israel. Here’s her latest screed, replete with conspiracy theories, antisemitism and invective.

And lies, of course.

Shocking Testimonials from the Mavi Marmara survivors. And one Israeli fembot.

(LONDON) – One of the most striking trends following the flotilla attack has been how quickly Israeli hasbara is being exposed by internet journalists. The doctored IOF audio clips, where amateurs with mock Arab accents hiss ‘Go back to Aushwitz’ to Israeli naval officers.

Well they didn’t take long to pull apart did they? Then there are the (so-pathetic-they’re-almost-funny claims the flotilla was linked to Al Quaeda.

I laughed out loud to read in an Israeli paper that humanitarian activist (and former US marine) Ken O’Keefe was going to Gaza to; ‘train a commando unit in Hamas.’

I know Ken fairly well. Quite frankly I’m not sure who should be more insulted by this stupidity, him or Hamas? Either way, flinging the words ‘Hamas’ ‘Jihadists’ and ‘Israel’s security’ around is no longer having the same shock and awe effect on journalists or the public at large.

The internet now shapes the world’s story, not the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, like a soccer star caught cheating on his wife. Instead of saying ‘I messed up big time, forgive me’ Israeli government sources and other shysters are screaming; ‘it’s not fair to watch us all the time, that’s mean!’ and ‘this is our business, leave us alone!’ Bad luck for them that as it stands, more of the IDF’s minging dirty washing is being aired in public than ever before, via facebook and twitter. The Zionists sobs of ‘no faiirrrr!’ are sounding ever more bizarre. But more about the Isra-bots later on.

Israeli Intelligence (some mistake surely?) have been busy since the massacre. Erasing the memory sticks and hard disks of what my premiliminary research estimates to be some 800 video cameras, around 1200 mobiles and 600 lap tops. All items, looted from the passengers of the Freedom Flotilla, whilst they kneeled, handcuffed and in stress positions, on the hot deck of the Mavi Marmara for up to 12 hours after the attack. Before the bots cry ‘why so much money on board, why so many cameraaas!’ Let me explain, the good individuals on board had been raising money for months in the local communities around the world to take useful gifts to the people, schools and children of the besieged Gaza Strip. Besides which – the cameras were the only ‘weapons’ those on board had with which to arm themselves in the event of an attack at sea.

Now, evidence is emerging, that having been forced (by Turkish hard line diplomacy) to release all of the kidnapped passengers sooner than it would have liked; Israel is (as usual) taking revenge on the Palestinian relatives of activists on board. Those who seek to non violently oppose Zionist policies of Apartheid violence are having loved ones interrogated by the Shabak as you read this for merely sailing with the Freedom Flotilla. I am not at liberty to say much more for fear of even further reprisals on innocent people. But as you should by now be aware, the Israeli machine specialises in collective punishment. This week a spokesman in the US said live on air that ‘Children in Gaza were under siege because their parents voted Hamas.’ Too much to say on that, so I’ll leave it hanging for you to take in…

Last night in London, as in so many cities this week, Freedom flotilla passengers addressed a packed open meeting. At the Conway Hall in Central London, half a dozen British survivors looked in turns spaced out and hardened by their experience, eleven days ago (is that all it is? How the world turns!).

Jamal El Shayyal, is the Al Jazeera reporter who kept broadcasting as gun shots rang out behind him on the upper decks of the Mavi Marmara. I honestly thought I had heard, read and seen the worst about the Israeli attack on the fleet’s passengers. I hadn’t. Believe me, nor have you. Those three-minute clips, miraculously broadcast live or smuggled out beneath tongues, reveal the merest inkling of the horrors these brave people witnessed. And suffered.

El Shayyal, told an utterly silent audience he ‘had been invited by IHH to film every inch of the ship.’ So he did. From the bowels of the hull to the uppermost decks, he filmed.

‘I checked and filmed’ he said ‘there was not 1 weapon on board. Not one gun, no lethal artillery. The most lethal things on the ship were fruits and vegetables.’

When the Israeli commandos attack began, Jamal was wearing his pyjamas under a life jacket as were so many of the allegedly ‘prepared terrorists on board.’ Helicopters caused a near hurricane on the decks, all satellite phones were jammed (deliberately to stop SOS calls to the rest of the world). And, so the IDF hoped, any factual reports of what was about to occur.

At this point, just after four thirty am, Jamal saw a Turkish passenger shot in the top of his head. He spoke slowly and clearly to make sure he was understood by us all in the hall.

‘No Soldier was on the ship at this time’.

Quickly another passenger removed a white t-shirt from a bag and used it as a white flat of surrender. When gun shots rang out, greater numbers fell. It was clear calls for mercy were to be ignored. That a shoot to kill policy was in place.

An Israeli member of the Knesset and Lubna (an activist who also speaks Hebrew) took turns making announcements over the tannoy in English and then Hebrew. Announcements made atleast 8 times;

‘We have critically injured people here, please can you come and get them. We are NOT armed. We SURRENDER!’

Soon the tannoy connection was cut off.

Sarah Colborne of the PSC and another passenger negotiated with soldiers for the evacuation of some at least, of the mounting injured. Many of the bleeding would not go with the Israelis. Fearing they would be less safe getting ‘treatment’ from the troops, than below decks being operated on without anaesthetic.

‘The Israelis were asked for a stretcher’ continued Jamal ‘for a man with severe internal bleeding to be moved. Use a sleeping bag we were told.’ The man was moved in agony on a blanket no doubt increasing his injuries. And his immense pain. Did he survive? We’ll never know.

As the shooting gave way to the enforced imprisonment of the passengers, or, let’s give it its right name – kidnapping, Jamal was pushed to the floor, cuffed and beaten. His posessions taken from him. It was morning on a bright, sunny, summer’s day by now. Hundreds of shocked men were taken on deck, hands bound behind their backs. Three, then four hours passed. Pleas were made to use the toilet. No water was given, they were kicked, spat at and punched by soldiers who passed by every few minutes. Eventually Jamal pursuaded one soldier to let him go to the toilet, ‘with my hands still bound behind my back.’ One man in his eighties trying to get back to his family in Gaza, was jeered at by soldiers, in his discomfort. After many hours, he suffered the indignity of urinating on himself, in front of both friends and fiends.

At some point Jamal was taken back downstairs. The area had been thoroughly ransacked.

‘There was no respect for human rights or dignity. Holy books of all faiths had been thrown about, possessions strewn everywhere”.

He remembers one quietly spoken Muslim brother asking soldiers gently several times for his cuffs to be loosened, just slightly. The third time he asked one of them tightened them so much that ‘he gave a scream of agony that made us all feel sick to our stomachs.’

In the afternoon the ship was forced into Ashdod port. Pushed ashore by armed guards, Jamal was greeted with the words; ‘Welcome to Israel. Are you enjoying your time here?’

The Al Jazeera journalist wanted us all to understand something very clearly. That the civilian passengers were not ‘detained’ nor ‘arrested.’ They were plainly and in every legal definition of the word ‘Kidnapped, abducted.’

In Beersheva prison, he was placed in a cell, with a leader from the Turkish human rights group, IHH. They had no food for 24 hours, just a few sips of water. They had no idea if the world knew where they were – or what had happened. In other parts of the prison, consular reps from Greece, France, Spain and Macedonia could be heard shouting at the Israeli captors demanding the release of their compatriots. Yelling that rights were not being respected, yelling for food, water, access to legal representation. From the British consul.

Nothing.

Finally, when every other consul had visited the abducted civilians, a British rep turned up. Jamal described the obsequious nature of the visit in terms that make one cringe. Bowing and scraping to the Israelis, the British diplomat didn’t even push for the right to see the victims in a private area. A legal imperative for all detainees during such visits. He didn’t demand water, or food, or a release time for those he was supposedly representing. Under the gaze of Israeli soldiers he asked just two questions: ‘what is your name and what is your home number in the UK.’ Then our citizens were left wondering about their fate and that of their comrades; hungry, afraid, shocked, alone.

When the Israelis knew the game was up, that the world had indeed seen clips of their murderous attack, the Turkish abductees were given the chance to leave quickly, in an hour.

Did they go? No. They refused point blank to leave ‘before every other nationality has left before us.’ We salute them.

Jamal, Osama, Alexandra, Sarah, Kevin, and four hundred other internationals were released ONLY because of Turkish support for them. Not because the international community stepped in. Not because of action by the UN or (God forbid), the UK government. Because of the Turkish government.

In all his time as a prisoner, some forty hours plus, Jamal, like all the other Brits, had no legal visit, no phone call home and no proper British representation.

Finally at Ben Gurion airport being deported from a place he never wanted to enter in the first place. Jamal was given a piece of paper with a photo of himself on it and Hebrew writing.

His interrogator smirked at him and led him towards the plane ‘Congratulations’ the man said. ‘This is your new passport.’

‘I want my old passport!’ Said Jamal.

‘Sue me!’ Came the reply.

There was more, much more from the survivors, which was videotaped and I will post it as soon as it comes online. But let’s get back to the Zio-bots now. For alongside Press TV cameras and PSC workers filming the testimonies, there was the compulsory, sulky-faced Zionist, shooting footage of the event for some organization opposed to justice, and free speech. Curiously, as the survivors described their horrors in depth, this woman’s camera was aimed NOT at the stage. But at my Press TV colleagues.

I went outside for a cigarette and there she was again. Instantly recognisable as a tight lipped Proto Zionist. She asked if I was with Press TV and would I speak to her for “Israeli TV?” Clearly she was not from any broadcaster – as no valid news channel accepts shaky, amateur, hand-held footage of the sort she was producing. Curious about her real intentions, I said ‘with pleasure.’

‘So do you think Press TV has done enough to give the Israeli side of events concerning the flotilla?’

Did I pause? It felt like I must have, just to have the time to process that after an hour of harrowing testimony about a massacre, this woman, had heard and felt – nothing.

‘The BBC has given Mark Regev enough space for your cause don’t you think..” I replied

‘Yes but don’t you think Press TV ought to….’ and then it happened. The white rage. I heard children crying in Gaza, saw fishermen being shot along the coast, phosphorous plummeting onto schools and UNWRA food stores. I saw the massacre on the Freedom Fleet, the torture, the needless, avoidable death.

‘Go f*ck yourself’ I heard myself saying. And to make sure I couldn’t be misquoted I added.

‘Just f*ck off.’

11:12AM: The family of assassinated Hamashole Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has welcomed the arrest of the alleged Mossad agent in Poland.

According to the Mabhouh family “the whole world rejects these cold blooded murders.”

I guess the irony escapes them.

9:48AM: On Friday, a palestinian driver ran over two Israeli border patrolmen in East Jerusalem’s Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, apparently with intent to kill. After trying to flee the scene and ignoring calls to stop, he was shot.

Now here’s how the palestinian press chose to report the incident.

A report conducted by a Jerusalem rights center following the shooting death of a Palestinian man in East Jerusalem on Friday by Israeli border guards suggests he was shot point blank.

Ziad Al-Julani, 38, was shot and killed after he allegedly failed to stop at a checkpoint in the Wadi Joz neighborhood in the occupied part of the city.

According to testimony compiled by the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, an initial shot knocked Al-Julani to the floor, after which Israeli Special Forces “fired shots in the face and abdomen at close range.”

Witnesses said Friday he was in serious condition as he was taken to hospital, with Israeli news sites reporting that the man died en route.

Israeli media reports said the man drove toward border guards setting up in the neighborhood, crashed his pickup truck and fled on foot, at which point he was shot dead.

Sa’d Hamed As-Silwadi, from Silwan and the father of a child injured during the shoot-out, told the center he parked his car beside a butchery and saw Al-Julani driving toward the Al-Hadmi neighborhood in Wadi Joz, where he was killed.

He said he saw Al-Julani get out of his vehicle when he was first shot by Israeli forces. A relative of Al-Julani tried to help him, As-Silwadi said, but was kicked by Israeli forces. As-Silwadi returned to his vehicle to find his five-year-old child with a rubber bullet wound to the neck and head, and rushed him the Maqased Hospital on the Mount of Olives.

Ahmad Qutteneh told the center he saw Al-Julani running from four members of Israel’s Special Forces, approaching him and opening fire at close range. “Then I saw one of them come near him and shoot him in the face and body,” Qutteneh told the center.

Mahmud Othman Al-Julani, 34, his cousin, told the center that he was home when the incident happened, near the site of Al-Julani’s death, he said. “I went out of the house to see him laid on the floor, 15 meters away from me. When I tried to help him they [Israeli forces] beat me with sticks,” the center quoted him as saying.

Others told the center the shooter was seen “dancing beside the body singing and cheering ‘I killed an Arab, I killed an Arab’.”

The center called on Israeli authorities to investigate Al-Julani’s death.

A spokesman for Israel’s border guards did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the Jerusalem center’s report on Saturday.

On Friday, other testimony has the man speeding toward the hospital with an injured man in his truck. Two border guards were reportedly injured in the incident.

Notice how Ma’an does not even mention that Israeli media reports indicate he ran over the border guards, only that he drove towards them!

This, plus the far-fetched reports of the shooter’s rendition of The Cure’s Killing an Arab, should give you an indication of the trustworthiness of such news sources.

9:02AM: Poland has arrested an alleged Mossad agent involved in killing Hamashole Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, with Germany’s top prosecutor issuing an extradition order to Polish officials because he provided “false information” to obtain a German passport.

The man, using the name Uri Brodsky, is suspected of working for the Mossad in Germany and helping to issue a fake German passport to a member of the Mossad hit squad that allegedly killed Mabhouh in January, a spokesman for the German federal prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press.

The spokesman from the federal prosecutor’s office told the Post that two men appeared in Cologne to apply for a German passport. He added that the man currently in custody of the Polish authorities works for an intelligence agency and was present during the passport application process.

According to foreign media reports, an Israeli with the name of Michael Bodenheimer secured a German passport in June 2009 from Cologne authorities.

The spokesman said the alleged intelligence agent in Poland was not the individual who traveled with Bodenheimer’s German passport to Dubai in January.

A man using that name was among the assassins who killed the Hamas operative, according to Dubai police.

Brodsky was arrested in early June upon his arrival in Poland because of a European arrest warrant issued by Germany, which is now seeking his extradition, the spokesman said, declining to be named in line with department policy.

The spokesman had no estimate of how long it could take for Brodsky to be extradited from Poland to Germany, saying “the matter is now in the hands of the Polish authorities.”

If Brodsky agrees, the extradition could take a few days, but that isn’t likely, the spokesman said.

Beyond confirming that an Israeli citizen had been arrested at the beginning of the month in Warsaw, and that he had requested consular assistance, the Foreign Ministry refused to say anything else about the matter Saturday night, including whether Israel was trying to stop Brodsky’s extradition to Germany. The ministry also refused to discuss the reasons for – or circumstances surrounding – his arrest.

The Prime Minister’s Office, which has authority for the Mossad, refused to discuss the matter.

In Warsaw, Monika Lewandowska, a spokeswoman for Polish prosecutors, confirmed that the suspect, identified only as Uri B., was arrested at the city’s international airport on June 4.

She told the AP that the arrest warrant was made “in connection with the murder of a Hamas member in Dubai.”

The suspect appeared before a Polish court on June 6, and was ordered to remain in temporary arrest for up to 40 days, she said. Lewandowska had no information on his possible extradition.

Police in the United Arab Emirates said the elaborate hit squad linked to the Jan. 19 slaying involved some 25 suspects, most of them carrying fake passports from European nations.

Dubai’s police chief, Lt.-Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has said he is nearly “100-percent” certain that the Mossad masterminded the killing.

The brazen assault in a luxury hotel and its alleged perpetrators were widely captured by security cameras. Some footage, released by Dubai’s police, showed alleged members of the hit squad disguised as tourists, wearing baggy shorts, sneakers and baseball caps, and carrying tennis rackets.

At the time, Israel said it didn’t know who was responsible for the killing but welcomed it, claiming Mabhouh was a key link in smuggling weapons to Gaza and a possible middleman with Iran.

The German news weekly Der Spiegel reported that the arrest in Poland has already led to some diplomatic friction. The Israeli Embassy has urged Polish authorities not to extradite Brodsky, the magazine reports in its issue to be published tomorrow.

When asked if the Federal prosecutor’s extradition order has caused a diplomatic row between Israel and Germany, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry declined to comment, telling the Post that the Justice authority is handling the investigation. The country’s top investigating unit deals with all cases affecting internal or external security, including terrorism or espionage.

8:28AM: Excellent German television expose of the Gaza flotilla, and in particular its sponsor the IHH.

Some random observations:

• Doesn’t Annette Groth, shown from 0:35, look like she’s dressed for a Star Trek convention?
• Isn’t the man standing behind Inge Hoger at 1:20 a dead ringer for Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh?

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