Large forces will continue to be deployed throughout the city, with 3,000 police and border police officers stationed in East Jerusalem and neighboring villages.

Limitations on access to Muslim prayers on Temple Mount will continue for the fifth day. Members of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee are set to hold a procession in the east of the city on Wednesday.

Jerusalem on Monday was tense but quiet. Around noon, Palestinians began throwing stones near the Mount of Olives cemetery, but no injuries were reported.

At 6 P.M., scores of youths hurled stones at Border Police troops from the Palestinian side of the Qalandiya crossing, north of Jerusalem. The youths were dispersed, and the crossing closed.

Some stone throwing was also reported in the Silwan neighborhood. A general strike called in the Old City for noon largely failed to materialize, as most businesses remained open as usual.

Police on Monday attributed the relative quiet to the limitations placed on entry to Temple Mount and to the extensive police work. Palestinian commentators said Monday the general Palestinian public seems to disapprove of the leadership’s attempts to fan the flames.

Actually, I shouldn’t blame it solely on Hamas. Our “peace partners” of Fatah are also inflaming the situation, not to mention the Egyptians and Jordanians (also “peace partners”).

The quiet does not appear to have been affected by attempts of senior Hamas and Fatah officials to ratchet up the violence. On Sunday, Fatah’s Mahmoud Dahlan and Hatem Abdelkader called on residents of East Jerusalem and Israeli Arabs to arrive and defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee chairman Yasser Abed Rabo called on Israel to refrain from dedicating the Hurva synagogue. Hamas, too, warned of bloodshed if the synagogue is dedicated, and similar warnings have been made by Egyptian and Jordanian diplomats.

Meanwhile, Israel has been trying to defuse the situation.

At Monday’s dedication ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his prerecorded video message to reach out for reconciliation with the Muslim world.

“I know many are moved by this moment, and rightly so. But we’re not the only ones moved by our faith. We have enabled adherents of other religions to restore their places of worship as well. We proudly uphold our heritage, we have returned to our cities, and we also give the same freedom of worship to other religions,” Netanyahu said. “The people of Israel maintain their heritage and through that maintain the heritage of others.”

—

Mayor Nir Barkat, who spoke at the ceremony, also attempted to ease Palestinian anxiety, saying that “I want to send a message of peace to all religions. I believe that precisely because we have twice experienced the pain of seeing our holy place destroyed, we, the sovereigns, know and will know to preserve and respect the places of worship of other faiths. We will remember to be sensitive to their fears and needs.”

We may be in physical control of Jerusalem, but the Arabs are still trying to prevent freedom of religion for the Jews. Unfortunately, they have much of the world on their side.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:38PM: Introducing the PA television show Chicks.

No, it’s not what you think.

A new children’s show on official Palestinian Authority television is using a map of “Palestine” that teaches kids that Israel doesn’t exist.

The program, Chicks, includes a regular segment that introduces viewers to a particular area of “Palestine.” The map that PA TV has chosen for this educational program includes all of Israel, yet is labeled “Palestine.” A second heading in English and Arabic next to the map reads, “Explore Your Country.”
[PA TV (Fatah), March 14, 2010]

Maps showing all of Israel as “Palestine” are an important element of the PA’s campaign that reinforces the message to Palestinians not to recognize Israel.

11:00PM: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Israel must prove its commitment to peace.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that Israel must prove it is committed to the Mideast peace process with actions, but brushed aside suggestions that US-Israeli relations were in crisis and reaffirmed America’s steadfast commitment to the security of the Jewish state.

Clinton said US and Israeli officials were in intense talks about how to repair the damage caused by last week’s Israeli announcement of new Jewish housing in east Jerusalem while US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country. She said the goal was to relaunch stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

“We are engaged in very active consultations with the Israelis over steps that we think would demonstrate the requisite commitment to the process,” she told reporters at a joint State Department news conference with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin.

Funny, but I don’t seem to recall her – or any other White House official for that matter – stating something similar regarding the palestinians, despite the regular terror attacks and incitement against Jews.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister has responded.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Israel had proven its commitment to peace before both in words and actions, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Jerusalem to do more to prove it was serious about the Middle East process.

“The State of Israel appreciates and respects the warm words said by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the deep bond between the U.S. and Israel, and on the U.S.’ commitment to Israel’s security,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

“With regard to commitments to peace, the government of Israel has proven over the last year that it is commitment to peace, both in words and actions,” said the statement.”

The statement cited as examples Netanyahu’s inaugural foreign policy speech made at Bar Ilan University, the removal of hundreds of roadblocks across the West Bank, and its decision to freeze temporarily construction in West Bank settlements. The latter, said the statement, was even called by Clinton an “unprecedented” move.

Netanyahu’s office added in its statement that the Palestinians were continuing to thwart the political process by demanding preconditions before the resumption of peace talks. “They are orchestrating a de-legitimization campaign against Israel in international institutions.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again calls on the Palestinians to enter the tent of peace without preconditions, because that is the only way to reach a settlement that will ensure peace, security and prosperity for both nations,” said the statement.

4:40PM: Scene from The Rage: That’s Some Kids Protest edition.

An armed Palestinian militant holds a national flag in front of a huge model of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque during a protest by Palestinian school children in the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp near the southern Lebanese port of Sidon on March 16, 2010, againt recent Israeli measures in Arab east Jerusalem. Israel's announcement last week of plans to build 1,600 new Jewish settler homes in the Arab sector of Jerusalem and the reopening of the twice-destroyed Hurva synagogue in its walled Old City on March 15 have sparked outrage among Palestinians, many of whom view Israeli projects near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound -- Islam's third holiest site -- as an assault on its tense status quo or a prelude to the building of a third Jewish temple there. AFP/Getty

4:15PM: Scene from The Rage: Not Impressed edition

AFP/Getty Images

3:25PM: Statement from another Hamashole:

“This policy is nothing short of ethnic cleansing, and it constitutes a strong motive for the launch of a third intifada, even more than Sharon’s visit to the al-Aqsa mosque.”

Just kidding. This was said by an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset – MK Haneen Zoubi (Balad) – who should know better than most how there is no such ethnic cleansing.

3:20PM: Scene from The Rage: Where’s Waldo edition.

AFP/Getty Images

3:12PM: Hamashole Dr. Ahmed Bahar has called on the palestinians to strike Israel with terrorist attacks in response to the “desecration of al-Aqsa.”

1:15PM: It’s rage time.

The day dubbed “the day of rage” by Hamas and extremist Islamic groups opened with riots – both in the holy city and on the way to it.  Hundreds of Arabs burned tires and hurled stones at Border Guard officers at several locations throughout the city Tuesday morning. At least three officers and 11 rioters were lightly injured, and eight were detained. Meanwhile, in the North, a bus full of Muslim passengers on their way to al-Aqsa Mosque was stopped and turned back. Police said the bus was inspected following tip-offs of possible plans to riot in Jerusalem.

—-

Dozens of masked rioters hurled stones at Border Guard officers near the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, and set fire to tires. The force dispersed the rioters using stun grenades. Two policemen were lightly injured and seven Palestinians were arrested.

In another incident, at the northern entrance to the Isawiya neighborhood in Jerusalem, masked protesters also burned tires and hurled stones at Border Guard officers. The rioters were calmed and dispersed by the village’s elders. Security forces also dispersed masked rioters hurling stones near the Temple Mount’s Majlis Gate.

In Abu Dis, some 50 Palestinians hurled stones at security forces. Police and Border Guard officers responded with teargas and stun grenades. One of the rioters was detained and taken in for questioning. Riots were also noted at the Qalandiya checkpoint.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian youths threw stones in Maale Mota Gur in the Old City and near the wholesale market. Similar riots ensued in Wadi Joz and Silwan. In total, thousands of police officer were deployed throughout the city.

Buses to capital inspected

Meanwhile, at the Achihod junction in the western Galilee, police stopped a bus containing Arab Muslims who were making their way from Majdal Krum in the north, to Jerusalem. The Bus driver was forced to turn back. During an inspection of the bus, a 38-year-old passenger allegedly assaulted a Traffic Police officer and was detained.

9:20AM: US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has postponed his visit to the region, and may even cancel it entirely, as the US-Israel crisis deepens.

Although not all see it as a huge crisis.

However, American sources told Times magazine that core security issues between the two countries were not at risk, and that the current crisis is more like a lovers quarrel than a couple on the verge of divorce.

Except unlike many lovers quarrels, this one is about preventing erections instead of an inability to sustain them.

6:08AM: Speaking of palestinian threats of violence..

PLO executive committee member Ahmed Qureia warned Monday that if Israel  continues to build Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem and raze Arab homes “another intifada will break out.”

Speaking to reporters in Abu Dis, Qureia, a former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said, “If matters remain at this level, regardless of whether we take the decision or not, it is coming. If Israel continues these practices, it is coming,” he said.

I think he just admitted 1) The PA retains the right to decide on the violent approach to achieve their goals and 2) it lacks control. Either way, it makes them eminently unqualified to be peace partners of any kind.

Meanwhile, the Ma’an news report contains this interesting section:

“Jerusalem is exposed to an unprecedented danger which targets its land, people, holy sites, heritage and history,” Qrei’a said, adding that determining the fate of the city is paramount, without which a comprehensive solution cannot be attained.

Revealing a 1882 map of Jerusalem showing intended Israeli settlements, the PLO official said it proved the considerable risk faced by Palestinians in the city.

And proves there was a Jewish presence in Jerusalem at least as far back as 1882.

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‘U.S.-Israel relations at their worst in 35 years’
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country’s diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to project a sense of “business as usual.”

I hate Mondays.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:10PM: Quote of the day:

“You who are opening Hurva are heading towards ruin. Wherever you have been you’ve been sent to your destruction. You’ve killed and murdered your prophets and you have always dealt in loan-sharking and destruction.”

- Head Hamashole Mahmoud al-Zahar demonstrating that Hamas is not antisemitic, just anti-Israel

8:45PM: BREAKING NEWS: Backbone sighted.

8:32PM: The palestinians have gotten their panties in a bunch over the latest Israeli “provocation.”

Rededicating a synagogue destroyed by the Jordanians 60 years ago.

AP

Personal status courts in the West Bank and Jerusalem will strike Monday and Tuesday in protest over the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue, officials announced.

The ceremonies at the synagogue, 330 meters away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, have been called a “provocation” in the wake of an Israeli raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the declaration of two Palestinian mosques as “Israeli heritage sites” on 21 February.

“The synagogue is not located near the Temple Mount compound,” an Israeli government news release replied to the accusations.

—-

The Palestinian Higher Judicial Council, headed by Supreme Judge Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, released a statement calling on “Palestinian people everywhere, especially those who live in Jerusalem and in other cities inside Israel,” to head to Jerusalem to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque from Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups, which the statement said planned a raid on the compound following the synagogue rededication.

Tamimi accused Israeli leaders of plotting to lay the cornerstone of the “Third Temple,” following the rededication, in what he called the first move in the planned destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger responded to this accusation.

“Pay no attention to malicious slander. All we are doing is resurrecting the ‘Hurva,’ which was destroyed 60 years ago. We have no intention of rebuilding the temple, not this week – unless the Almighty God descends it from the heavens,” said the chief rabbi during the inauguration ceremony.

“All the rumors that suggest we will later march on Temple Mount are just that – rumors. A media spin by anti-Semites that wish us harm.”

5:26PM: Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Brazilian President Lula da Silva embrace during the latter’s visit to the Knesset today.

Reuven Rivlin: I can’t quite get my arms around you.

Lula da Silva: I know the feeling.

4:25PM: Wall Street Journal op-ed on the latest US-Israel crisis (via Ynet):

In response, the Wall Street Journal op-ed wrote that the Obama administration “has endorsed ‘healthy relations’ between Iran and Syria, mildly rebuked Syrian President Bashar Assad for accusing the US of ‘colonialism,’ and publicly apologized to Muammar Gadhafi for treating him with less than appropriate deference after the Libyan called for ‘a jihad’ against Switzerland.”

However, when it comes to Israel, “the administration has no trouble rising to a high pitch of public indignation,” wrote the article entitled “Obama’s Turn Against Israel.”

“Repeated apologies from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—at what White House sources ostentatiously said was the personal direction of President Obama—from calling the announcement ‘an insult to the United States,’” stated the opinion piece.

“Since nobody is defending the Israeli announcement, least of all an obviously embarrassed Israeli government, it’s difficult to see why the Administration has chosen this occasion to spark a full-blown diplomatic crisis with its most reliable Middle Eastern ally… If Israel senses that the Administration is looking for any pretext to blow up relations, it will care much less how the US might react to a military strike on Iran.’

The financial newspaper took an opposite stance on West Bank settlements than that adopted by the Obama administration: “As for the West Bank settlements, it is increasingly difficult to argue that their existence is the key obstacle to a peace deal with the Palestinians. Israel withdrew all of its settlements from Gaza in 2005, only to see the Strip transform itself into a Hamas statelet and a base for continuous rocket fire against Israeli civilians.”

“This episode does fit Mr. Obama’s foreign policy pattern to date: Our enemies get courted; our friends get the squeeze. It has happened to Poland, the Czech Republic, Honduras and Colombia. Now it’s Israel’s turn,” quipped the Wall Street Journal.

12:25PM: What I did last night.

12:10PM: Oh, the horror of the treatment of palestinians in Israeli prisons!

Dr Evil

Jailed Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for his role in attacks that killed and wounded several Israelis during the second intifada, has completed his doctorate in political science, his supporters said over the weekend.

Barghouti, 50, is one of several hundred Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons who enroll in studies at universities around the world, including in Israel.

According to his supporters, Barghouti was accepted by the University of Cairo and the Arab Academy for Research and Studies in the Egyptian capital back in 1999, three years before he was arrested by the IDF.

Barghouti’s doctoral thesis is titled “The Legislative and Political Performance of the Palestinian Legislative Council and its Contribution to the Democratic Process in Palestine from 1996 to 2008.”

The 341-page document will be brought on Tuesday for discussion before a special panel headed by Prof. Ahmad Yussuf, dean of the Arab Academy for Research and Studies.

Barghouti was able to complete his thesis with the help of hundreds of books and documents that Israeli authorities allow inmates to bring into prison.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are currently enrolled as students with the Open University of Israel, which facilitates their studies by allowing them to sit exams in jail.

Barghouti, who is also a Fatah member on the Palestinian Legislative Council, completed his high school exams while in Israeli prison in 1980. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history/ political science and in international relations, respectively, from Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah. His master’s thesis dealt with Palestinian-French relations from 1967 to 1997.

On May 20, 2004, he was convicted of five counts of murder – including authorizing and organizing the Sea Food Market attack in Tel Aviv in which three civilians were killed. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks for “lack of sufficient evidence.” On June 6, 2004, he was sentenced to five life sentences for the five murders and 40 years imprisonment for the attempted murder.

The only doctorate I wish he had completed in prison is his doctorate in Bubba science (specialization in soap retrieval from prison shower).

11:50AM: Here’s the report mentioned in my previous update, which refutes every claim of the Goldstone report and proves Hamas’ use of children as human shields (hat tip: Barry).

6:06AM: According to a new report being released by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Malam), Hamas used children as human shields, and established command centers and Qassam launch pads in and near more than 100 mosques and hospitals during Operation Cast Lead.

Ok, nothing new there, but it contains hundreds of declassified photographs, videos, prisoner interrogations and Hamas-drawn sketches as part of an effort to counter the criticism leveled at Israel in the Goldstone Report. In essence, it is “the first real, aggressive Israeli response to the Goldstone Report, taking it apart piece-by-piece and explaining the true nature of the conflict against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel already released its preliminary response to the Goldstone Report over a month ago.

5:45AM: Australia’s ABC news deals with this latest US-Israel rift. Notice how White House Official David Axelrod calls the timing of Israel’s announcement of new housing units “calculated,” clearly not accepting Israel’s explanation it was accidental.

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A widely predicted crisis between Israel and the United States upon Benjamin Netanyahu taking office as prime minister finally erupted this weekend.

U.S. President Barack Obama did not hold back in condemning the humiliation caused to Joe Biden with the Israeli announcement of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during what was supposed to be the vice president’s friendly visit to Israel.

Instead of accepting Netanyahu’s partial apology and letting bygones be bygones, Obama issued a stern warning to the Israeli prime minister and is now demanding that he take “specific actions” to show he is “committed” to the U.S.-Israel relationship and to the peace process itself.

Washington did not reveal the contents of the ultimatum or the list of demands reportedly presented to Netanyahu.

This follows Israel’s Ambassador in Washington Michael Oren being summoned and reprimanded by the US State Department, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling Israel’s conduct “insulting.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:36PM: I’ve always said that the only difference between Fatah and Hamas is the suits. But now it seems as though this may no longer be the case, if this photo of captured Hamashole Maher Odeh is anything to go by.

The mother of Maher Uda, a top Hamas commander arrested by Israel in the West Bank overnight, shows journalists a framed picture of her 47-year-old son in formal dress at the family's home in the village of Ein Yabrud near Ramallah on March 14, 2010. Uda, a senior commander in Hamas's armed wing in the occupied territory, has been arrested by the Israeli security services after more than a decade on the run, an Israeli military spokesman announced. Palestinian security official in the West Bank said his forces did not know of Uda's whereabouts because he had gone underground several years ago and said they had yet to determine where exactly he was arrested. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI (Photo credit should read ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

9:22PM: Sorry for the lack of updates today, but work and a lovely dinner with some pro-Israel Canadian bloggers got in the way of my blogging.

1:32PM: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is displaying for the first time Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

1:16PM: A joint force of IDF, Shin Beit and police officers last night arrested Hamashole Maher Odeh, who headed a cell responsible for a number of deadly terror attacks including the Café Hillel bombing in Jerusalem and the suicide attack at the Zerifin junction hitchhikers’ station in 2003.

It should be noted he was arrested by the PA in 1998, but released shortly after.

Odeh has been wanted by Israel since the 1990s, and is considered one of the commanders of Hamas’ military wing in Ramallah – an organization that killed 70 Israelis during the second intifada.

The 47-year-old father of four, who was born in Ein-Yabrud, northeast of Ramallah, is one of the founders of the Hamas movement in the West Bank city. He began operating in the early 1990s, when he formed the Hamas cell in his village, which was responsible for kidnapping and interrogating Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel, and seeking weapons to use in terror attacks.

In 1998, he was questioned by the Palestinians security forces and spent several months in a Palestinian prison. After his release he became one of the organization’s most wanted men.

6:00AM: Further fallout from the Israeli announcement to build more houses in our own land: EU foreign policy chief said the EU might use its trade ties with Israel as leverage to pressure it into renewing peace talks with the palestinians (I purposely blogged this as an update, since I am not comfortable using That’s What Friends Are For when it comes to the Europeans).

Meanwhile, the Swedish Foreign Minister is still being a meatball head.

Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, said that Israel’s announcement on building in east Jerusalem during United States Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week was intentional and not coincidental.

This soccer refereeing thing is even more fun than playing.

I’m gonna wash that grey right out of my hair…

“Not. Feeling. Well. What’s in this pita bread”

“I’m a natural with kids.”

“There, there Ahmed. Nothing to be afraid of. Those men with masks and guns are the good guys!”

“Ahmed, enough crying already. Or I’ll send YOU on the next Jihadi mission”

“The Palestinian authorities (in Gaza) have decided to ban men from working in women’s beauty parlours following instructions from Interior Minister Fathi Hammad,” said a statement on the website of the Hamas-run police force in Gaza.

“Anyone who breaches this decision will be arrested and tried.”

The majority of Gaza residents are conservative Muslims, but Hamas is under growing pressure from radical groups to prove its fundamentalist credentials by imposing harsher edicts.

Women are forbidden from showing their hair in public to men who are not in their family.

Over the last three years, several beauty parlours and hair salons in the Gaza Strip have been the target of explosions and other attacks, which Hamas have blamed on radical Islamist groups who share the ideology of al Qaeda.

Such groups seek to defy Hamas rule in Gaza and criticise its leaders for not implementing strict Islamic law.

The good news, though, is men are apparently still allowed to frequent women’s beauty parlours.

Meanwhile, the following pro-Gazan “human rights” organizations have released the following statements regarding this blatant infringement of palestinian human rights:

Free Gaza: Wot, me worry?

International Solidarity Movement: zzzzzzzzzzz

CodePink: Bah, humbug

I could go on to describe the responses of each and every so-called palestinian human rights organization, but you get my drift.

Which just goes to prove that these groups are more about destroying Israel than protecting palestinian human rights.

Then things got weird.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:10PM: Quote of the day:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But perhaps afraid of being run over.

The Serious and Organized Crime Agency (who I guess are serious and organized -ed.) or SOCA is investigating how the identities of British citizens were stolen.

“He made clear that we were concerned about the implications of the killing of Mr. al-Mabhouh on stability in the region, and he stressed that we require full cooperation from the Israeli authorities with the SOCA investigation,” Bryant told lawmakers.

The minister said Miliband told Lieberman that Britain and Israel can only cooperate on “the basis of trust and mutual transparency.”

Miliband said Lieberman “had no information to give me.”

The Israeli FM, for his part, said in a statement there was no proof Israel was involved in the killing, and later told reporters: “I think you have all seen too many James Bond movies.”

He said while petting his white cat…

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:00PM: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman introduces Prime Minister Avatar! (hat tip: Joe)

9:50PM: It looks as though the Prime Minister has developed somewhat of a backbone.

At least when it comes to the following issue.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel is obligated to ensure the freedom of religion for all faiths at all holy sites, in a response to allegations from Palestinian leaders that Israel’s heritage sites could spark a religious war.

“We are talking about a campaign of lies and hypocrisy,” read a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, issued after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Israel’s addition of two West Bank sites to its national heritage list a dangerous provocation, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a new uprising against Israel.

“Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs are burial sites dating from more than 3,500 years ago of Israel’s forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the nation’s foremothers, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel – and are worthy of preservation and renovation,” said the statement from Netanyahu’s office.

8:16PM: Quote of the day:

“The entire world must support those fighting terrorism: an American, British or Israeli soldier regardless if he is in Gaza or Dubai. The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn’t matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism.”

- Israeli Opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni

4:10PM: In case you thought the Knesset was a boring place..

A heated debated arose in the Knesset House Committee on Tuesday, following a request to hold a plenum session on the “forged passports affair”. Member of Knesset Talab El-Sana (United Arab List – Ta’al) asked if the Knesset was run by the Mossad, while MK Carmel Shama (Likud) called the assassination  of Hamas  commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh a “mitzvah”.

The Knesset House Committee session was held following a decision by the Knesset presidency not to authorize the matter for discussion on the Knesset plenum’s agenda. El-Sana filed an appeal to the committee, which was also rejected.

“Why isn’t the Israeli Knesset holding a discussion?” El-Sana asked the committee. “Anyone trying not to hold a discussion has a reason not to hold a discussion… Does (Mossad chief) Meir Dagan decide which matters are discussed in the Knesset?”

El-Sana added, “There is no doubt that this is a matter of public concern and that the Knesset should discuss the issue.”

Regarding the alleged forged passports reportedly used by the Hamas commander’s killers in Dubai, he asked: “Is assassinating in another country using mafia methods a victory? It was an act of terror. As in the attempt on (Hamas politburo chief) Khaled Mashaal, they were caught red-handed in Dubai, every movement, including the glasses, was captured. Whoever is behind this should be prosecuted. Don’t be surprised when arrest warrants are issued against Meir Dagan.”

In response MK Shama said, “If my passport could help in the assassination of Mabhouh, I would be willing to give it to you. I would be willing to give you my regular passport as well as my diplomatic passport.”

MK Yariv Levin (Likud) sarcastically added, “Firing rockets at kindergartens – that’s heroism. Don’t threaten us. Don’t sit here and threaten us.” Shama then said, “I would be very sorry if the State of Israel did not carry out this mitzvah.”

MK Ahen asked, “Why do the MKs feel threatened by having the matter discussed? A matter that has been spread over pages, down to the smallest detail. The media had a field day, almost like Carmel Shama’s euphoric spirit.”

Tibi and Shama then exchanged words, and a number of MKs chimed in. Shama said: “Meir Dagan did good work quietly. He is dear to Israel.” Tibi said he does not agree with Shama and named a different hero: “The real hero in this story is the Dubai police commander, who exposed the assassins.”

Shama asked: “That clown?” In response, Tibi said, “That clown caught you with your pants down.” At this point MK Levin intervened and told Shama: “Let Dubai’s ambassador in Israel speak.”

MK Meir Sheetrit of Kadima tried to calm his comrades and said the debate was unnecessary. Tibi had the last work and said, “I fear for Shama, he has an Arab name, he could also be assassinated tomorrow.”

1:08PM: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi reportedly avoided meeting PA President Mahmoud Abbas while the latter was visiting Tripoli despite his explicit requests.

9:35AM: Spot the grave of the airline hijacker:

Palestinians recite Koranic verses over the grave of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a former Hamas commander, at the tombs of Palestinians who were killed during conflicts Israel, at al-Yarmouk camp near Damascus February 22, 2010. Dubai has accused Israel of involvement in the killing of Al-Mabhouh in a hotel in Dubai last month. Israel has declined to confirm or deny it had any role. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA – Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS)

6:20AM: More on our latest Zionist Death Drone^TM (reported by someone who sounds a bit like a drone herself).

6:15AM: Yet another Israeli ethnic cleansing fail of large proportions.

Ibrahim, a 20-year-old Galilee Muslim whose failed circumcision two years earlier left him with too little penile skin to perform his matrimonial duties, was abandoned by his fiancee prior to their wedding. But plastic surgeon Prof. Yaron Har-Shai eventually enabled Ibrahim to get engaged to another woman by adapting – for the first time in the world – a technique used on hand and facial burns to rehabilitate his penis, restoring normal function.

Har-Shai and colleagues at Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine have just published their report on the highly unusual case in the British Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, which presents not only the details of the procedure but also ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. The doctors’ careful search of the Medline database showed that the technique had not been used previously to correct such a problem.

The man, now 21, is due to wed a different woman who accepted his marriage proposal after hearing about the normal appearance and functioning of his penis.

That’s some grape vine.

Upon hearing the news, the Carmel staff who treated him sent the couple a huge bouquet of flowers and wishes for good luck and many children.

Instead of undergoing a ritual circumcision at the conventional age for Muslims – 13 years – the man waited until 18, apparently because he comes from a secular family and didn’t think it was important, Har-Shai told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The procedure was performed by an overzealous traditional practitioner, who botched the job. Instead of removing just the foreskin, he also cut off ventral penile skin, a complication that occurs in 0.2 percent of circumcisions.

Although able to have erections before the accident, the unfortunate man found that the error shortened his organ by causing the development of scar tissue that prevented the skin from expanding with increased blood supply. Skin webbing developed from the sub-coronal groove to the anterior scrotal base. Intercourse was impossible, and when his first fiancee learned about his condition, the wedding was off.

An anesthesiologist who knew the family turned to Har-Shai, a Technion graduate who worked at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center until he was invited to head the plastic surgery department at Carmel.

Surgeons abroad trying to treat similar injuries in the past took skin from other parts of the patient’s body and transplanted it onto the penis; the result, however, was not only of a different color but the penis also sometimes developed a web texture and became too small to allow for intercourse.

First, Har-Shai performed a known procedure called Z-plasty, a technique used to improve the functional and cosmetic appearance of scars. It can elongate a contracted scar or rotate the scar tension line. The procedure, however, was unsuccessful.

Har-Shai’s father, Prof. Bernard Hirshowitz, was a pioneer in plastic surgery at Rambam before his retirement and years ago developed the “flap technique-5” procedure to enable webbed skin between fingers to become flexible after suffering a burn and shrinking, as well as for treating facial skin injuries. But it had never been used to rehabilitate a shrunken penis.

Har-Shai decided to adapt his father’s innovation – for the first time in the world – to the young man’s problem. He created five flaps from small bits of skin left on the man’s penis itself so they were not rejected and did not turn into webbing.

“Although previous surgery had been executed at the surgical site, uneventful healing of the skin flaps and complete relaxation and elongation of the skin web [was] achieved,” the team wrote.

The man’s penile length measured 11 centimeters after the procedure – eight centimeters longer than it was after the complications from the circumcision set in. Two months after the operation, the patient had functional erections, Har-Shai told The Post.

“It also looks great, very aesthetic,” he enthused. He added that his father’s flap technique-5 could also be used on baby boys if they have a shortage of skin.

There have been no previous reports of such a complication in circumcisions in Israel, even though some 50,000 ritual procedures are performed here each year. Har-Shai said he saw references to the complication occurring in Iran.

“I would have no problem treating Iranians who need it,” he said, though there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

6:08AM: The latest Turkey-Jerkey:

Israel is turning a blind eye to a huge poster showing President Shimon Peres seemingly bowing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was unfurled from a crane in an Ankara suburb on Sunday.

Neither the President’s Residence nor the Foreign Minister would comment on the poster, which superimposed an image of a bowing Peres in front of Erdogan, over the caption “Erdogan, a leader whom the world bows down to.”

While at first glance this seemed to be Turkish retribution for the public hazing of Turkey’s ambassador to Israel in January, when Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sat him on a lower chair and reprimanded him over an anti-Semitic television show broadcast in Turkey, the Turkish press reported that Erdogan’s office had the poster taken down before Erdogan appeared at the site to inaugurate a new road network.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the poster, with some diplomatic officials in Jerusalem saying it obviously came from the top, while others said it was quite possible that this was an independent act of protest that was not choreographed by the government.

A leader bowing down to another leader? As if that really happens.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nuff said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to Fatah, we need wonder no more!

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

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

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

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

It’s not looking good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, said the Foreign Office was also told hours before a Hamas terrorist chief was assassinated in Dubai.

The tip-off did not say who the target would be or even where the hit squad would be in action. But the claim from a credible source that the Government had some prior knowledge of the abuse of UK passports will strengthen calls for ministers to come clean about what they knew and when.

It came as more details emerged of how Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was lured into a trap by Palestinian double agents last month before being smothered with a pillow. The killers tried to make his death look like an accident.

A British security source who met the Mossad agent, and has a track record of providing reliable information, told the Daily Mail: ‘This is a serving member of Israeli intelligence. He says the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen.

‘There was no British involvement and they didn’t know the name of the target. But they were told these people were travelling on UK passports.’

The security source said that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a ‘courtesy call’ to let the security services know ‘a situation’ might blow up. The Mossad man said Israeli intelligence chiefs understand British authorities will have to ’slap them on the wrist’ and added: ‘The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions.’

The Israeli’s claims contradict Foreign Office assertions that the UK knew nothing of the affair until shortly before the Dubai authorities went public over the assassination earlier this week.

However officials in the Gulf state have claimed that British ministers may have been alerted by Dubai last month about the use of the passports.

If MI6 received a tip-off from Mossad it is not certain it would have been passed to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, particularly if it was vague. Intelligence officers may have preferred to wait before alerting ministers.

But any suggestion that officials turned a blind eye to an extrajudicial killing will strengthen calls for a public inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the war on terrorism. Judges have already ruled that British spies have been complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects.

It will also fuel suspicions in some Arab countries that Britain was ‘complicit’ in the killing of al-Mabhouh.

A Foreign Office spokesman insisted last night it was ‘not correct’ to claim that Britain knew in advance about the passports.
He said: ‘We received the details of the British passports a few hours before the press conference [by police in Dubai]. We were able to respond to the Dubai authorities on the authenticity of the passports the next day.’

The British source told the Mail he has known the Mossad man for more than 20 years and they met as part of a longstanding arrangement. He said British-Israeli intelligence relations were ‘jogging along very nicely when nobody knew – then it all became public’.

The Israeli agent rejected suggestions that intelligence-sharing between the two nations might be damaged. He said Mossad was handling several sources within the UK Muslim community and added: ‘There is no question of jeopardising that information flow.’

Meanwhile, in another possible indication that Israel was behind the hit, the Israeli embassy in the UK tweeted this yesterday (hat tip: readers):

They were of course referring to Shahar Peer’s victory in the Dubai Open.

Come to think of it, I made a very similar joke yesterday.

I could handle them stealing my identity, but not my jokes!!!

The assassination  of senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is turning into international diplomatic affair. Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland have bee summoned by the countries’ foreign ministries to explain the use of fake passports in Dubai. The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said it was unaware of such demands.

The British Foreign Office was expected to summon Israeli Ambassador to London Ron Prosor on Thursday to “share information” about the assassins’ use of identities stolen from six British citizens living in Israel, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday evening.

Prosor was summoned to a meeting with Under-Secretary a Peter Ricketts. A spokesman for the British Embassy in Tel Aviv clarified that the ambassador would not be reprimanded. As of Thursday, the spokesman said, the embassy will start contacting the Israeli citizens whose identities were stolen and offer them assistance.

“The defrauding of British passports is a very serious issue,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. “The Government will continue to take all the action that is necessary to protect British Nationals from identity-fraud. The Government is involved in a number of strands of ongoing activity in relation to this specific case.

“First, we are providing support to the British Nationals who have been affected by this fraudulent activity. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv is contacting the affected British Nationals, and stands ready to provide them with the support that they need; second, as the prime minister has said, we need to ensure a full investigation is carried out into the fraudulent use of these passports. The Serious Organised Crime Agency will lead this investigation, in close co-operation with the Emirati authorities; and third, given the links to Israel of a number the British Nationals affected, there will be a meeting between the FCO permanent under secretary and the Israeli ambassador tomorrow.”

A diplomatic source in Dublin told Ynet that the Israeli ambassador in the Irish capital would also be summoned for an inquiry. Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin announced that further information had been received from the authorities in the United Arab Emirates concerning reports of the use of fake Irish passports in Dubai. He said the new information confirms that the passports used were fraudulent.

“Genuine Irish passport numbers were used. These numbers correspond to actual numbers on three legitimate Irish passports. However, the identities of the persons recorded on the forged passports do not correspond to those recorded on the valid passports carrying the same numbers.”

The Irish Foreign Ministry is attempting to locate the Irish citizens to whom these passports belong to or belonged to in the past. Minister Martin asked the media to respect their privacy.

The minister said he regarded any activity which would jeopardize the integrity of the Irish passport as extremely serious.

“Our passport is widely regarded and respected throughout the world as being of the highest quality. We have invested very heavily in extra security features so that our citizens can travel in safety. Actions, which endanger our well earned reputation in this area, have the potential to affect the security of all our citizens travelling overseas. I am determined to maintain the good name of Irish passports. The Department is liaising closely with the UAE authorities on the matter.”

The Irish Foreign Ministry said it would be in contact, through its embassies in London, Paris and Berlin, with the authorities in these countries with a view to working with them in this investigation.

Israel appears to be in trouble in Austria as well. The Interior Ministry in Vienna said it had launched an investigation into the suspected use of at least seven mobile phones with pre-paid Austrian chips by Mabhouh’s killers.

The Dubai police investigation revealed that the cell members did not contact each other directly during their stay in the country, and didn’t do so before their arrival and after leaving as well. However, they spoke to each other by dialing to a communications center in Austria, which was referred to as “the assassins’ headquarters” by the Dubai police.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged a “full investigation” Wednesday into how fake British passports were linked to Hamas chief’s killers, amid calls here for Israel to explain its role.

“We are looking at this at this very moment,” he told London’s LBC radio. “We have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care,” he told London’s LBC Radio.

“The evidence has got to be assembled about what has actually happened and how it happened and why it happened and it is necessary for us to accumulate that evidence before we can make statements.”

Meanwhile, head Hamashole Khaled Mashaal has reacted in the usual understated, Hamas way.

Hamas  politburo chief Khaled Mashaal threatened Wednesday to avenge the assassination  of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. “The talks about revenge are over and execution time is here,” he said.

—–

“Our mission is to punish you and your mission is to continue living under the fear of our response. We will be the one to determine the appropriate way and time and location. We won’t say when and where, but prepare to absorb the fire of our rage in our special way and in our special execution in the chosen time and place.”

“And if you carried out your crime through the Mossad, we have the way which will hurt you. We are no here to eulogize the shahid (martyr). We are here to say that revenge is coming, coming, coming. Today you hear it in words and tomorrow you’ll see it in fire and actions.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top

7:18PM: Interpol is going after the suspected killers of Hamashole Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

I don’t seem to recall the terror chief himself being on Interpol’s wanted list…

4:45PM: In case you thought the Avatards intiative was all about non-violent demonstrations, check out this video glorifying terrorists publicized by the creator of their Facebook group.

4:40PM: Photo of the day:

Shahar Peer of Israel shakes hands with an official after her match against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark at the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships February 17, 2010. REUTERS/Mosab Omar

4:08PM: Another killing in Dubai, but this time it was clearly done by an Israeli.

1:50PM: Additional news on the hit:

Airport officials carried out routine retinal scans on 11 suspects sought by Dubai when they entered the country in the days before the hit. An unnamed Dubai official said on Thursday that the investigation has now widened, with police seeking a further seven members of the assassination team – making 18 in all.

Meanwhile, Dubai police have released the following surveillance photo of the additional seven members of the hit team.

1:44PM: Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim:

“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of (Mahmoud) al-Mabhouh. It is 99 percent, if not 100 percent, that Mossad is standing behind the murder.”

8:48AM: The plot thickens.

Nahro Massoud, a Hamas official who was released from an Egyptian prison in 2007 at the outrage of the Palestinian Authority, was arrested in Syria in connection with the assassination of fellow Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the British Guardian reported overnight Wednesday.

According to the report, Palestinian sources confirmed that Massoud was being detained and questioned in Syria.

Allegations of his arrest and detention have been denied by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, the paper added. He was quoted in the report as saying, “It is not correct at all.”

The PA in past years accused Massoud of being behind the assassination of Col. Muhammad al-Musat, commander of the PA’s Military Intelligence Force in the northern Gaza Strip.

6:08AM: PMW brings us part of an interview on Palestinian Authority TV in which an Arab refugee in Lebanon describes how he and other Arabs left for Lebanon from Israel during the 1948 war, upon the urging of Arab leaders.

As PMW explains:

This refugee’s testimony is yet another example of how Palestinian leaders, writers and refugees themselves have begun to speak out in recent years and openly blame the Arab leadership for the creation of the Arab refugee problem. Mufid describes a large departure to Lebanon from Israel, which led to the creation of “11 or 15 refugee camps.” He does not place the blame on Israel. As Palestinian Media Watch has previously reported, other recent Palestinian accounts likewise describe a deliberate exit from Israel under orders by Arab leaders, which contradicts the Palestinian leadership’s charge that the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who left in 1948 were expelled by Israel.