Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:08PM: Yet more media bias?

A Palestinian Hamas militant carrying a fake rocket takes part in a rally in the streets of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, 2009. A foreign worker has been killed after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a kibbutz in southern Israel, the Israeli army said. (AFP/File/Mohammed Abed)

Which begs the question: how does the AFP stringer know that this is a fake rocket? After all, the guy carrying it is a real Hamas “militant” (i.e. terrorist). It would be easier for him to carry the real deal, instead of go to the effort of creating a fake one.

Furthermore, it sure looks real to me.

8:16PM: The Elder of Moron opens his pie hole.

Former President Jimmy Carter on Thursday called US plans to mediate the dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians by shuttling back and forth between the two parties a “feeble effort” toward bringing lasting peace to the Middle East.

He also encouraged President Barack Obama’s White House to take a more balanced position in its relations with Israel.

“There’s no doubt that in general the United States government has been much more attuned to the sensitivities of the Israelis and has yielded excessively to the circumstances in the Holy Land as Israel has confiscated several lands within Palestine,” Carter said at the opening of a two-day conference on US-Arab relations.

Jimmy, peace off.

7:45PM: More media bias: It’s as if the caption writer here thought “Screw it, I am not going to even pretend.”

Palestinian children watch a Mickey Mouse look-alike who urges children to support armed resistance against Israel, at Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza May 13, 2007. . REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Armed resistance?

7:30PM: Those twits over at CNN have allowed antisemitic tweets to air to the public (hat tip: Marty Roberts).

5:44PM: Introducing Joe Biden: US Vice President and aspiring comedian.

“I just got back from five days in the Middle East,” Biden said. “I love to travel, but it’s great to be back to a place where a boom in housing construction is actually a good thing,” he said.

That’s really funny, especially to those who have lost their homes and may stand to lose their homes in future thanks to the US pressure on Israel.

You can see Biden’s entire “routine” here:

4:48PM: Ma’an News reports that sonic booms were heard over Gaza following today’s fatal rocket attack.

Sonic blasts over Gaza after projectile kills Thai worker

No strikes or injuries were reported after Gaza residents reported hearing what sounded like a dozen explosions across the Strip on Thursday, hours after the death of a Thai worker hit by projectile fire.

Notice the headline, which implies the projectile is responsible for the man’s death, instead of those who fired it.

Meanwhile, according to the same report, Fatah’s own Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, and not an Al Qaeda affiliated group as was reported by other media outlets.

4:38PM: Israel has promised a strong response after the rocket attack earlier today.

Smuggling tunnels, watch out.

1:18PM: BREAKING NEWS:Palestinian terrorists have killed a 30-year-old man after firing a Qassam rocket at Moshav Netiv Ha’asara in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council.

The man was a Thai foreign worker, and this was the third rocket to be fired into Israel in the last 24 hours.

The al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al-Suna Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

1:00PM: Media bias: It is clear from the plethora of “palestinian rage day” photos that the foreign press photographers are making a concerted effort to point out the young age of the protesters by referring to them as “youth” – such as here, here, and here (and even when their age may not be clear like here).

Here’s the latest example of this:

Young Palestinian stone-throwers run for cover as Israeli troops fire tear gas to disperse protesters in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Russia Thursday for crucial talks on clinching a new nuclear disarmament treaty between the Cold War foes and smoothing tensions in the Middle East. (AFP/Hazem Bader)

It seems clear to me they are mentioning this to reinforce the “David vs Goliath” narrative. After all, the Israeli troops could also be described as “young,” given they are usually 18-20 years of age. Besides, the foreign press has a history of doing this even when it’s a real stretch.

Another point: the caption writer describes them as “Young Palestinian stone-throwers,” even though the flames in the photo itself, as well as events shown in other photos, indicates their projectiles of choice extend beyond the earthen variety.

9:20AM: Jeffrey Goldberg argues that Obama is not trying to destroy the US-Israel relationship.

So what is the goal? The goal is force a rupture in the governing coalition that will make it necessary for Netanyahu to take into his government Livni’s centrist Kadima Party (he has already tried to do this, but too much on his terms) and form a broad, 68-seat majority in Knesset that does not have to rely on gangsters, messianists and medievalists for votes. It’s up to Livni, of course, to recognize that it is in Israel’s best interests to join a government with Netanyahu and Barak, and I, for one, hope she puts the interests of Israel ahead of her own ambitions.

Obama knows that this sort of stable, centrist coalition is the key to success. He would rather, I understand, not have to deal with Netanyahu at all — people near the President say that, for one thing, Obama doesn’t think that Netanyahu is very bright, and there is no chemistry at all between the two men — but he’d rather have a Netanyahu who is being pressured from his left than a Netanyahu who is being pressured from the right.

Now compare this to Obama’s approach to last year’s violence against Iranian protesters.

“It is not productive, given the history of US and Iranian relations to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections,” he said.

But when it comes to Israel, it’s meddle away!

By the way, Obama is dead wrong if he thinks Netanyahu is not bright.

6:05AM: Hamas has threatened a religious war.

Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Gaza-based government, threatened Tuesday that a religious war will enflame Israel, calling for an Arab-Palestinian campaign to stand with Jerusalem.

Speaking at a conference organized by his government in Gaza City, Haniyeh said that “what is happening now exposes the reality of Jerusalem’s future and the Jews’ plans.”

Notice how once again, a Hamashole leader has referred to “Jews”, not “Zionists.”

Meanwhile, if you are surprised by any of this, read the Hamas Charter. It’s all there.

5:56AM: Any fears of a similar crisis in Israel-Australia relations following passportgate (doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago given all the current focus on the new crisis?) can be put to rest. Or at least be put to the side for now.

Via the Australian Jewish News:

FEARS of a diplomatic fallout over the forged passport affair don’t seem to have hampered trade between Israel and Australia.

Israeli company Elbit Systems, which supplies the Israel Defence Forces, was this week granted the $349 million contract to supply command, control and communications systems to the Australian Army.

Australian Minister for Defence Personnel Greg Combet said the deal is a big step forward for the Australian Defence Forces (ADF).

“The introduction of this new capability will increase the ADF’s battle space awareness, automate combat messaging and assist in the successful conduct of operations,” Combet said.

Not only is the relationship a trade one, but some of the contract will be completed in Australia.

“Systems integration testing will be performed in Melbourne, while vehicle integration into over 1000 army vehicles will occur in Brisbane,” Combet said.

The new system will provide new technology in battle to more than 1500 Australian soldiers and it will also be rolled out in the Royal Australian Air Force.

Elbit CEO Joseph Ackerman said the order would be completed over the next three years.

“Australia is a very important market for Elbit Systems, and we are extremely proud to be selected by the Department of Defence for this major program,” Ackerman said.

5:50AM: Yossi Klein Halevi looks at the crisis. Or as President Obama prefers to call it, a “disagreement” between friends.

Excerpt:

Why, then, the outbreak of violence now? Why Hamas’s “day of rage” over Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority’s call to gather on the Temple Mount to “save” the Dome of the Rock from non-existent plans to build the Third Temple? Why the sudden outrage over rebuilding a synagogue, destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948, in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, when dozens of synagogues and yeshivas have been built in the quarter without incident?

The answer lies not in Jerusalem but in Washington. By placing the issue of building in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem at the center of the peace process, President Obama has inadvertently challenged the Palestinians to do no less.

Astonishingly, Obama is repeating the key tactical mistake of his failed efforts to restart Middle East peace talks over the last year. Though Obama’s insistence on a settlement freeze to help restart negotiations was legitimate, he went a step too far by including building in East Jerusalem. Every Israeli government over the last four decades has built in the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem; no government, let alone one headed by the Likud, could possibly agree to a freeze there. Obama made resumption of negotiations hostage to a demand that could not be met. The result was that Palestinian leaders were forced to adjust their demands accordingly.

Obama is directly responsible for one of the most absurd turns in the history of Middle East negotiations. Though Palestinian leaders negotiated with Israeli governments that built extensively in the West Bank, they now refused to sit down with the first Israeli government to actually agree to a suspension of building. Obama’s demand for a building freeze in Jerusalem led to a freeze in negotiations.

Finally, after intensive efforts, the administration produced the pathetic achievement of “proximity talks”—setting Palestinian-Israeli negotiations back a generation, to the time when Palestinian leaders refused to sit at the same table with Israelis.

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

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

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

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”

Aboul Gheit reportedly said Israel’s willingness to give the Palestinians “100 percent of the West Bank” and the readiness to discuss Arab Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine indicate “openness, goodwill and a change compared to the past.”

Sounds like the Egyptians are happy. It’s a shame it is our lives at stake if this is actually true.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:50PM: According to Iran’s Press TV, a group called the Iran Royal Association – “an obscure monarchist group that seeks to reestablish the Pahlavi reign in Iran – announced in a statement that its “Tondar Commandos” were behind the assassination of Massoud Mohammadi.

10:45PM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh has called on other Gaza-based palestinian terror groups to stop firing rockets into Israel. Presumably to allow Hamas time to regroup until they decide they are again ready for the next round of fighting.

7:52PM: Photo of the day: Has to be this beauty of our Huge Zionist Spider of Death^TM (See 5:30PM update)

7:46PM: Israel’s relations with Turkey are rapidly heading south.

Turkey’s ambassador to Israel, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, told MK Talab El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al) on Tuesday he is scheduled to return to Turkey for consultations regarding the most recent diplomatic incident, and that he may not return.

El-Sana spoke to the ambassador on the phone following the latter’s meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who summoned Celikkol to be reprimanded and was seen by many to have humiliated him in the process.

—-

In a letter addressed to Israel’s ambassador in Turkey, Gabby Levy, the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said it expects and Israeli “explanation and apology.”

“We hope that the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which has assumed an undiplomatic attitude in its statements, will comply with diplomatic courtesy rules,” a statement from Ankara said.

Earlier Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s statement regarding remarks made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.

The communiqué issued in Ankara said that Jerusalem’s statement was issued for internal political purposes and crossed far over the boundaries. Turkey’s official news agency Anatolia emphasized that Erdogan only criticized Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and stressed the historic ties between the Turks and Jews.

Yeah, right. And the anti-Semitic television shows they are allowing to be shown in Turkey are mere criticism of Israel’s action?

Stuff Turkey.

6:15PM: Sorry, the story on the largest spider in the Middle East (see 5:30PM update) has inspired me to post this (bad language warning)

6:08PM: Hamas has admitted that an explosion that killed one of their terrorists and wounded three others was a case of premature explodation, and not death by Zionist as initial reports indicated.

6:00PM: The plot thickens.

A nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election was killed Tuesday when a remote-controlled bomb rigged to a motorcycle blew up outside his home.

State media identified the victim as Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, a professor at Tehran University, which has been at the center of recent protests by student opposition supporters. Before the election, pro-reform Web sites published Ali Mohammadi’s name among a list of 240 Tehran University teachers who supported Mousavi.

The government blamed the bombing on an armed Iranian opposition group that it said operated under the direction of Israel and the US. Iran often accuses both countries of meddling in its affairs – both when it comes to postelection unrest and its nuclear program. Israel’s foreign ministry had no comment.

Reflecting the internal tension that grew out of election, hard-line government supporters called at recent street rallies for the execution of opposition leaders.

5:30PM: Introducing our latest weapon: Huge Zionist Spider of Death.^TM

The good news is that a new species of spiders – the largest of its kind in the Middle East – has been discovered by biologists at the University of Haifa.

The bad news is that the spider – grayish with black bands over its “knees” and the tips of its legs – lives in a sandy environment that is disappearing, thus it could be facing extinction.

Dr. Uri Shines, who headed the research team, said on Monday that unfortunately, “there may be other unknown species that will be wiped out before we can discover them.”

The latest type of spider, of the Cerbalus family, was found in the Samar sand dune in the southern Arava. It is the last dune left in the region, said Shines. In the past, the sand dunes covered 7 square kilometers, but as the area has turned into agriculture land and the sand has been collected for construction, fewer than 3 square kilometers are left.

Shines and his team named the spider, whose eight legs can spread up to 14 centimeters apart, the Cerbalus aravensis.

Even though too few of the species have been found to learn much about its biological behavior or the number of Cerbalus aravensis spiders in Israel, the researchers have already learned that it is nocturnal, especially during the warmer months of the year. It has also been found to dig a home in the ground that it covers with a well-disguised “door,” which can be raised like the top of a foot-pedalled garbage can.

The University of Haifa team called for protecting the remaining sand dunes in the Arava, as the area is unique.

1:20PM: Here is Press TV on the nuclear physicist who came off second best after an encounter with a bomb.

The interview subject puts forward the view that Mohammadi was killed by what he calls a “terrorist organization” such as the MEK, backed by the US and Israel, rather than it being a direct Mossad hit.

12:00PM: An Iranian nuclear physicist has been killed by a bomb, with Iran quick to blame the US and Israel a.k.a Big Satan and Little Satan.

A professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University was killed Tuesday by a bomb-rigged motorcycle parked outside his home in Iran’s capital, state media reported. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB blamed Israel and the US for the bombing.

Massoud Mohammadi had just left his house on his way to work when the explosion went off, state-run Press TV said.

The blast shattered the windows of his home in northern Tehran’s Qeytariyeh neighborhood and left the pavement outside smeared with blood. The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as confirming the killing.

Neither report said whether Mohammadi was connected to Iran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.

The Press TV report described Mohammadi was “a staunch supporter” of the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah and brought Islamic clerics to power.

Meanwhile, Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB said the bomb was planted by “Zionist and American agents”, without giving a source for the information.

“The assassination of Mr Massoud Mohammadi, a nuclear scientist and a committed and revolutionary Tehran University professor, was detonated by a remote control,” IRIB said on its website.

“As a result of the bomb planted by Zionist and American agents two cars and a motorcycle were severely damaged and the windows in the surrounding residential units were shattered,” it said. Iran usually refers to Israel as the “Zionist regime.”

Meanwhile, according to Press TV, there is another reason for suspecting Israel – besides the fact they blame everything on us.

Press TV correspondent Amir Mehdi Kazemi, reporting from the scene of the assassination, quoted security officials as saying that the equipment and system of the bomb used in the attack had been related to a number of foreign intelligence agencies, particularly Israel’s Mossad.

What is clear to me is if it was the Mossad, then Mohammadi was connected to the Iranian nuclear program.

And they deserve our congratulations.

9:50AM: Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has been criticized after breaking from some diplomatic norms in the way he addressed the Turkish Ambassador with Israel’s concerns over the latest anti-Semitic television show being shown in Turkey.

In the face of harsh criticism over his conduct Monday evening at a meeting with Turkish Ambassador Oguz Celikkol, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon refused to apologize, saying Tuesday morning that he “didn’t want to humiliate him, but merely to convey a message”

Ayalon had summoned the envoy to the Knesset to express outrage over a new Turkish television show that depicts Mossad agents as baby-snatchers, and in a break from the diplomatic norm, invited the press for a photo-op, during which he was seen telling the cameramen to film him and his aide sitting on tall chairs, and the Turkish envoy on a lower chair, with the Israeli flag in the middle.

The ambassador was also filmed waiting in a corridor for the meeting to begin, and when it did, he was offered nothing to drink or eat.

Ayalon called Celikkol for the meeting before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had issued yet more scathing criticism of Israel, and set the meeting at the Knesset, and not in the Foreign Ministry as is generally the case in these types of situations.

Army Radio quoted officials in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning as calling Ayalon’s conduct is “harmful to the strategic interests” with Ankara.

Former Israeli ambassador to Turkey Alon Liel told the station that “a new sort of diplomacy” had been invented, and that Lieberman had “made up a new way of reprimanding.”

“This time, they made him sit on a low chair, next time maybe they’ll make him crawl, and who knows, maybe the time after that they’ll beat him up at the entrance,” he said.

Ayalon himself openly admitted that he and Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman had planned the details of the encounter, but told the radio station that such behavior was “standard diplomatic conduct,” and offered no apology.

“I won’t apologize. It’s the Turks who should – for what [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said and for the television series,” Ayalon said. “We are merely setting boundaries.”

Celikkol, according to Turkish sources, did not even know beforehand the reason for the meeting. One official said that the whole episode was an “act of humiliation.”

After the meeting, Ayalon said he told Celikkol that the television show, “against the backdrop of the very, very anti-Israeli rhetoric by the most senior officials in Turkey, not only harm relations, but also endanger the Jewish community in Turkey, the Israeli diplomats there, to say nothing of the Israeli tourists who visit there.”

According to Ayalon’s office, he told Celikkol the show was “intolerable.”

Celikkol said he would pass on Israel’s protests to Ankara.

Meanwhile, Ayalon has addressed the incident on Twitter, introducing this article with the words (translated from Hebrew):

I do not think I went too far and I do not express remorse. Only if we stand on our honor, others will honor us

6:10AM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak yesterday said that deployment of the Iron Dome missile defense system along the border with Gaza will prevent the repeat of conflicts with the palestinians caused in the past by Qassam rocket attacks.

Barak, together with his predecessor MK Amir Peretz, who made the original decision to develop Iron Dome, received a briefing from Defense Ministry and IDF officials on last week’s final testing of the system. During the test, the Iron Dome, which will be deployed along the Gaza border by June, succeeded in intercepting barrages of Kassams, Katyushas and mortar shells.

“The inability to intercept rockets forced the State of Israel in the past to enter into conflicts or large-scale operations that would not have been necessary if we had the ability to intercept the rockets,” Barak said, thanking Peretz for making the difficult decision more than three years ago to develop the system.

Barak stressed that it would take years before the new defense system was fully deployed along the Gaza and Lebanese borders – but that once in place, the system would significantly reduce the chances of hostilities.

“We cannot create the illusion that tomorrow morning there will be full protection for the Gaza periphery or the North, or elsewhere,” he said. “It will take years before we are fully equipped. But in the coming years, Iron Dome will become part of the IDF’s defense mechanisms for the citizens and civilians on the home front, as well as for military sites.”

Iron Dome would “save time… and deter in many cases a potential enemy from actually launching an attack,” Barak said.

Amir Peretz? Go figure!

Meanwhile, here are the first images of the recent successful Iron Dome Test.

According to palestinian medics, one palestinian was killed, two were wounded and several others were feared trapped inside the ruins.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

2:50PM: Egypt has engaged in some garbage disposal and prevention.

Egypt has declared renegade British politician George Galloway persona non grata, accusing him of incitement after his harsh criticism of Cairo over delays in an aid convoy’s entry into Gaza.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Friday said Galloway will not be allowed to enter Egypt again. The activist left Egypt that morning from Cairo airport.

I’m sure this speech didn’t help matters.

11:28AM: Another humanitarian gesture on the part of the IDF.

In a joint effort of Israeli and Syrian authorities, a Druze doctor on Thursday was brought to burial in Israel after living in Syria for the past 30 years. The doctor, Afif Jamal al A’aur, was born in the Golan Heights village of Bukata and passed away last Monday. He was in his 50s. The deceased was transferred to Israel  via the Red Cross and was laid to rest in his native village.

In 1977, al A’aur left his village and moved to Syria in order to attend medical school. His parents and brothers stayed behind. After completing his studies, al A’aur married in Syria and had two children.

After 1982, he was forbidden to return to Israel and began working as a doctor in the Druze village of Suwayda, near Damascus.

Once receiving word of al A’aur’s death, his family members turned to Israeli authorities and requested that they allow their loved one to be buried in Israel. The family members turned to Deputy Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ayoob Kara, who initiated talks with representatives of the Red Cross as well as the ministries of interior, defense and health.

“As part of efforts to boost relations and open the Quneitra Crossing for humanitarian and economic purposes, as well as for the passage of religious figures, students and apples from the northern Golan Heights to Syria, there was a true willingness to allow a deceased person’s body to be returned for burial in his native village,” said Kara.

IDF sources stated that al A’aur’s body was permitted to be returned to Israel as a humanitarian gesture and with full permission and cooperation of the Red Cross.

8:52AM: Someone please show Galloway the way to the gallows..

Left-wing British politician George Galloway (L) is greeted by senior Hamas leader Ismail Hanyieh during a rally honouring international peace activists in Gaza City January 7, 2010. Egypt has reached a deal with members of an aid convoy, led by Galloway, to take supplies to Palestinians in Gaza after protests overnight, but Cairo barred their private cars from crossing, an Egyptian security source said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

An international “peace activist” cosying up to the leader of a terror organization whose charter states, amongst other things:

Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors (preamble).

And:

[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement….There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad (article 13)

8:38AM: Class is in session: Media bias 101.

• 5,664,000 Jews (75.4%)
• 1,526,000 Arabs (20.3%)
• 319,000 (4.3%) other

Other Israeli population facts:

• 30% of the population is under the age of 14 and 9.7% is over the age of 65, compared to 17% and 15% respectively in most other Western countries.
• Average Jewish family size increased since 2008, from 2.8 children per household to 2.96.
• Average Muslim family size dropped since 2008, from 3.97 children per household to 3.84.
• There are 979 men for every 1000 women

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:05PM: Terrorists in Gaza have fired at least one Grad rocket into the southern Israeli town of Netivot.

Although the Color Red early warning system did not go off – giving residents no warning – no one was hurt nor was there any damage.

Which I guess means the attack never happened according to the international community.

4:56PM: According to Ma’an News, Hamas has rejected Israel’s latest terms for a terrorists-for-Gilad Shalit exchange, but has told the German mediator they were willing to continue talks.

4:52PM: Photo of the day:

Ho ho ho…KABOOM!

4:50PM: From the Department of Mistakes That Will Get You Killed:

The Iranian football federation sent its Israeli counterpart a new year’s greeting on Thursday, Army Radio reported, in what a Tehran official described as a mistake.

Mohammad Ali Ardebili, director of foreign relations for the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told Army Radio that he had not intended to send the missive to the Israel Football Association.

“It is a greeting sent to every country in the world,” Ardebili said. He quickly then inquired: “Are you talking from Israel? I can’t speak with you. It’s a mistake, it’s a mistake.”

The greeting was received in Israel by the head of the Israel Football Association’s legal department, Amir Navon.

“He came into my office asking me if I thought it was a mistake,” said body spokesman Gil Levanoni. “So I told him that I didn’t know, but that we should send in a reply.”

Levanoni and Navon said they replied to the greeting with a “happy new year to all the good people of Iran,” and said: “We also added a wink.”

“We wrote them that we hoped that they would have a happy soccer year,” Levanoni added.

4:15PM: Regular readers know I refer to the so-called prop-palestinian “activists” as terror enablers, since they either directly enable terror by acting as human shields, otherwise undermining Israel’s security, or at the very least by emboldening the terrorists.

What better proof of this last aspect can there be than this comment by Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh?

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday told activists gathered on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the Gaza Strip border that residents of the besieged territory had not given up hope and would never stop fighting for a state with Jerusalem as its capital.

“Because of international solidarity and your support, we have become stronger,” Haniyeh declared. “The Palestinian nation will never give up its national aspirations or its right to Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine and the Islamic people.”

Meanwhile, it should be noted that these “activists” included Israeli Arabs and even members of the Knesset.

Haniyeh spoke to the 300 Israeli activists positioned at the Erez crossing via Israeli Arab MK Taleb A-Sana’s mobile phone. On the Gazan side of the border, nearly 100 international activists joined about 500 Palestinians, chanting and carrying signs denouncing the blockade.

During the rally, MK Jamal Zahalka threw harsh criticism at Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who he said enjoys “classical music and killing children in Gaza.

I fully agree with Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch:

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch turned to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and asked him to file charges against MK El-Sana for supporting a terror organization.

“After the minister learned of the phone call in which he broadcast the evil words of the Hamas leader, he sent an urgent letter to Mazuz, demanding that he prosecute him for supporting a terror organization,” an official at Aharonovitch’s office said.

“We cannot accept a situation in which every person, let alone a Knesset member in the State of Israel, serves as a pipeline for a terror organization whose only goal is to destroy the State of Israel. There is a limit to cynicism.

“Enforcing the law is the internal security minister’s supreme value, and we view this as a blatant offense. Even the bill for the phone the call was made on is paid by the State of Israel.”

11:15AM: Meet an African Israeli hero.

The orphaned son of an Israeli man and a Kenyan woman was saved by Israel and is returning the favor

Today, Cpl. Arusi Madalya speaks Hebrew fluently and is a combat soldier in the Givati Brigade. But his life was not always so typically Israeli. Arusi grew up in Kenya, became an orphan after a tragic car accident killed both his parents, and was left alone with no family and no means of support.

The inspiring story of how he came to be the man he is today begins in the port city of Mombassa, Kenya, which he describes as a mixture of sunshine and games. His father, the late Moshe Madalya, left Israel in order to open a business in the tourist city. He opened a restaurant and it was while looking for a chef for the restaurant that he met Josephine Malasi, a local woman. After dating for five years, the two of them got married and brought Arusi into the world. “My mother was Christian, and as a child I celebrated the Christian holidays and the Kenyan national holidays even though they gave me a Brit Milah (Jewish circumcision),” he says. “I have three siblings, one sister from my mother’s previous marriage and two Israeli brothers from my father’s previous marriage, but they are not in touch with me.”

“At home I spoke English and in school I learned Swahili, and because I grew up around many tourists I also know a bit of German and French,” Arusi says. “My parents worked together in the restaurant my father opened, and they also worked as cooks in a hotel in the city.” Despite his father’s past, Arusi did not hear a lot of stories about Israel. “Every time they would talk about Israel in the History classes they would say that I was ‘the son of someone who came from the Holy Land’ and they would ask me questions about Israel but I couldn’t answer. I remember that one evening I was watching CNN with my parents and they showed the Western Wall. My father told me that he too had been a soldier in the Paratroopers’ Brigade and that in the Six Day War he was in the first squadron that entered Jerusalem,“ Arusi remembers.

“I already had a feeling that something bad had happened”

One year, when the academic year was coming to a close, Arusi’s school held a Parents’ Day. All of the parents were supposed to arrive for meetings with the teachers. “I was 16 years old,” Arusi recalls. “At that time my father was working in the hotel restaurant and had just opened an additional restaurant. In addition, my father’s business manager stole the money he had set aside for the business. He had a lot on his mind at that time.”

Arusi, who at the time did not know about his father’s problems, waited for his parents at the school. Arusi waited a while until his father’s friends came to the school to get him. “I was angry that neither of them had arrived. My father’s friends came, took me aside and told me that they wanted to talk to me about my mother and my father. I already had a feeling that something bad had happened,” Arusi recalls. His father’s friends had come to tell him that on their way to the school, his parent’s car was hit by a truck. They took Arusi and even from far away he could already see the crash site. “When we stopped there, my heart also stopped,” Arusi remembers. “I tried to convince myself that we just happened to stop by the side of the road, and the entire time I kept telling myself ‘please don’t tell me that that’s them’. They took me aside, told me what had happened and I fainted. Even when I woke up and arrived home I didn’t believe it and I waited to see my parents but the house was empty.”

After his parents’ death, Arusi was all alone. The Israeli children from his father’s previous marriage did not want any connection with him, and his mother’s family lived hundreds of kilometers away from Mombassa with no money to help him. He had no choice. Arusi left his studies and began working to survive. “In the beginning I worked a lot and earned very little money,” he remembers. “I always loved to dance and after I saw a movie about street dancing, a friend and I had the idea to form a break-dance group called ‘Nice and Slow’. We began performing in clubs all throughout Kenya and it was a big hit. That’s how I met my girlfriend Jamima. I moved in with her family and returned to school to finish high school.”

After he began getting used to his new life, Arusi received a phone call from the Israeli Embassy in Kenya. “They called so that I would return my father’s passport,” Arusi says. “They also told me that in my father’s will, he requested that the State of Israel would help me if I were ever to be left alone. Apparently when I was 18 years old they had tried to move me to Israel but at the time it was not possible, and since then the procedure had changed. In order to be Israeli, they told me that I would have to give up my Kenyan citizenship, but in fact I did not even have a Kenyan passport. I arrived at the Embassy and received an Israeli passport. I was so excited, in Kenya a passport is an extremely rare thing. I had to leave Kenya within 24 hours. I took a small bag with me and that was it, because they told me I would be taken care of once I arrived in Israel.”

A surprising welcome

Arusi’s arrival in the Holy Land was not easy. Despite the fact that he had with him a letter from the Embassy, when he landed and they saw that he had an Israeli passport with no previous signatures, the police arrested him. Furthermore, because he did not know how to speak Hebrew, it was very hard for him to try to explain himself. Once the misunderstanding was solved, Arusi met his sister Jaqueline from his mother’s previous marriage, who lives in Israel with her daughter Stav and works in the Kenyan Embassy in Israel. “I lived with her for a little bit of time in Tel Aviv,” Arusi says. “After about a month I received a phone call telling me to go to Jerusalem, and from there I would go to live on a kibbutz and study in a Hebrew course. I lived and learned in Kibbutz Na’an for six months, after which I waited a year to enlist.”

Once he knew Hebrew and was familiar with the country from various trips, Arusi enlisted. Before he even really knew the place he would put his life in danger for, he already knew he would enlist out of obligation. But since that time, the picture has changed. “I always saw soldiers in the movies and I wanted to be one, to acquire the skills and the discipline that soldiers have. But the more time I spent in Israel, the more I also wanted to contribute as much as possible to the country that saved me,” Arusi says.

Arusi’s military service began in the Mihve Alon training base. There he understood that he really wanted to be in a combat unit. The General Staff Reconnaissance Unit especially appealed to him. “I was good and I tried twice to be accepted to go to tryouts, I passed the tests that day but my Hebrew wasn’t good enough,” Arusi explains. “In the end I got to the Paratroopers’ Brigade, where my father served. There, too, I didn’t give up and I got to the Maglan elite unit.” After a year and a half, Arusi left the Maglan Unit because of disciplinary issues and he was brought in for an interview with the previous Givati Brigade Tzabar Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Oren Zini. “In that discussion it was decided that I would try being in his battalion for two months. I arrived to the support squadron and fell in love on the spot. Everyone accepted me so warmly,” Arusi says.

“The difference between Maglan and Givati was significant. In the elite forces it was really competitive, and here in the battalion it’s different, everyone is family and from the moment I arrived I haven’t once looked back. When I had financial problems at home, everyone pitched in here to help me. Here we love one another unconditionally. I am happy here with my friends, and a bonded unit like this is impossible to stop. The brothers from my father’s side showed me that they didn’t want any connection with me, and here I found the family I was searching for. Here it’s the real thing.”

When he thinks about the beginning of his path, he remembers how hard it was. “After every tough week or difficult advanced training, I saw that everyone around me would call home to their family or friends and I didn’t have that. I had a phone but it was used mainly to get incoming calls from the army,” Arusi tells. “I know that if my mother and father could see me they would be very proud of me. My father especially would have gone crazy with excitement if he could have seen me in uniform, he would have picked me up in the air from all the excitement, and my mother would have worried about me but would have been supportive. I know that I would have brought them a lot of respect.”

As a son of two chefs, the homesickness for his mother’s Kenyan food grew. “My mother would cook more traditional food and my father loved to make Italian food,” he tells. The food Arusi misses the most is Ugali, a dish made with corn flour, which his mother used to prepare. “Kitchens always remind me of my parents, and that is where I feel comfortable. Whenever it was my turn to work in the military kitchen everyone wanted me to stay there. When I went to the homes of Ethiopian friends from my platoon, I got to know the dish Anjara. My adopted family in Kfar Aza, where I now live, introduced me to the deliciousness of Jahnun. My goal now is to bring Ugali to my squadron.”

And Arusi’s aspirations don’t stop there. In the future he wants to go become an officer and continue to serve in the squadron. If that will not be possible he wants to join the Israel Security Agency or the Special Police Unit. His main desire is to give of himself to the country that took care of him when he was alone. Soon Arusi will begin the conversion process. Next year Arusi will fly to visit his family in his birthplace, temporarily leaving behind his home in Kfar Aza, his adopted family and the girlfriend he met during his Hebrew course. In conclusion, Arusi says: “I am constantly thinking about what my parents would say if they could see me at different stages in my life, but I’m sure they are always looking down on me from above.”

6:02AM: Terror enabler George Galloway loses his (already short) temper with an Al Jizz reporter.

Here’s hoping he bursts a blood vessel in that ugly noggin of his.

In a speech marking the first anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, Ismail Haniyeh turned to “the air force hero” (Mubarak was the commander of the Egyptian Air Force during the Yom Kippur War) and told him, “We are not threatening Egypt’s security, we are not interfering in Egypt’s matters, and we were forced to use the tunnels as an exceptional default option due to the situation we were pushed into.”

Sounds like an admission from Haniyeh that had Hamas been threatening Egyptian security, then the fence would be valid. Hmm..

Meanwhile, in yet another indication of the Goldstone Report’s bias against Israel, Haniyeh once again insisted that the world implement it.

Haniyeh called on the world to implement the Goldstone Report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza. He asked the international community and the United Nations secretary to work to prosecute “the Israeli war criminals.”

Think about the absurdity for a second. Hamas, the terrorist organization that fired thousands of rockets from population centers into Israeli towns and cities, from territory Israel unilaterally withdrew from, is keen to have the report implemented since it knows the report accused Israel of worse things than Hamas.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:02PM: Israel National News reports:

Noam Arnon, a spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hevron, told Arutz Sheva about a very unusual guest who came to show his support on Monday.

Making the trip from Italy to Hevron for the second time in recent years, the head of the Italian Muslim Assembly, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi met with local Jewish leaders in a show of solidarity. The sheikh, an Italian national who received his Islamic education from leading mainstream Saudi and Egyptian Sunni institutions, believes that his religion obligates its followers to support Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. In support of his position, Sheikh Palazzi quotes Koranic passages and traditions that affirm God’s assignment of this land for the Jews.

As Palazzi has written of himself, he is “a Zionist Muslim clergyman and a friend of the Jewish people.”

8:15PM: They are just so predictable.

7:50PM: George Galloway and his so-called international aid convoy on route to Gaza have declared a hunger strike to protest Egypt’s refusal to allow them entry into Gaza via the Red Sea.

Well, kind of.

Alice Howard, a spokeswoman for British-based Viva Palestina, said the group was consuming only liquids, as it remained stranded in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.

Oh c’mon, cretins! You’re doing it all wrong. If you are going to go on a hunger strike, go the whole hog (so to speak). No liquids for you!

Fellow anti-Israel terror enabler and former Free Gazanik Lauren Booth has offered these words of encouragement:

Congratulations to Galloway and all those on the Viva Palestina for their refusal to turn back from Gaza and their brave hunger strike

Easy for her to say. I bet she’s never gone on a hunger strike in her life.

Meanwhile, the moonbats have complained they are besieged.

“We have a lot of police surrounding us – we are besieged,” Ziyaad Lunat said, speaking from outside the UN compound on Cairo’s Mourad Street.

Which goes to show you they think everything is a siege.

5:48PM: Photo of the Day:

What would that individual know about women?

</scary>

5:42PM: Kadima has announced it won’t be accepting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s offer for the party to join the government, but are open to the idea under different conditions.

5:30PM: Meet the kibbutz that is saving American soldiers’ lives.

1:30PM: The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister’s Bureau has gone and elfed themselves.

Xmas style.

Now I see Israeli President Shimon Peres meant it when he wished “all of us” a Merry Xmas.

12:55PM: Coming soon: Intifada 3: The Wrath of Fatah?

The killing of the three Fatah operatives in Nablus by the IDF over the weekend could trigger a third intifada, Fatah officials warned on Sunday.

But the new intifada, they said, would be different from the first two – this time it would be directed against the Palestinian Authority.

During the funerals of the three men, all veteran members and leaders of Fatah’s armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, thousands of Palestinians chanted slogans accusing the PA of collusion with Israel and calling for an end to security coordination with Israel and the dismantling of the PA.

For several hours during the funerals, which took place in Nablus, it seemed as if the PA and not the IDF had killed the three men. It was, in the words of a local journalist, “one of the biggest anti-Palestinian Authority demonstrations” in many years.

The relationship between the PA and local Fatah activists has always been tense. Nablus and its surrounding refugee camps, especially Balata refugee camp, has long been a stronghold for disgruntled Fatah militiamen who occasionally vent their frustration against the PA leadership and security forces.

For years during the second intifada, Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, was controlled by dozens of Fatah gunmen and thugs who imposed a reign of terror on wealthy clans.

Many local families did not hide their satisfaction when IDF troops raided the city during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and killed or arrested scores of Fatah gunmen, including the infamous Ahmed Tabouk, one of the leaders of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

In the context of its efforts to restore law and order to the city, the PA offered four years ago to recruit many of the gunmen to various branches of its security forces if they agreed to lay down their weapons.

The PA also managed to persuade Israel to stop pursuing those gunmen who agreed to hand over their weapons and abandon violence.

In return, the PA took on itself the mission of holding the “pardoned” gunmen in one of its security installations for a limited time and as a first step toward granting them total freedom of movement.

Most of the Fatah gunmen who complied were added to the PA’s payroll, but not all were happy with the arrangement. Some complained that the PA had broken its promise to appoint them to senior positions in its security forces, while others said that their salaries were too low. Others complained that despite their agreement to surrender their weapons and open a new page in their lives, Israeli security forces were continuing to target them.

Friends and relatives of the Fatah operatives who were killed in the recent IDF operation accused the PA of failing to fulfill its “commitments” to give them more money and good jobs. Some did not rule out the possibility that the Fatah cell that murdered Rabbi Meir Chai last week had received money from an “outside” party, such as Hizbullah or even Hamas.

In the past, there were a number of cases where Fatah militiamen in the West Bank openly admitted to receiving funds from Hizbullah. The gunmen justified their action by arguing that the PA had failed to “compensate” them for the “sacrifices” they made in the fight against Israel.

The killing of the three men is now being exploited by leading figures in Fatah to incite against the PA leadership in Ramallah. One of the main instigators is Husam Khader, a charismatic and extremely popular Fatah operative from Balata who has long been attacking the PA and its security forces, accusing them of financial and moral corruption and collaboration with Israel.

Khader and another senior Fatah operative, Kadoura Fares of Ramallah, are convinced that continued cooperation with Israel on security matters would eventually turn Palestinians against the PA leadership. The two, along with many of their followers in Fatah, believe that a third intifada is on its way, but that this time it would be directed against the PA and not Israel.

Furthermore, Abbas and the PA have been playing a dangerous game of cooperating with Israel on certain issues (such as encouraging us to take out Hamas during Operation Cast Lead) and working against us (by continuing incitement against us and turning a blind eye to terror attacks).

I can’t say I’d be sorry if there was more palestinian infighting. It tends to distract them from their favorite occupation: killing Jews.

The UN is currently marking the historic date of November 29 1947, the day in which it approved the partition plan separating Israel into two states – Jewish and Arabic.

But while in Israel the date is celebratory, as it marks the end of the British mandate and the beginning of independent rule, the UN headquarters in New York and Geneva are holding ceremonies of mourning and solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The General Assembly in New York has embarked on a two-day marathon of anti-Israeli debates and votes, during which it plans to focus on the promotion of the Palestinian issue. Hearings will be held on subjects such as sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Israel has traditionally boycotted the debates due to their one-sidedness, but in recent years has changed its tune. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, is scheduled to speak before the assembly Tuesday and condemn the UN tradition of memorializing the date on which Israel was given a state as a day of mourning.

—-

The special debates are scheduled to begin Monday evening, and resolutions will be approved on the following day. Each year six of the 20 annual anti-Israel resolutions are passed by the November 29 assembly.

In addition, the UN will hold ceremonies and exhibitions on the Palestinian people and show a film on the subject.

Need I say any more?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:58PM: Terrorist Samir Kuntar has some words of advice for the terrorists who captured Gilad Shalit: Don’t worry, Israel will cave in.

Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese who murdered the Haran family in Nahariya and was later released from Israeli prison in exchange  for the bodies of captured soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, learned from his own experience just how much Israel is willing to pay for the return of its captured soldiers.

He assured the Palestinians that Israel will ultimately capitulate to the demands being put forth by the organizations holding captured soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Kuntar, who made the hajj to Mecca, spoke with an Islamic Jihad online reporter in Saudi Arabia: “The prisoner swap deal will be an honorable deal. The enemy’s government will consent to the names demanded by the resistance organizations and to the number of prisoners. But the organizations need to stand their ground, be insistent, and not agree to any concession because concessions will draw additional concessions.”

Kuntar addressed the prisoners currently jailed in Israel with a recommendation that they be patient. “I spent 30 years in jail, and I ultimately got to see freedom,” he said.

Someone really needs to take him out (And I don’t mean to a restaurant).

And speaking of eating, here is a picture of Kuntar today.

And here he is while in an Israeli prison.

I’d say he was better fed by Israel.

3:00PM: From the Jerusalem Post.

Yep, looks pretty frozen to me.

12:25PM: The Chinese think more dialogue, not sanctions, is needed to resolve the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, after Teheran announced Sunday that it plans to build 10 more uranium enrichment facilities.

That’s just prain ridicurous.

12:15PM: When they are not refusing to condemn anti Semitic blood libels, the Swedes are presenting draft resolutions stating that Jerusalem should be divided and that the eastern part of the city should serve as the capital of a future palestinian state.

Needless to say, Israel’s pissed.

Israel on Tuesday slammed a Swedish proposal to recognize east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. “The move being led by Stockholm damages the European Union’s ability to take part and be a significant element in the mediation efforts between Israel and the Palestinians,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy.

“The Europeans must pressure the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. Such moves like the one being led by Sweden lead to the opposite outcome,” Levy said in response to a report by Haaretz newspaper that Sweden was working to change the EU’s stated policy.

If only they’d stick to meatballs.

6:52AM: Surgeon-General’s warning: Handling explosives in your car may prove hazardous to your health.

A car exploded in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing a militant and wounding two, witnesses and medical workers said.

The blast was caused by explosives within the car, according to Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.

The incident, in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City, appeared to be an accident involving militants. However, witnesses said Israeli warplanes were flying overhead at the time.

An Israeli military spokeswoman denied Israel was involved, saying “there was no Israeli army activity in the area” in the Hamas-ruled enclave at the time of the blast.

Did I mention the terrorists-cum-french-fries were not Hamasholes, but rather members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah?

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah said one of its members was killed and another was wounded. But no militant group accused Israel of staging an attack, and media reports said the blast may have been an accidental explosion of ammunition inside the vehicle.

5:55AM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh is interviewed by Al Jazeera. Amongst other things, he states that Hamas is about to kick off an investigation into possible war crimes – pursuant to the Goldstone report – to find out “the truth about some of the misconduct that may have happended as a result of confusion during the war” (quite the comedian, no?), and indicates he is emboldened by private visits by European parliamentarians (including from governments hiding this fact from the media) and other dignitaries.

5:42AM: Gaza’s Hamas government has approved a legal change that will allow for the execution of convicted drug dealers.

Here’s what Peres actually said:

“They [Chavez and Ahmadinejad] won’t hold, not because any of us is going to kill them; their own people are getting tired of them. So if you want good relations with them, consider that they are passing passengers. It’s a short-term relationship. So don’t waste too much on them.”

Sure, he isn’t running over to kiss them, but it is hardly a threat.

If anything, it’s giving them the bird.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:55PM: Hamas has decided to suspend negotiations over the release of Gilad Shalit until after the Muslim feast of Id al-Adha, claiming Israel is hindering a prisoner exchange agreement between the two sides because of its refusal to release all prisoners demanded by Hamas.

“Israel still hasn’t accepted the demands of Schalit’s captors,” al-Haya said. “We hold Israel responsible for the delay in reaching a prisoner exchange agreement.”

6:48PM: It’s Dersh vs J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami, moderated by Eliot Spitzer, with nary a prostitute in sight.

4:30PM: If you are not following me on Twitter, you are a bloody idiot missing out on the whole Israellycool experience, including my Barghouti pop song titles.

4:00PM: Old and busted: Viagra or Cialis

New hotness: Zionist Death Shock ^TM to the privates.

3:48PM: Israeli actress Gal Gadot is set to appear with Tom Cruise in a new film.

Whatever you do, Gal, don’t accept his invitation to see his book collection.

3:00PM: Israel is set to announce a 10-month settlement freeze.

6:16AM: Major Nidal Hasan’s first cousin expresses his shock that cuz perpetrated the evil terror attack at Fort Hood.

Note how he proclaims he’s shocked “especially since the history of this family is non-violence,” while pictures of arch terrorist Yasser Arafat adorn the wall behind him.

6:10AM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly canceled his pilgrimage trip to Mecca as hopes rise for a Gilad Shalit-for-terrorists exchange deal.

Which means we won’t be seeing him like this.

Meanwhile, Israeli is reportedly waiting for the response of Syrian-based chief Hamashole Khaled Meshaal.

6:02AM: Heil Hassan?

Hezbollah fighters parade during a ceremony organized by the militant Shiite Muslim group on the occasion of Martyr’s Day in the southern suburbs of Beirut on November 11. US prosecutors on Tuesday accused 10 people of having supported the Shiite militant group Hezbollah with weapons, fake passports, counterfeit money, stolen laptops and game consoles. (AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar)

An inflammatory anti-Israeli television show in Turkey on Tuesday did what Ankara’s cancellation of Israeli participation in an international military exercise last week failed to do – lead the foreign ministry to call in Turkey’s envoy to register a protest.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a statement Wednesday night announcing that the Turkish envoy would be summonsed to protest the “inciting” television program that appeared Tuesday evening on prime time on the popular state-run station TRT1.

In the first episode of a series on a Palestinian family living in the West Bank, IDF soldiers are variously seen killing a baby, a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be shot before a firing squad.

Lieberman, currently holding meetings in Austria, issued a statement saying the airing of this show, on a government controlled station, represented the “gravest form of incitement.”

“This series, which has absolutely no connection to reality, and which presents IDF soldiers as murderers of innocent children, is not fit to be broadcast even in the most hostile countries, and certainly not in a country that has full diplomatic relations with Israel,” he said.

Since the start of the current diplomatic tension with Ankara, Israel has opted to take a very low profile, not wanting to exacerbate the situation with harsh public comments.

Tuesday’s airing of the television show – on top of the cancellation of Israel’s participation in the military exercise, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harangue Monday accusing Israel of killing children with phosphorus bombs in Gaza, and the announcement of joint military manoeuvres with Syria – has now changed the situation.

To make matters even more complicated, Turkey – in the midst of all this tension – is not currently represented by an ambassador in Israel, as the previous ambassador left the country a few weeks ago, and his replacement has not yet arrived. Some diplomatic observers in Israel doubted this was a mere coincidence.

Here’s an example episode of the show. Although it’s in Turkish, you’ll still get the drift.

While this all seems to be happening at once, none of this should come as a surprise to those of you closely following the news this year. Remember this from January?

Of course, Turkey has still been more than willing to take our tourist dollars (at one point estimated at $300 million annually), and otherwise continue to trade with us where it benefits them.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:18PM: As I mentioned earlier today (1:35PM update), Hollywood actress Mia Farrow planned on visiting Sderot, which she did. But while her visit to Gaza prompted her to comment on the trauma suffered by palestinian children who “deserve better”, her visit to Sderot elicted a rather different response.

She also appealed to Gazan militants to stop launching rockets onto Israel.

“On a personal note, I would like to ask the people of Gaza not to give the international community ammunition to view you in a negative way … If [rocket] offenses could stop then there would be more support, though I understand the impasse. I’m a mother of 14 children, I know about conflict.”

In other words, the rocket attacks should stop not because they could kill or and traumatize people, but because they do not serve the palestinian’s interests.

10:30PM: The UK has seemingly grown a pair.

8:20PM: The Jerusalem Post really might want to invest in better picture-caption technology. Not to mention better punctuation.

[click image to enlarge]

Regarding the Hizbullah video (which does anything but refute the IDF video), since I posted my observations of the discrepancies between the videos, a reader has framed the issues as follows:

1. the hezbollah video was shot in broad daylight, whereas the IDF footage was taken at night, shortly after the blast occurred.

2. the position of the truck in the hezbollah version and the IDF video are not the same. in the hezbollah version the truck is backed up directly to the loading dock and there are two men shoving the debris into the back of the truck. in the IDF footage, the truck is parked a little bit away and there are at least 5 men carefully carrying the disputed object and loading it onto the truck.

3. In order for the Hezbollah video to disprove the IDF footage, their video has to be of the same event, which is impossible given points 1 and 2.

4. If it is not of the same event, and the Hezbollah video was shot the next day, then that does not disprove anything, since they could have shown up, and started clearing debris while filming themselves. This would also account for the presence of the Leb. Military and UNIFIL since Hezbollah gave them access to the explosion site several hours after the explosion, after they had removed various items.

5. The IDF video shot shortly after the explosion shows Hezbollah cordoning off the area, loading items which could be a missile onto a truck and then driving the trucks 4km away to a known Hezbollah arms depot in another village. After they were done clearing the house, they let UNIFIl and the Leb Military enter the area.

6. a couple of questions:
-If they were not clearing the area of weapons, why would they have sealed off the area?
-why would they have transfered the objects (whatever they may have been) to known weapons depot?
-and why would they have gone through the trouble of making this video when it is so blatantly proves nothing?

8:08PM: Hillel Neuer of UN Watch is liveblogging the UNHRC emergency session on the Goldstone Report on Twitter.

5:45PM: Today’s Worst-refutation-of-an-Israeli-claim award goes to Hizbullah*, who have claimed that the IDF footage showing Hizbullah terrorists closing down the area around the warehouse in which an explosion occurred, driving in two trucks and removing weaponry from the site, is a fabrication. They have then proceeded to release their own video showing what they claim to be the true events surrounding the site of the explosion – just a few guys loading a door on to a truck in front of the building.

The website of Hezbollah’s al-Manar television channel reported Thursday that the supposed missile in the IDF footage  of weapons being smuggled out of a Hezbollah activist’s residence where an explosion  occurred earlier this week is nothing more than a metal door being taken out to the garbage.

The site claimed that the door successfully threw off the sophisticated, top-of-the-line espionage equipment used by the Israel Air Force.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military released footage it said was shot by one of its drones in the area of the explosion. It said the grainy, black and white video shows Hezbollah members sealing off the explosion site, recovering rockets from the home and driving them away in two covered trucks.

Hezbollah slammed the video as a “fabrication” by Israel and broadcast its own video on Thursday depicting what it said were the true events around the blast.

The video, aired on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV and other local stations, shows two persons loading what appears to be a steel garage door onto a white covered pickup truck in front of the building where the blast allegedly occurred.

The video, which showed no actual aftermath of the blast, also shows two uniformed UN peacekeeper and a Lebanese soldier standing nearby as the pickup is being loaded. The UN mission did not immediately comment on the Hezbollah video.

“The random explosion that occurred in Tayr Filsay in south Lebanon that made a stir in some of the Arab and Western media has returned to its natural proportions despite efforts made by the Zionist enemy to exploit it in its repeated claims that Lebanon and Hezbollah are violating Resolution 1701,” wrote the al-Manar website.

The website posed the question: “What were the Israeli spy planes doing in the skies of Tayr Filsay when they shot the pictures that the occupation’s leadership was not ashamed of publishing in the media outlets, some of whom rushed to adopt the Israeli position and to exaggerate the event, speaking of casualties, wounded, and mass destruction?”

According to the website, “The inflation is fundamentally unfounded, the Israeli footage is fundamentally unfounded, and whoever builds on this lie is also unfounded.”

The website issued criticism that “without any investigation or pre-examinatino, the television stations were quick to broadcast news flashes on the screens of Lebanese, especially those who live in the south of the country, and to publish a shower of items about casualties, wounded, and destruction.”

According to the article, tensions were only high the night the story broke, but that in the morning it became clear that only a small explosion took place that caused only light damage and no casualties.

“In the Israeli footage that was released, two people are seen transferring something from the site of the location. According to the Israelis, this is a missile, but in the footage itself, one can clearly see that the people are moving quickly and carrying something light, which cannot logically be a missile,” wrote the website.

Of course, Hizbullah do not explain:

• Why they filmed the apparently mundane task of carrying a door to a truck
• Why their footage was taken during the day, while the IDF footage was taken at night
• Why the building in their footage shows no signs of damage
• Why the events in their video do not match those of the IDF’s aerial footage (such as different movements of people, different position of vehicles, absence of a car parked in front of the truck as shown in the Hizbullah video)

* The Turkish television producer comes in a close second

5:06PM: Believe it or not, Iranian and Israeli officials reportedly met and engaged in serious discussions on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament last month. And it took an Aussie to help make it happen.

Australia has helped accomplish the seemingly impossible – bringing Israel and Iran into the same room for high-level talks on nuclear weapons.

The meeting took place with little public fanfare in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last month as part of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, an expert panel assembled by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to help rid the world of nuclear arms.

Coming only days after Tehran revealed it had secretly constructed a uranium enrichment plant, participants said there was a ”very robust exchange” between the Israeli and Iranian officials.

—-

While careful not to claim any breakthrough at the talks, sources have told The Age both sides engaged in ‘’serious discussions” and canvassed the idea of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

Contact between Israeli and Iranian officials is sporadic and only takes place at international forums – no formal meetings between the two countries have occurred since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Officials from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other regional countries also took part in the three-day meeting and it is believed the talks floated an idea for a further regional conference – possibly hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – to outline the broad aims of a treaty to create a Middle East nuclear-free zone.

Similar ideas have stalled in the past over the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questions of security guarantees for Israel. But last month’s talks in Egypt attempted to skirt such obstacles by focusing on proposals to safeguard any fissile material in the region that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons.

Iran’s senior envoy to the meeting was its ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh.

Israel sent the director of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, Merav Zafary-Odiz. Israel’s former foreign affairs minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, was also at the meeting in a non-official role.

The high-level representatives are believed to have impressed regional diplomats who observed the proceedings.

3:32PM: And back to being really confused. The Ynet report on the Turkish television producer’s response also suggests he is claiming the soldiers being depicted are not Israeli.

He added, “The uniforms are not IDF uniforms, they only look similar. The Turkish and American militaries have uniforms like that as well.”

At the start of each episode it is clearly stated that it is not a true story, but a fictional one. Cobanoglu said, “Clearly it must be real enough for the viewer, but these are not the same uniforms. It is very important that I stress that we love the people in Israel. We love the Israelis.

“We know that Israel didn’t do these things, but there are small groups who did things like this sometimes, they killed children and things like that. We made the series about them, not about Israel directly,” he said.

So the question is which “small groups” did these things?

I was about to provide my answer but then I noticed someone else beat me to it.

TRT1’s television producer Saljuk Trubanulad responded to the allegations mentioned in the previous post about their show.

“The show is not about IDF soldiers, we also wrote this in a warning that appeared on the screen at the beginning of the program,”

The first episode is the story of a “Palestinian” family living in the West Bank.

Ah-huh. So exactly which army is it in the West Bank? The Jordanians?

“…this show isn’t about Israeli soldiers but rather about a specific group that is responsible for all the murders.”

And who might that group be?

“These soldiers are not Israelis, we know the Israeli public does not justify the operation. It’s just a small group of soldiers who murdered Muhammad al-Dura, the Palestinian boy.”

Well now he’s making sense. The riddle is unraveling.

Mohammed al-Dura was killed by Palestinian soldiers.

Saljuk says he’s not talking about Israeli soldiers.

And we know that the only other soldiers in the West Bank are “Palestinian” soldiers.

The only logical conclusion is that these are Palestinian soldiers in the show massacring their own people.

That does make sense when you put his words in the right context.

2:55PM: Ok, this report dealing with the last item makes more sense than the Jpost report.

2:38PM: Turkish gobbledegook: The Turkish television producer of the anti-Israel TV drama has responded by saying the soldiers depicted in the show are not Israeli soldiers.

At least that is what I think  he is saying. See if you can make any sense of this.

In an interview full of contradictions, Turkish television producer Saljuk Trubanulad, whose anti-Israeli TV drama led Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to summon the Turkish envoy for a meeting, told Israel Radio on Thursday that the soldiers depicted in the drama “are not Israeli soldiers” and stressed that all of the program’s staff love the Israeli people.

“The show is not about IDF soldiers, we also wrote this in a warning that appeared on the screen at the beginning of the program,” the Turkish producer said.

In the first episode of a series on a Palestinian family living in the West Bank, which appeared Tuesday evening on prime time on the government-controlled station TRT1, IDF soldiers are seen killing a baby and a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be shot before a firing squad.

In Thursday’s interview, Trubanulad stressed that “all of our staff loves the Israeli people, that is, this show isn’t about Israeli soldiers but rather about a specific group that is responsible for all the murders. We love the Israeli people.”

“These soldiers are not Israelis, we know the Israeli public does not justify the operation. It’s just a small group of soldiers who murdered Muhammad al-Dura, the Palestinian boy,” he explained, referring to a 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose footage cowering next to his father during a firefight and then slumping dead became the symbol of Palestinian suffering in the early days of the Second Intifada, despite it being entirely unclear that the cause of the child’s death was indeed IDF bullets.

“These are not Israeli soldiers, their uniforms aren’t Israeli uniforms. It’s a small group that killed all the people and all the children. We say this group is not of Israeli soldiers, neither [those shown murdering citizens] in Gaza nor in Beirut,” he told the radio station.

He went on to stress that the production team based the screenplay on historical facts. “We sent our script to Israel, we checked it,” he said.

I’m still scratching my head.

1:35PM: Actress Mia Farrow has commented on her trip to Gaza.

US actress and outspoken human rights activist Mia Farrow said on Thursday that children living in blockaded, impoverished and war-wracked Gaza Strip deserve a better life.

“The children appear traumatised,” Farrow told a media conference in the Palestinian enclave on the second and final day of a visit as goodwill ambassador for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“The teachers say that when they hear a loud noise they (the children) look to the sky and cry out and weep. They don’t know what the future holds,” she told the joint media conference with Egyptian actor Mahmoud Kabil, also a UNICEF ambassador.

“They deserve better,” she said.

Of course, when the children are pictured next to palestinian terrorists firing weapons in the vicinity, they never seem to be crying and weeping. Nor when they hear of successful terror attacks (it is hard to cry with a mouth full of candy).

Meanwhile, it looks like I was wrong and Farrow does intend to visit Sderot after all.

Later on Thursday Farrow was due to visit the Israeli town of Sderot, which for years has borne the brunt of Gaza militant rocket fire.

12:58PM: Turkey has continued it nastiness towards Israel with news it intends to impose a heavy fine on Israel  if we do not deliver 10 unmanned drones by the end of the year, and take us to the International Court of Commercial Arbitration if there is any further delay.

In other litigation-related news, Hamas is threatening to prosecute PA President Mahmoud Abbas for his “smear campaign” against them, as well as his actions during Operation Cast Lead.

“We demand Abu Mazen name those he claims hid,” said al-Zahar. “I want him to say exactly where he thinks we ran to. This man must stop trying to spread his lies, especially now that the Goldstone fiasco has been exposed, now that the Israelis exposed him as the one who wanted to prolong the war in the Strip. That is why he chooses to slam us instead of apologizing.”

6:10AM: Headline of the day:

China voices deep concern over humanitarian situation in Gaza

The irony is delicious.

6:02AM: Here’s a report about a Muslim student protest at the University of Kentucky against former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was speaking there.

Notice the bizarre ending to the report.

5:50PM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh continues to use the Goldstone report for propaganda purposes, contrasting his “government’s” reaction to that of Israel.

Speaking at a sit-in protest in Gaza organized by victims and families of victims of Israel’s war on Gaza last winter, Haniyeh explained, “If there is a concern about how the report will affect the peoples’ right to resistance vis-à-vis the Goldstone report, that in no way means we have withdrawn our support for the document in general.”

Haniyeh said de facto government personnel would offer up their total support to the Goldstone report mission, “offering all we can to convict the Israeli occupation.” The Hamas leader also said he hoped Israeli leaders would be held accountable at the International Criminal Court.

“We are for a serious, national effort ahead of dealing with this document and implementing its recommendations,” he said, comparing the de facto government’s reaction with the Israeli position.

Hamas, like Israel, understands clearly that the report is good for terrorists who use their people as human shields, and bad for those fighting them.

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

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

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

Haniyeh: “That’s impressive. No matter for how long I stop shaving, I can never get it to grow longer than this.”