The trips have a number of goals including, but not limited to, strengthening Hamas’ ties with Arab states, reinforcing the legitimacy of Hamas and bolstering Haniyeh’s personal status.

In addition to Qatar, Haniyeh will visit Bahrain, Iran and Kuwait. The visits to Kuwait and Qatar should not be all that interesting. The trip to Iran, on the other hand, will be.

Over recent months, Iran has slowed, if not ceased, its funding of Hamas. This void has reportedly been filled by Turkey, while Iran has turned towards Islamic Jihad.

Nonetheless, Iran will surely do all it can to keep its hand in the game and remain relevant. The question now is whether or not Hamas will decide to fully let go or latch back on to the Iranian regime.

In other news, Hamas’ Khaled Meshal met with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Sunday. I reported on the rapprochement last week.  During the meeting Jordanian officials repeated that they will not allow Hamas to reopen its offices in the country. Nonetheless, Hamas officials said the meeting was “extremely positive and excellent.” Yet, Meshal’s visit,which was scheduled to last three days, was cut short, as he left Jordan on Sunday. Hamas and Jordanian officials have offered no explanation as to why Meshal’s visit was cut short.

Update: Haniyeh will reportedly ask Qatar to fulfill its promise from 2006 to provide Gaza with a $17 million sports facility.

Update: Haniyeh has arrived in Qatar.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/12/23/hamas-meshal-affirms-support-for-palestinian-state-within-1967-borders-and-popular-resistance

Silverstein: trying to paint vicious terrorists as guys in suits

Following on a post I published here about a Wahington Post story on the “new pragmatism” of Hamas, Khaled Meshal expanded on these themes in an AP interview in which he affirmed Hamas support for a Palestinian state established through Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders. Though the Islamist movement’s chief leader refused to renounce violence as a tool in the fight for Palestinian rights, he made clear that violence was a tactical, and not a strategic choice; and that his first choice would be the types of “popular resistance” exhibited during the Arab Spring uprisings and the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987:

Popular protests have “the power of a tsunami,” Mashaal said, pointing to the recent waves of demonstrations across the Arab world.

“Now we have a common ground that we can work on — the popular resistance, which presents the power of people,” he said. The idea for the protests originated with the Palestinians themselves and the uprising they launched against Israel in 1987, he said, typified by crowds of rock-throwing Palestinian youths confronting heavily armed Israeli soldiers.

Mashaal also gave rare Hamas public support to the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Pointedly, Meshal, in reaffirming Hamas support for a Palestinian state, did not mention the traditional Hamas fudging tactic, offering a hudna in its struggle against Israel:

We have political differences, but the common ground is the state on the ’67 borders. Why don’t we work in this common area,” he said.

There is no magic bullet as far as Hamas is concerned. It won’t all of a sudden become a liberal social democratic movement that is to the taste of Israel, the U.S. and the western world. Nor should that be necessary to take it seriously as one of two Palestinian interlocutors that must be included in any discussions that would resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a related matter, The NY Times’ Isabel Kershner continues to lie about Hamas’ views about Israel. This recent passage is exemplary of her sweeping distortions of the group’s position:

…Hamas, the Islamic militant group that…is sworn to Israel’s destruction.

While there is certainly no love lost between Israel and Hamas, no senior Hamas official that I know of has in the recent past (the past few years) made any such statement. And the group would certainly, from their point of view have reason to do so after Operation Cast Lead, the Mavi Marmara killings, and years of punishing siege. Though I don’t find Hamas an exemplar of democracy (nor Fatah or Israel for that matter), statements like Kershner’s and Bronner’s do a disservice to a full understanding of the nuance of the conflict.

When some commenters provided proof of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh pledging to use “armed resistance” (aka terrorism) “until all of Palestine is liberated from the river to the sea,” Silverstein made the following astounding statement:

I stand corrected. But Khaled Meshal is Hamas’ leader, not Ismail Haniye. And Hamas policy on such matters is made by Meshal, not Haniye. As for Kershner, it would actually have been accurate for her to say that SOME Hamas leaders call for the end of Israel, which she did not say. But the movement as a whole, and it’s most senior leader do not.

Further, it’s worth noting that even Haniye, as radical as he may be, calls armed struggle “an option,” which corresponds to Meshal’s articulation, which sees popular (non-violent) resistance as the preferred option, with armed struggle held back and used only if necessary.

And again, even if Haniye believed otherwise and held that armed resistance was preferred, he doesn’t determine the military strategy of Hamas, as I wrote above.

To suggest that what Ismail Haniyeh says in Arabic is irrelevant goes beyond mere ignorance (especially considering Hamas’ charter). We are talking of blatant dishonesty in order to paint Hamas in a more positive light.

But it gets worse. When a commenter points to a statement by Meshal..

Oct 02. Speaking in Tehran, at a conference in support of the intifada, Meshall said, ‘Resistance will remain the strategic option and project throughout the stages to liberate Palestine, establish a real Palestinoan state and eliminate the Zionist project’.

 ..Silverstein responds by demanding proof:

I wrote about that speech here and that’s not at all what I recall reading regarding it’s contents. Provide a link to your report and tell us who translated what Meshal said. Frankly I wouldn’t trust any such claim from you without a credible source and translation.

I’ve just researched your alleged quotation & the sources I found don’t actually put that statement in quotation marks. In other words, it’s a paraphrase of what he said. I don’t trust paraphrases on subjects as sensitive as this

 ..which he receives:

Occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/al-abrash-israeli-practices-will-fail-to-destroy-palestinians-determination-to-return/

But despite the fact the link is from a pro palestinian source, Silverstein won’t acknowledge its accuracy.

Got it. I checked that out & again it’s not a quotation, but a paraphrase, which isn’t trustworthy in my opinion.

 After another commenter provides the following source:

Ha’aretz has it translated this way:

“Palestinians must resort to resistance no matter how costly it is, until Palestine is free and Israel is destroyed,” Meshal said.

They cite the AP in the byline as well.

..Silverstein once again cannot bring himself to acknowledge it:

Frankly, I don’t know who translated the speech & whether the translation is trustworthy. If you can find the original Arabic I can have it translated by a trustworthy translator. I am not denying that he said something close to what is claimed. But until you can authenticate the accuracy of the translation I’m not prepared to concede this is accurate.

In contrast, Silverstein hastens to post any translation of statements in Hebrew by Israeli officials which paint Israel in a bad light.

This latest example of Silverstein’s dishonesty shows just how far his anti-Israel activism extends: To defending the terrorists of Hamas.

I challenge any of the media outlets who have published Silverstein or otherwise painted him as a trustworthy source to publish this piece.

AP Photo/Hatem Moussa

The first electronic driving license to be issued in Gaza was presented to the strip’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday by Gaza’s Ministry of Transportation.

A delegation from the ministry, led by transportation minister Osama Al-Isawy, introduced Haniyeh to the new style of license and how it is used.

Non-paper licenses had already been introduced in the West Bank.

Haniyeh praised the efforts of the Gaza ministry in serving Palestinian citizens, and expressed hope that it will continue the good pace of its work.

We are supposedly a smart people. Surely we can work out a way to utilize the electronic signal emitted by his driving license. Say, by helping to locate him and then conducting a marriage ceremony between him and one of our Hellfire missiles.

Hamas condemned the murder, on the grounds it harms the palestinians goals (not on moral grounds).

Hamas’ Interior Ministry called a special press conference following the recovery of the Italian peace activist’s body in Gaza.

The ministry denounced the act: “This is a heinous murder which does not represent our religion, values and costume,” it said in a statement, adding the act “harms the Palestinian people’s goals.” Hamas police have launched a full inquiry in the case.

Their costume consists of balaclavas, gun belts and bomb belts. I think the murder is completely consistent with this.

The PA’s Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the murder…for not serving the palestinian cause, but harming it.

While he has been murdered by the people he dedicated his life to supporting, I cannot bring myself to celebrate his murder like others have.

I found Rusty’s comments interesting:

When I first wrote this post, I thought everything would turn out fine. A few bruises, some lessons not learned, etc.

But now that he’s dead? My comments on the irony of it all aren’t so funny.

There is nothing funny about jihadis murdering an innocent civilian. Dumb and mislead or not, full responsibility for the man’s murder lie with the committed Islamists who murdered him.

—–

Part of me wants to LOL this. I mean, how can someone be so stupid as to not know what kind of people are walking around in Gaza? The other part of me thinks it’s just tragic and is ashamed that any part of me would blame the victim.

I guess I’ll just have to remain conflicted.

I am not so conflicted, and see it slightly differently. I don’t see Arrigoni as merely stupid. He burned with hatred for Israel, and actively worked to undermine the security of me and my fellow Israeli citizens. He was in bed with the terrorists, as it were. So while I won’t be celebrating his murder, I won’t be mourning him either.

Updates (Israel time; latest from top)

5:02PM: So predictable: Hamas has blamed Israel for engineering Arrigoni’s killing.

Hamas indirectly accused Israel on Friday of engineering the killing of an Italian Palestinian peace activist in Gaza in order to intimidate other foreign activists hoping to sail to Gaza as part of the next flotilla.

“Such an awful crime cannot take place without arrangements between all the parties concerned to keep the blockade imposed on Gaza,” Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said at a rally held by the group to honor executed Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni.

4:05PM: Another damning photo of the “peace activist”, this time posing with Hamas arch terrorist Ismail Haniyeh.

EPA

3:55PM: Other pictures from his Facebook page indicate the “peace activist” clearly advocated a peaceful solution to the conflict, with two states living side-by-side in peace and security.

Just joking.

3:48PM: Another one from his Facebook page.

That’s some peaceful looking artwork behind him.

3:45PM: Another picture from his Facebook page.

Peace activist?

3:12PM: More irony: Here’s a cartoon from Arrigoni’s Facebook page, which I was the first to post about yesterday.

Look like the ending of anyone we know? (hat tip: Elder)

3:00PM: Yet another photo of Arrigoni, this time with his buddy Ken “KOK” O’Keefe.

KOK is the guy who used extreme violence against IDF navy commandos during the Mavi Marmara raid.

2:46PM: Another photo of Arrigoni, this time smiling happily alongside Hamas “security officers.”

In this Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 file photo, international activist Vittorio Utmpio Arrigoni, from Italy, carries an aid box from the "Free Gaza" boat after its arrival at the Gaza port, in Gaza city.

2:32PM: Here’s a photo taken from the ISM website. Anyone know the meaning of the Arabic of his tattoo?

2:25PM: I received this from the Free Gaza mailing list:

A message from Mary Hughes Thompson, one of the activists on board the first boat into Gaza,. Vik was on that boat, and we are all devastated with this news. Greta

Throughout the day we prayed this would have the best kind of endings.  The kidnappers had given a deadline several hours away.  So this latest terrible news has devastated all of us who knew Vik.  He and I were on the FREE GAZA when it sailed to Gaza in August 2008.  He stayed behind in Gaza, and two months later he was kidnapped and arrested on a fishing boat near the coast of Gaza.  He was abducted to Israel, jailed in Ramle Prison and deported home to Italy.  Within days he was back in Gaza, where he stayed throughout the massacres of December 08 and January 09, leaving only briefly for Cairo where I last saw him during the Gaza Freedom March.

Words can’t express the shock and sense of bereavement at the loss of this beautiful man, who considered himself Palestinian.  The videos we saw of him bloodied and blindfolded were chilling, nothing like the Vittorio we knew and loved, always smiling, always wearing a skipper’s hat and holding his beloved pipe.  After Juliano Mer-Khamis, this is just too much.  May they both rest in peace

There’s some further irony for you. He considered himself to be palestinian. They considered him to be worm food.

11:45AM: The ISM has posted this video of Arrigoni, which you’ll be glad to know has English subtitles.

11:40AM: Contrary to the previous update, Ha’aretz reports he was found hanging in the home of a palestinian terrorist (although they call him a militant)

11:30AM: The multi-lingual Biodegradable informs us that Spanish state TV reported the body was found “in the street” dead from “asphyxia.”

8:42AM: According to “Il Manifesto” (the paper for which he wrote), he died in a Hamas raid gone wrong (hat tip: Biodegradable)

8:36AM: Words of “sympathy” from the vile Ken “KOK” O’Keefe (hat tip: Walt)

Notice how KOK:

• Saves most of his anger for Israel, way more than he shows against the murdering terrorists.
• Compliments Hamas’ work despite some “problems”

While I have dealt with this in the past, what I found most interesting about the op-ed was an almost obscured fact (hat tip: Carl).

In fact, recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, Syria (and you ain’t seen nothing yet…) have enhanced the craving in the Arab Street for the liberties and benefits of Israel’s democracy.

Haniyeh's nephew's decision to join the IDF to fight against his uncle started at an early age

For example, Israeli ID cards have been sought by senior PLO and Hamas officials and their relatives, such as the three sisters of Ismail Haniyeh, the top leader of Hamas. They married Israeli Arabs and migrated from Gaza to Tel Sheva in Israel’s Negev. Two are already widows, but prefer to remain in the Jewish State, and the son of the third sister serves in the Israeli Defense Forces.Akrameh Sabri, the top Muslim religious leader in eastern Jerusalem, who delivers anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist sermons, retains his Israeli ID card as do Hanan Ashrawi of the PLO, Muhammad Abu-Tir of Hamas, Jibril Rajoub’s wife, etc.

Some 150,000 non-Israeli Arabs, mostly from Judea and Samaria, married Israeli Arabs and received Israeli ID cards between 1993 and 2003. In addition, scores of thousands of illegal Arab aliens prefer Israeli – over Palestinian – residence.

A significant wave of net-emigration – 30,000 Arabs from Judea, Samaria and Gaza annually – since 1950 was substantially reduced in 1968, as a result of access gained to Israel’s infrastructures of employment, medicine and education, and of Israeli construction of such infrastructures in these regions. The level of annual Arab emigration subsided during the peak years of Aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel), since Arabs were heavily employed in constructing the absorption infrastructure.

Israeli Arabs vehemently oppose any settlement – such as an exchange of land between Israel and the Palestinian Authority – which would transform them into Palestinian subjects, denying them Israeli citizenship.

Wow, Haniyeh’s nephew serves in the IDF? I assume not this one.

The idea that his own nephew serves in the IDF reminds me of this famous scene:

Needless to say, I imagine family gatherings are a real blast (no pun intended).

I have not been able to find out anything else on Haniyeh’s nephew, but I did manage to track down this 2006 article on his sisters.

Israel regards Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian Hamas prime minister, as an enemy of state. But three of his sisters enjoy full Israeli citizenship, having moved 30 years ago to the desert town of Tel Sheva.

Some of their offspring have even served in the Israeli army, the force responsible for decades of Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, an occupation that the Islamist movement, Hamas, was founded to fight.

The Daily Telegraph tracked down the Haniyeh sisters, Kholidia, Laila and Sabah, to a town in southern Israel. That they live in Israel is a closely guarded secret and nowhere is it guarded more secretly than Tel Sheva, a town inhabited mainly by Israeli Bedouin on the edge of the Negev desert.

“There is no reason to speak to my wife,” said Salameh Abu Rukayek, 53, who married Kholidia. “It is private business and you are not welcome asking questions about my wife.”

Blind since birth, Mr Abu Rukayek sat on a thin floor cushion and said he was happy living in Israel. “Our life is normal here and we want it to continue,” he said.

Perhaps he felt discussion of his wife’s family links might jeopardise his relatively comfortable lifestyle.

Bedouins form a small and poor minority in modern Israel, descendants of desert nomads who roamed the Holy Land in ancient times, living in tents and travelling by camel train. Some Bedouin have settled down in towns such as Tel Sheva and many make a good living, often running transport firms across Israel.

Although they regard themselves as separate from Palestinians, links between the two communities are nevertheless close. Both share the same Muslim faith.

Another member of the clan, Yousef Abu Ruqia, 50, who works as secretary in the municipal council, explained how the Haniyeh sisters came to Tel Sheva.

“In a small community like ours there were not enough women to go round, so some of the men would go and look for wives elsewhere,” he said.

“The Haniyeh sisters were Palestinians living in Gaza. Back then it was possible for people to visit Gaza easily, so Kholidia was the first to be married and move to Tel Sheva, and then Laila and then Sabah.”

He said he remembered the time, 25 years ago, when their younger brother, Ismail, would come to visit his sisters.

“There was another brother, Khaled, who came here to work laying tiles and each year, at the holiday after Ramadan, Ismail would come and visit his brother and sisters.”

—-

Laila and Sabah are both widows but remain in Tel Sheva, apparently reluctant to give up their Israeli citizenship. It is not known when the Haniyeh sisters last had contact with their brother. As he is a Hamas prime minister, contact with him could, under Israeli law, be illegal.

How poetic it would be for nephew to fire the bullet to end his uncle’s life.

Heck, I don’t care who fires the bullet. Just make it happen soon.

Money that Hizbullah received from Iran helped rebuild Lebanese houses destroyed by Israel in 2006’s Second Lebanon War, according to Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

He spoke on Saturday ahead of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon.

“Hizbullah does not trust Lebanese government bureaucracy, therefore the Iranians paid in cash,” Nasrallah said in a televised broadcast.

“The Iranian president is arriving as a guest of Lebanon, and he was invited by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman himself,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah also poo-poo’d recent reports of Ahmadinejad’s plans to throw stones at Israel.

“The recent reports that Ahmadinejad intended to visit the Lebanon-Israel border in order to throw stones across were ridiculous,” Nasrallah continued.

Although this seems to conflict with another report:

The Hezbollah leader said the Iranian president should drop his plan to throw a symbolic stone at the Israeli side of the border. “If Ahmadinejad will heed my advice, I will tell him, ‘Throw a stone? You can throw something much larger at Israel’.”

I don’t believe either report, since when does Nasrallah refer to Israel as anything other than the enemy or Zionist entity?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:10PM: Palestinian Media Watch has the latest from our “peace partners” the PA.

During the month of Ramadan, PA TV broadcast a special daily quiz program from refugee camps in Lebanon and in Syria, in which residents were asked to name five cities “in Palestine” or “the countries sharing borders with Palestine” in order to win $100 cash prizes. The PA TV host gave cash prizes to those who defined Israeli cities such as Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramle, and others as Palestinian cities and to those who disregarded the existence of Israel as a neighboring country. Referring to Israel, the host said, “All of Palestine is occupied.”

The following are transcripts from this PA TV program,The Cedar and the Olive Tree, whose purpose was to reinforce the message that the Palestinian Authority does not recognize the legitimacy and jurisdiction of Israel anywhere. PMW is citing a number of examples from the program, including messages that recur, to demonstrate the use of repetition as one method of political indoctrination used by the Palestinian Authority and PA TV.

Notice the dumbass at 0:43 who makes the easiest $100 she’s likely to ever make.

6:24PM: The Lebanese are evidently nervous about something:

National News Agency field correspondent, Taher Abou Hamdan, reported Sunday that Israeli enemy has been acting suspiciously over the past 24 hours along the blue line, particularly along occupied Shebaa farms.

The Blue Line is a border demarcation, which covers the Lebanese-Israeli boundary. The line was published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon

Israeli tactics included infantry movement, motorized patrols and unmanned fighter-plane flights, all covering the blue line, and crossing over towards the Lebanese side of Ghajjar town. Patrolling soldiers surveyed the Wazzani spring and its surroundings for over half an hour, before retreating towards the Israeli side of occupied Ghajjar town.

UNIFIL and Lebanese army patrols intensified along the Lebanese side of the blue line, keeping an alert status against any sudden Israeli attack.

3:42PM: Ha’aretz has more on the female IDF soldier accused of stealing military documents pertaining to Iran.

An Israel Defense Forces soldier has been indicted for allegedly stealing a disc-on-key holding classified documents from the National Security Institute, it emerged on Sunday.

The Southern Command military court last month charged the soldier, who had served in the teleprocessing department, for endangering the security of the state. Some of the documents in question dealt with classified information on Iran.

The soldier is suspected of taking home the disc-on-key, which contained some 600 private documents, during her period of service at the NSI in the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem in 2009.

The soldier claimed that she had taken the disc in order to prove security failures existed at the NSI.

The defendant took the disc-on-key precisely because she discovered that the NSI had been using it to save classified documents – something that is forbidden by the army. She confessed to the act on the same day, when investigators discovered the disc to be missing and approached her.

Her lawyer said that she had not even looked at the documents in her possession.

1:30PM: The Jerusalem Post with some worrying news (hat tip: Shy Guy)

A female soldier in the IDF has been accused of stealing military documents pertaining to Iran and endangering national security, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.

The classified documents, said to be numbering in the hundreds, were purportedly taken with a USB key.

More details were not available at the time of this report.

11:40AM: In the battle for their peoples’ hearts and minds, both PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh seem out of their olive-picking minds.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (R) assists Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Iraq Borin near Nablus October 9, 2010. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

Gazan Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, right, picks an olive during a tour of olive oil factories and date groves, at the beginning of olive harvest season, near the Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

But in the battle to look more ridiculous, Fayyad wins hands down.

9:20AM: Anatomy of a hit-and-run.

PMW Bulletins PA TV awards $100 prizes for denial of Israel’s existence by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik Oct. 10, 2010

Share | PA TV awards $100 prizes for denial of Israel’s existence by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik During the month of Ramadan, PA TV broadcast a special daily quiz program from refugee camps in Lebanon and in Syria, in which residents were asked to name five cities “in Palestine” or “the countries sharing borders with Palestine” in order to win $100 cash prizes. The PA TV host gave cash prizes to those who defined Israeli cities such as Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramle, and others as Palestinian cities and to those who disregarded the existence of Israel as a neighboring country. Referring to Israel, the host said, “All of Palestine is occupied.” The following are transcripts from this PA TV program,The Cedar and the Olive Tree, whose purpose was to reinforce the message that the Palestinian Authority does not recognize the legitimacy and jurisdiction of Israel anywhere. PMW is citing a number of examples from the program, including messages that recur, to demonstrate the use of repetition as one method of political indoctrination used by the Palestinian Authority and PA TV.

While the palestinians are claiming it was the result of an Israel airstrike, Israel has denied this. Given that the IDF has no compunctions about announcing such operations, my spidey senses are telling me someone had a work accident.

Either way, here’s hoping he’s gone into the fertilizer business.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:46PM: Here’s the Amar’e Stoudemire interview to which I linked earlier.

9:42PM: AP report on this morning’s work accident, followed by the apparently less important story of the rocket attack on Eilat.

9:24PM: Article of the day: 8 Reasons Leftists Should be Pro-Israel

6:05PM: Israel seems to have launched a campaign to attract more British tourists.

4:36PM: A Jordanian man has died of wounds sustained in this morning’s rocket attack.

Notice how Jordan refer to it as a “terror attack” since it hit them, but are not normally condemning such attacks on Israel.

4:30PM: Photo of the day:

That’s NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire, here in Israel discovering his roots.

Click here to see him talk about being in Israel, his spiritual course, and the prospects of him playing for the Israeli national basketball team (click on video).

Meanwhile, here he is visiting Yad Vashem.

3:55PM: Mazal tov, ‘Dawson’!

1:04PM: Egypt has denied the rockets were fired from its territory.

No rockets were launched from the Sinai,” said Egyptian sources. “To launch rockets from Egypt, it takes equipment and complicated logistical preparations. It is impossible, since the Sinai Peninsula has heavy security.”

Ah yes, that much vaunted Egyptian security that has allowed Al Qaeda to set up shop in the Sinai, but has proven rather adept at shooting African refugees.

9:25AM: Ynet has corrected their news update to “4 wounded”, and not “5 killed.”

9:18AM: There are reports that at least 4 Jordanians were wounded in the rocket attack. Ynet’s news updates page mentions 5 Jordanians killed, but when you click on the report, it instead mentions 4 injured.

8:55AM: BREAKING NEWS: Terrorists fired 5 Katushya rockets at Eilat around an hour ago. Israeli security forces believe at least three of the rockets struck the Red Sea, while the other two exploded in open areas near the city. Jordanian authorities said one landed at the entrance to the InterContinental Hotel in Amman. So far, there are no reports of injury or damage.

Like last time terrorists fired rockets at Eilat (last year), it is unclear whether they fired them from Jordan or Egypt

6:02AM: In an indication as to how much Hamas appreciates the anti-Israel positions of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh has named his grandson…Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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“There will be no civilian blockade on Gaza, but only a security blockade.”

“The security blockade is tightened now because we have taken away Hamas’ ability to blame Israel for harming the civilian population and because our friends around the world are backing us up on this decision and granting legitimacy to the continued security blockade against Hamas.”

“We have taken the right decision for Israel from a security and political point of view,” Netanyahu asserted.

I doubt it. Mark my words: Israel will now be pressured to allow in all goods, including dual purpose construction materials that could be used by Hamas to manufacture weapons and to rebuild its military facilities.

That’s just the way things work when it comes to Israel: one compromise leads to another, and before you know it, we are ducking for cover in bomb shelters.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:50PM: Ynet reports:

No particular enthusiasm was noted in the Gaza Strip on Monday, a day after Israel declared an easing of the blockade. As no serious shortage was felt prior to the step, virtually no product that was sold Monday was not in the market the previous day.

One major difference, however, was noted: Prices of many products have dropped dramatically, ultimately leaving the blockade’s biggest earners, the smugglers, with significantly less business.

According to the Palestinian official in charge of the transfer of goods into Gaza, the number of trucks which entered the Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing on Monday was the same as in any other previous day – 130. Local residents and dealers are hardly surprised, seeing as the demand for goods must grow before any more trucks enter the area.

Currently, Gaza’s markets are short for nothing, as all missing provisions were supplied via the tunnels.

The main change is in the price levels. Tunnel products were always more expensive due to the risk factor, but with emerging competition rates are rapidly dropping.

I’m just waiting for UNRWA to come out and condemn Israel’s easing of the blockade for the adverse affect it will have on the smugglers’ livelihood.

8:00PM: Today’s Worst Misuse of the World ‘Celebrity’ award goes to:

A Chinese woman sits next to her drawings at an art district in Beijing, China, Monday, June 21, 2010. A drawing of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, bottom right, is seen along with other celebrities. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Unless ‘celebrity’ is also an Arabic word meaning “pedophile terrorist.”

7:52PM: Here we go again.

7:38PM: Great moments in MSM interviews: Courtesy of Fox News, last year.

3:44PM: Once again, the terrorists and their supporters have learned the lesson that violence works.

Organizers of the flotilla to Gaza are celebrating their victory  – after the government’s decision to ease the blockade, a leading activist who participated in the flotilla told Ynet on Monday that “the decisions of the Israeli government indicate that unfortunately, the pressure and violent outcome of the raid led to results.

“Without the deaths of activists on board the Marmara ship we might have not witnessed the results we see today,” the activist said.

—-

Vangelis Pisias, a Greek activist who participated in the flotilla said, “Israel got the violence like a boomerang, which led it to remove the blockade.”

1:00PM: Must-read article of the day:

Israel and the Surrender of the West

Shelby Steele

The most interesting voice in all the fallout surrounding the Gaza flotilla incident is that sanctimonious and meddling voice known as “world opinion.” At every turn “world opinion,” like a school marm, takes offense and condemns Israel for yet another infraction of the world’s moral sensibility. And this voice has achieved an international political legitimacy so that even the silliest condemnation of Israel is an opportunity for self-congratulation.

Rock bands now find moral imprimatur in canceling their summer tour stops in Israel (Elvis Costello, the Pixies, the Gorillaz, the Klaxons). A demonstrator at an anti-Israel rally in New York carries a sign depicting the skull and crossbones drawn over the word “Israel.” White House correspondent Helen Thomas, in one of the ugliest incarnations of this voice, calls on Jews to move back to Poland. And of course the United Nations and other international organizations smugly pass one condemnatory resolution after another against Israel while the Obama administration either joins in or demurs with a wink.

This is something new in the world, this almost complete segregation of Israel in the community of nations. And if Helen Thomas’s remarks were pathetic and ugly, didn’t they also point to the end game of this isolation effort: the nullification of Israel’s legitimacy as a nation? There is a chilling familiarity in all this. One of the world’s oldest stories is playing out before our eyes: The Jews are being scapegoated again.

“World opinion” labors mightily to make Israel look like South Africa looked in its apartheid era—a nation beyond the moral pale. And it projects onto Israel the same sin that made apartheid South Africa so untouchable: white supremacy. Somehow “world opinion” has moved away from the old 20th century view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a complicated territorial dispute between two long-suffering peoples. Today the world puts its thumb on the scale for the Palestinians by demonizing the stronger and whiter Israel as essentially a colonial power committed to the “occupation” of a beleaguered Third World people.

This is now—figuratively in some quarters and literally in others—the moral template through which Israel is seen. It doesn’t matter that much of the world may actually know better. This template has become propriety itself, a form of good manners, a political correctness. Thus it is good manners to be outraged at Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and it is bad manners to be outraged at Hamas’s recent attack on a school because it educated girls, or at the thousands of rockets Hamas has fired into Israeli towns—or even at the fact that Hamas is armed and funded by Iran. The world wants independent investigations of Israel, not of Hamas.

One reason for this is that the entire Western world has suffered from a deficit of moral authority for decades now. Today we in the West are reluctant to use our full military might in war lest we seem imperialistic; we hesitate to enforce our borders lest we seem racist; we are reluctant to ask for assimilation from new immigrants lest we seem xenophobic; and we are pained to give Western Civilization primacy in our educational curricula lest we seem supremacist. Today the West lives on the defensive, the very legitimacy of our modern societies requiring constant dissociation from the sins of the Western past—racism, economic exploitation, imperialism and so on.

When the Israeli commandos boarded that last boat in the flotilla and, after being attacked with metal rods, killed nine of their attackers, they were acting in a world without the moral authority to give them the benefit of the doubt. By appearances they were shock troopers from a largely white First World nation willing to slaughter even “peace activists” in order to enforce a blockade against the impoverished brown people of Gaza. Thus the irony: In the eyes of a morally compromised Western world, the Israelis looked like the Gestapo.

This, of course, is not the reality of modern Israel. Israel does not seek to oppress or occupy—and certainly not to annihilate—the Palestinians in the pursuit of some atavistic Jewish supremacy. But the merest echo of the shameful Western past is enough to chill support for Israel in the West.

The West also lacks the self-assurance to see the Palestinians accurately. Here again it is safer in the white West to see the Palestinians as they advertise themselves—as an “occupied” people denied sovereignty and simple human dignity by a white Western colonizer. The West is simply too vulnerable to the racist stigma to object to this “neo-colonial” characterization.

Our problem in the West is understandable. We don’t want to lose more moral authority than we already have. So we choose not to see certain things that are right in front of us. For example, we ignore that the Palestinians—and for that matter much of the Middle East—are driven to militancy and war not by legitimate complaints against Israel or the West but by an internalized sense of inferiority. If the Palestinians got everything they want—a sovereign nation and even, let’s say, a nuclear weapon—they would wake the next morning still hounded by a sense of inferiority. For better or for worse, modernity is now the measure of man.

And the quickest cover for inferiority is hatred. The problem is not me; it is them. And in my victimization I enjoy a moral and human grandiosity—no matter how smart and modern my enemy is, I have the innocence that defines victims. I may be poor but my hands are clean. Even my backwardness and poverty only reflect a moral superiority, while my enemy’s wealth proves his inhumanity.

In other words, my hatred is my self-esteem. This must have much to do with why Yasser Arafat rejected Ehud Barak’s famous Camp David offer of 2000 in which Israel offered more than 90% of what the Palestinians had demanded. To have accepted that offer would have been to forgo hatred as consolation and meaning. Thus it would have plunged the Palestinians—and by implication the broader Muslim world—into a confrontation with their inferiority relative to modernity. Arafat knew that without the Jews to hate an all-defining cohesion would leave the Muslim world. So he said no to peace.

And this recalcitrance in the Muslim world, this attraction to the consolations of hatred, is one of the world’s great problems today—whether in the suburbs of Paris and London, or in Kabul and Karachi, or in Queens, N.Y., and Gaza. The fervor for hatred as deliverance may not define the Muslim world, but it has become a drug that consoles elements of that world in the larger competition with the West. This is the problem we in the West have no easy solution to, and we scapegoat Israel—admonish it to behave better—so as not to feel helpless. We see our own vulnerability there.

5:55AM: Ma’an News reports:

Gaza government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told his legislative council Sunday that he was committed to national conciliation, but that “there are some parties that are still too immature to end Palestinian division.”

I guess he means parties such as the CFLP (Clown Front for the Liberation of Palestine):

..and the Al Aqsa Farfur Brigades:

The announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office noted that the committee would be headed by former Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Tirkel. The committee will be comprised of professor of international law and Israel Prize laureate Shabtai Rosen, and Brigadier General (res.) Amos Horev, former president of Haifa’s Technion.

Two foreign observers will also be appointed: Lord William David Trimble, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Ken Watkin, international lawyer and former judge advocate general for Canada. The observers will also take part in discussions and consultations.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the committee will:

1. Examine the security aspects of the naval blockade on Gaza and adjusting it in accordance with international law.
2. Examine Israel’s actions to enforce the naval blockade and prevent the international flotilla from reaching Gaza on May 31, 2010 with respect to international law.
3. Examine the actions of the organizers of the (Gaza) flotilla and identifying its participants.
4. Examine whether Israel’s process of looking into complaints of Israeli violations of the Laws of War – as was implemented during the said incident – corresponds with the country’s obligations vis-à-vis international law.

The PM said he was guided by two main principles in deciding on a public commission of inquiry into the Gaza sail events: “First of all, to maintain IDF soldiers’ free hand and protect the independence and credibility of the army’s operational probing body.

“Secondly, to provide a credible and independent response for questions raised by countries in the international community regarding the naval event and its compliance with international law norms,” he said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:00PM: Help save Mosab Yousef. Details here.

10:58PM: PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has condemned today’s terror attack, characterizing it as a “disgraceful act.”

Because it harms palestinians interests.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad denounced the shooting attack which took place south of Mt. Hebron Monday, calling it a “disgraceful act” and saying that the Palestinian Authority will continue to do all it can to prevent such incidents from taking place.

—-

Fayyad warned against deteriorating violence: “Past experience has proven that (violence) only hurts Palestinian interests and serves in favor of the Israeli settlement movement.”

The shooting, he added, contradicted the PA’s efforts to maintain Palestinian interests while living up to its obligations. “The Palestinian people is united in non-violent, pacifistic resistance against settlements, the occupation and the terrorist behavior of settlers.”

Terrorist behavior of “settlers”? Wow, talk about projection.

Meanwhile, the terror attack was perpetrated by Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, affiliated with our Fatah “peace partners.”

9:22PM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh is apparently a real romantic.

Gaza government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has reiterated his vow to find a Gaza wife for the Iraq journalist who threw a shoe at former US President George Bush, the Arabic language news site Elaph reported.

The Monday report said Haniyeh’s comments followed complaints from the journalist, Muntadhar Al-Zaidi, that the prime minister’s promise was “false propaganda,” and that he had yet to be hosted for his Gaza wedding.

In response, Haniyeh said “tell him [Al-Zaidi] that I am ready to host him in Gaza and take care of all his marriage expenses,” the news site quoted him as saying.

Al-Zaidi rose to prominence in 2008 after throwing his foot ware at Bush during his final news conference after a tour of Iraq and calling him a “dog.”

8:08PM: Real Hamas public advertisement warning people they will be killed if they look at porn, do drugs, or collaborate with Israel.

6:15PM: Last week, Iara Lee, a Brazilian-American filmmaker, posted one hour of unedited video online that shows the early stages of the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara.

While she seems to think it furthers the cause of those disputing Israel’s claims as to what transpired, it does nothing of the kind.

For a start, there is this bit of important information.

Since the camera was on a lower deck of the ship, it also shows but does not give a clear view of the violent confrontation and shootings that took place on the top deck of the ship, after Israeli commandos boarded from a helicopter and met with resistance from passengers on board. But the video, and accompanying audio, will help give a better sense of the timeline of the raid.

But more than that; as CIF Watch argues, it actually corroborates Israel’s version.

5:55PM: Quote of the day:

“Dark forces from the Middle Ages are raging against us. I have received calls from concerned officials in the Balkans and Eastern Europe who are very worried about these developments.”

“This committee strengthens our ability to fight in the international political arena. If we had done nothing, I assume we would have had worse problems in the world. There is a certain price we are paying, but under the present circumstances it is our best move.”

“The flotilla to Gaza was not a one-time thing. We find ourselves in the midst of a difficult and continuous battle against the State of Israel. The flood of hate is being led by Israel’s enemies all over the world.”

- Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after announcing the establishment of the inquiry committee to probe the IDF’s flotilla raid.

5:38PM: More on Command Sergeant Major Yehoshua (Shuki) Sofer, the policeman killed by terrorists, including the fact he was to be married in 3 months time.

4:56PM: Separated at birth?

12:32PM: One of the policemen shot in the terror attack this morning has died of his wounds.

12:22PM: More than 1000 people have gathered in Sydney to show their support for Israel and the country’s “fight against terrorism.”

Photo credit: Martin

9:42AM: TERROR ATTACK: Terrorists have shot at a police vehicle outside of Hebron, wounding 4 officers, in what looks like a planned ambush.

Two of the policemen were shot in the chest, another was lightly injured from gunshots, and the fourth policeman was hurt by shrapnel. They have been evacuated by helicopter to Hadassa hospital in Jerusalem, with the most seriously injured in critical condition.

Police and IDF forces are combing the area for the terrorists.

5:48AM: Steven Colbert takes on the Gaza flotilla incident and talks to Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren.

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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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