Israellycool

Released murderer Samir Kuntar would like everyone to know he envies the Zionist enemy.

Kuntar, who spent decades in an Israeli jail after killing a 4-year-old girl and three others in 1979, said Thursday he envied the lengths to which Israel goes to retrieve the bodies of its soldiers, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“I’m jealous of the Zionists, who don’t spare any effort in bringing back captured soldiers or soldiers’ bodies,” Kuntar said in an interview on Al Manar, the satellite television network of the terrorist group Hezbollah. “Seriously, we are jealous of our enemy and its care for a [body] and how it goes to the end of the world in order to return it, and of its concerns for captives and how it will go to the very edge to bring them back.”

No word yet on whether Kuntar is also envious of our ability to see a 4-year-old child’s head, and not desperately want to smash it against a rock with a rifle butt.

Needless to say, Kuntar won’t let his envy get in the way of his desire to kill more Jews.

Regular readers will know the high esteem in which I hold Israel’s outgoing UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman.

According to this Ha’aretz report, Gillerman has some other, rather unexpected, admirers.

Ambassadors from Arab countries and the Gulf states were among the guests at a reception yesterday for outgoing United Nations Ambassador Dan Gillerman, who is completing a six-year tour of duty. One veteran UN reporter for an American television network told viewers he could not recall such an impressive Arab turnout for a diplomatic event for a senior Israeli official.

The envoys from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Oman were seen at the reception, which took place in the official apartment of the Israeli ambassador in Manhattan.

A particular surprise was the attendance at the party of the Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Mansour, the senior Palestinian envoy, who usually eschews Israeli diplomatic events and who embraced Gillerman. At a recent Security Council meeting Gillerman and Mansour exchanged heated remarks.

In his words of thanks at the reception, Gillerman noted his particular appreciation for the Palestinian representative for coming, despite criticism of his doing so.

Gills, thanks for the memories.

Gillerman’s Greatest Hits:

Gotta Love the Gillerman

Gillerman on Carter

Gillerman Again

Gillerman’s the Man

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

- Newton’s third law of motion (paraphrased)

And now to paraphrase Elvis Costello, we couldn’t call this unexpected:

The best course of action to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners is the kidnapping of more Israeli soldiers, Abu Yousef, the military spokesman for An-Nasser Brigades, the Military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said in a statement on Thursday.

He said that the prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah has shown that kidnap can be a useful bargaining tool in brokering deals to release prisoners and that it is possible to defeat the Israeli army. This goes some way to confirming several analysts predictions that the deal, executed on Wednesday, would embolden both Palestinian and Lebanese resistance fighters.

He added that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped in 2006 by militants from the Gaza Strip, should not be released until it was possible to arrange a deal that satisfies the needs of the Palestinian people.

And don’t think it’s just Israeli soldiers. Each and every Israeli citizen - yours truly included - is at risk.

Question: Who is xxxx in this report?

xxxx welcomed the execution of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hizbullah. xxxxx congratulated the family of released Lebanese murderer Samir Kuntar and sent his condolences to the Lebanese families receiving their loved ones’ bodies as part of the deal.

Answer is below the fold.

Despite acknowledging being jipped, Israel is still going ahead with the terrorists-for-corpses exchange.

Syrian President Bashar “Dorktator” Assad sticks his neck out to avoid Ehud Olmert in Paris.

‘I’ll be Back’ meets ‘I’ll be Black’: Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’d work for Obama.

The world’s oldest blogger is now of the non-moveable type.

More Iranian fauxtography has been found.

With the imminent release of brutal murderer Samir Kuntar, the foreign press photographers have been having a field day with pictures of small children holding up his picture. I doubt there could be a more obvious ploy to evoke sympathy for this monster.

Yet not even one picture of the only children who really matter in this story.

That’s where I (and you) come in.

Einat and Yael Haran

And here’s a reminder of what Samir Kuntar did to them:

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “This is just like what happened to my mother,” I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl’s skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

Another sporting event, another Iranian wiping himself off the sporting map.

The Iranian swimmer, Mohammad Bidarian, has refused to compete with his Israeli rival in the 100-meter freestyle event in Croatia.

Bidarian advanced to the semifinal in the 100-meter breaststroke event after he clocked a time of 52.25 seconds on Thursday morning.

Despite the fact that he had a chance to get an Olympic berth for his country, the 19-year-old Iranian national gave up the competition as he was grouped with an Israeli swimmer on Thursday evening.

Another Iranian swimmer, Mohammad Alirezaei, gained the first Olympic berth in swimming for Iran at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Thursday.

Alirezaei, 22, qualified for the games after he clocked a time of 1.03.03 minutes in the 100-meter breaststroke event and improved his personal best by 0.89 seconds.

Top swimmers from 13 countries have taken part in the international event which began in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik on July 10 and will conclude on July 13.

He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just photo-shopping his Israeli opponent out of any pictures of the race.

Previously on Israellycool:

Iran’s Tae Kwon Do Follies

Gutless

Olympic Disgrace

I just found out that one of yesterday’s victim’s, 33-year-old Bat Sheva Unterman, was the sister-in-law of the friend of a good friend of mine. As well as the cousin of an ex-neighbor.

Yes, Israel is a smaller country than you think.

He speaketh the truth (hat tip: Shy Guy)

Danny Gillerman, outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations, told the Israel-American Chamber of Commerce, that the U.N. can be “a crazy world.” He joked, “You know you’re in a crazy world when world’s greatest rapper is white, the world’s greatest golfer is black, the world’s greatest soldiers are Jewish, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the French accuse the Americans of being arrogant.”

Gillerman said he was proud as an Israeli when he appeared in the U.N. because he represented “a country that is far better than most member states of the U.N. with the possible exception of the United States.” He also noted that Muslims lead the world in violence and terror.

“Muslims are killing Muslims. When Christians kill Muslims, it’s the Crusades. When Jews kill Muslims it’s murder, and when Muslims kill Muslims, it’s like talking about the weather. Nobody really cares about it,” he said.

The family of yesterday’s terrorist claims he could not have been a terrorist.

After all, some of his best friends were Jewish.

The 30-year-old east Jerusalem man who carried out Wednesday’s terrorist attack in the capital once lived with a Jewish woman, his relatives told The Jerusalem Post.

They identified him as Husam Taysir Dwayat, a father of two from the Sur Baher neighborhood in the city’s southeast.

According to the relatives, the fact that he had lived with a Jewish woman showed that Dwayat was not an extremist.

“[The Jewish woman] lived with him in Sur Baher,” said one relative. Although the woman’s family refused to have contact with him, “he was on good terms with many Jews with whom he used to work,” another relative said.

Residents expressed surprise at the identity of the terrorist.

Dwayat did not belong to any political faction, they said. “He was not a member of Hamas or Fatah,” said a man who knew him very well. “He was never part of any political framework.”

Incidentally, I wonder if the residents would have alerted authorities ahead of time had he been a visible member of a terror organization.

So if he was not a terrorist, why did he commit this heinous act?

It was the Jews’ fault of course!

A neighbor who asked not to be identified told the Post that Dwayat was known for his involvement in criminal, and not political, activities.

“In the past he got into trouble with the law,” he said. “I think his problems started while he was still with the Jewish wife. Some people say he was a drug addict.”

Shortly after the midday attack, police raided Dwayat’s home and arrested his father and one of his brothers.

Zuhier Hamdan, one of the mukhtars of Sur Bahir, also said he and most people in the neighborhood were surprised when they heard that Dwayat was behind the attack.

“He’s the last person you would think would do such a thing,” Hamdan told the Post. “He was an ordinary young man who was never involved in anti-Israel activities.”

Hamdan said he was convinced that the attack was a personal initiative and that Dwayat did not act on behalf of any Palestinian group.

As for the motive, Hamdan said he and Dwayat’s family did not rule out the possibility that haredi teenagers had assaulted him before the attack.

“There’s a rumor going on that some haredi students had thrown stones at him and cursed him at the construction site before the attack,” Hamdan said. “Perhaps he was so angry that he decided to go on a rampage.”

And we all know that rumors suggesting Jews were to blame must be true.

Updates (Israel time)

12:00PM: I wonder if this is a reference to the Jewish woman he lived with/Jewish “wife” mentioned above (hat tip: Shy Guy).

Many questions remain from Wednesday’s attack, such as why the police ultimately failed to stop the killer and how he was hired by the Municipality of Jerusalem despite having served two years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of a Jewish woman.

1:17PM: More “surprise” expressed from a member of the terrorist’s community.

“Residents here were appalled by the news. Even his family was surprised that such an honest man, who did not affiliated with any organization, was responsible for the attack. No one believes this man could have gone out and killed those people,” Sur Baher’s community center director, Tariq Awwad, told Ynet.

Yeah. A man so honest, he had a criminal record and spent time in prison for rape.

Either his family are stupid, or are lying. Methinks the second is more likely.

2:50PM: The terrorist’s family has been ordered to dismantle the mourning tent they erected in honor of the murderer despite explicit instructions from Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco not to.

Not quite the act of a family ashamed of the killer’s actions.

4:00PM: Alternatively, he was not a bad man, just a bad driver.

Issam, the terrorist’s brother, said the Dawyyat family refused to believe that their son carried out a terror attack.

“My brother did not belong to any organization. He wasn’t even a religious person. After terror attacks he always used to say, ‘What is this nonsense? Why do we need this?’”

According to the brother, the incident may have been a road accident which had gone wrong. “Any person responsible for a road accident is alarmed and afraid. This can happen to anyone, and this could have been a road accident. It’s possible that my brother was scared when people started chasing him and shooting,” he told Ynet.

And just when you thought your intelligence had been insulted enough…

The lawyer representing the family of bulldozer driver Hossam Dawyyat of east Jerusalem, who murdered three people and injured dozens during a killing spree in Jerusalem on Wednesday, said Thursday that had the police cuffed the terrorist’s hands and legs and removed him from the vehicle, the incident would have ended at once and “life would have been spared.”

A few hours ago, a palestinian from East Jerusalem - with an Israeli ID card - deliberately plowed a bulldozer he was driving into a passenger bus on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more.

I know many of you come here for my liveblogging and I will try to update you during the day on further developments, but since I am paid to work and not to blog, I can’t promise much until later.

Updates (Israel time)

2:33PM: The current tally is 4 dead, 44 wounded.

Meanwhile, it seems as though the man who killed the terrorist is related to another terrorist killer.

A soldier on leave took the gun from an elite policeman at the scene and shot the terrorist dead. The soldier, Moshe Klessner, 18, is the brother-in-law of IDF officer David Shapira, who killed the terrorist in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, Channel 2 reported.

2:45PM: A close call for the daughter of Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, who was in the next bus.

3:00PM: The palestinian Ramattan News Agency makes the attack sound like an accident with the following headline:

Three Israelis killed, 30 injured in Jerusalem Bulldozers crash

They also report that the Ahrar Al-Jalil Brigades has claimed responsibility for the attack. Yeah, that Ahrar Al-Jalil Brigades. Hence I wouldn’t take their word for it.

By the way, this group also claimed responsibility for the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva attack earlier this year.

3:40PM: Jaffa Street is one of the main streets in downtown Jerusalem. If you have visited Israel, you have almost definitely spent time there. The attack took place near the old Central Bus Station, so many of you would be familiar with this area.

4:45PM: While Ha’aretz is still reporting at least 4 dead, both the JPost and Ynet are reporting 3 dead.

4:46PM: Killing is great for business: 3 palestinian groups have now claimed responsibility for the attack, but security officials are saying the terrorist was acting alone.

4:54PM: Believe it or not, here is recorded footage of the terrorist being stopped.

And if you really want to be aggravated, go visit the Live Leak page of this video and see some of the comments.

(Video seen over at Israel Matzav, where Carl is also live blogging)

6:00PM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered ministers to examine the possibility of razing the terrorist’s home in East Jerusalem, as well as revoking National Insurance Institute stipends from the terrorist’s family.

6:36PM: More from Moshe Plesser, the off-duty soldier who shot and killed the scum who drove the bulldozer:

As he began running towards the bulldozer, Plesser said that he shouted out to onlookers for a gun. Together with another civilian, Plesser climbed aboard the bulldozer and began wrestling with the driver.

“At one point he [the driver] yelled out “Allah Akhbar” [God is great] and stepped on the gas pedal,” Plesser recalled. “I drew the weapon of the civilian who was with me and shot the driver three times in the head. I think I did what is expected from every soldier and citizen.”

Seconds later, a police officer, Eli Mizrahi, climbed aboard the bulldozer and shot the terrorist again, killing him.

Plesser said that his brother-in-law David’s heroic conduct in March served as a role model. Shapira, who lives across the street from Mercaz Harav, heard the late-night shooting, ran into the building where two police officers were standing, took one of their caps and ran inside and shot the terrorist.

“I thank God who gave me and my brother-in-law the strength to do what we did,” he said, adding that his education in national-religious institutions and training in the elite Egoz unit served as the basis for his courageous conduct.

Incidentally, these national-religious institutions are much vilified, both by the world at large and some secular elements within Israel. But mark my words - the guys who go there are the best of the best, both in terms of their principles, as well as their heroism.

6:40PM: Knesset Member Esterina Tattman:

“If the terrorist who carried out the attack in Jerusalem really is a resident of east Jerusalem, who enjoyed State funds, we must demolish his house and deport his family to Gaza.”

6:52PM: CNN, true to form, has this headline:

Jerusalem bulldozer ‘terrorist’ kills 3 in rampage

Here’s their justification for the quotation marks:

Israeli authorities are investigating why a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem rammed his bulldozer into several cars and buses Wednesday, killing three people before Israeli police shot him dead.

Israeli authorities are labeling it a terrorist attack, although they say there is no clear motive and the man — a construction worker — acted alone. It is not known if he had links to any terrorist organization.

So let’s get this straight. The man cries “Allah Akhbar” and deliberately kills innocent people, yet the motive is still not clear?

Nice one, CNN.

8:13PM: The Knesset has approved two bills that will enable the government to revoke the citizenship of Israeli Arabs involved in terror activities as well as that of their families.

‘Bout bloody time.

9:05PM: As Honest Reporting points out, the BBC’s original headline for the report on today’s terror attack was Israel bulldozer driver shot dead.

I kid you not.

9:12PM: Commenter Daniel writes:

Dutch TV just reported it’s not a terrorist attack at all. Just a desperate individual.

9:25PM: “Ahmad? You are with the bulldozer driver’s family? Excellent. Make sure you take a picture of them holding a picture of him. And make sure it is a picture that makes him look gentle, intelligent and refined. Such as one of him in a suit and tie. Thanks Ahmad. I know I can count on you.”

A picture shows a portrait of Hussam Tarysir Dwayat, the Palestinian bulldozer driver who executed an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian killed three people and wounded 45 more as he rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in Jerusalem on Wednesday before being shot dead by Israeli police who branded it a terror attack. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

10:37PM: Ynet reports on the miraculous survival of a five-month old baby girl who lost her mother in the attack.

11:15PM: Two of the victims have been identified.

Jerusalem residents Bat Sheva Unterman, 33, and Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, were killed in the attack, as was a third person whose identity has not yet been released.

Unterman was a resident of Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood, and worked as a nanny in a religious kingergarten in the city’s Har Homa quarter. She was killed when the car she was driving was crushed by the oncoming bulldozer.

Unterman’s 6-month old daughter, Efrat, was evacuated from the car just before the vehicle was hit.

Her husband, Ido, was notified only hours after the attack that his wife had been killed.

Unterman was the daughter of Rifka and James Lubenstein, immigrants from Holland. Her husband, Ido, was the grandson of Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, who served as chief rabbi of Liverpool and of Tel Aviv, and also as chief rabbi of Israel from 1964-1973.

The Unterman couple had tried for years to have children, but managed only with the birth of Efrat last year. Bat-Sheva had extended her maternity leave by a few months, returning to work last week with her daughter to celebrate the end of the year party.

Unterman’s friend, Meira Schwartz, described her as a person filled with faith, who never gave up her dream of having children, even after having to go through countless procedures.

“Until Efrat was born, the children in the kindergarten were like her own, and she was a nanny of the highest excellence, with exemplary patience for each and ever child,” said Schwartz.

Unterman will be laid to rest at 11:30 P.M. in the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem.

‘It’s difficult to speak about her in past tense’

Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, originally from Austria, was a resident of Katamon who worked as a teacher in a school for the blind. She was laid to rest at 10:30 P.M. in Givat Shaul.

Goren-Friedman was divorced and the mother of three children: Yael, 16, Issachar, 19, and Zvi, 23. Both of her sons were students at the Horev hesder yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Her friends described her as a “wonderful person,” who volunteered regularly at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

Rachel Sakrovish, who worked with Goren-Friedman, said her colleague was an excellent teachers. “It’s hard to speak about her in the last tense. Lili was a wonderful person. There was not a student that she did not help progress on a personal, educational, and rehabilitative level. We knew that if a student was retreated or having difficulties, Luly was the teacher who would do the fundamental work to help him advance.”

“When I think of her, I remember the phrase, ‘a woman of valor, who can find,’” she said

May their blood be avenged.

Is it just me, or are very different subliminal messages being applied to palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak?

(Thanks to Soccer Dad for the heads up on the first photo)