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.

The Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead will not go away even if Israel launches an independent inquiry into the campaign, UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said Wednesday.

“There are no legal questions here – and we shouldn’t be deluding ourselves that the report will disappear if we launch a probe,” Shalev said during a discussion held at the Israel Democracy Institute. “We are seeing a murky wave against the State of Israel the likes of which has not been seen in many years.”

“It reached the point of de-legitimizing our existence as an independent state,” she said.

“We are doing a poor job of explaining our position,” Shalev added. “What we have here is an indictment against Israel, against freedom of expression, against the legal establishment, and against the army.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

6:02PM: A state memorial ceremony was held today marking 14 years since the assassination of formerPrime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Besides the obvious human tragedy, Yitzhak Rabin’s murder led to others co-opting his name to advance their own agendas. For instance, those who advocate a palestinian state like to refer back to Rabin and the Oslo process, yet conveniently leave out Rabin’s own views on the subject.

From his speech on the ratification of the Israeli- Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip:

We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says similar things and he is derided as an extremist.

5:26PM: There is nothing humorous about this Daily Show interview with palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti and Jewish anti-Israel activist Anna Baltzer.

Stewart does not challenge them on any of the blatant lies, including the corker from Barghouti that “90% of the palestinian struggle has been non-violent. Today, it’s maybe 99;5% non-violent.” (05:55), although even Stewart’s B.S detectors activate when Baltzer claims that “Jews lived better within the Arab world than virtually anywhere within the Western world” (05:45).

9:48AM: Lebanon has sprung into action following the Katushya attack on Israel a few days ago, already identifying the culprits.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman says Israel is behind the Katyusha rocket fired from Lebanon on Tuesday. In an interview to Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, the president did not conceal his concern over the recent incident.

Suleiman said the rocket “is an excuse for Israel to keep violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and immediately use it to continue its intelligence activity in Lebanon due to Hezbollah’s presence.”

The president explained that the rocket attack from Lebanon coincides with Israel’s interested and said the shooter was an Israeli agent. “Therefore, I do not rule out the possibility that Israel is the one behind the Katyusha attack,” he said.

8:45AM: Ha’aretz headline:

White House slams Obama’s poor standing among Israelis

The problem is, there is no indication of any such “slamming” in the report itself, which does mention this though:

Obama’s advisers are worried about his lack of popularity and the expressed feeling that he is hostile to Israel. They believe this seriously harms his ability to advance the peace process with the Palestinians. Obama’s advisers see this as the reason why Israelis view his diplomatic initiatives on both Iran and the Palestinians so negatively.

Recent weeks have seen a number of meetings on the matter in the White House, and one of the ideas under discussion is an Obama visit to Israel. It was decided at this stage to wait and send Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Jerusalem; she is to arrive Saturday night.

I don’t know if that will work either. After all, if the below Jerusalem Post picture and caption is anything to go by, Israelis do not think much of her either.

8:35AM: As if we didn’t have enough problems.

The reliability of a breathalyzer device widely used by Israeli police has been called into question: A new study found the device is vulnerable to external conditions, and prone to registering innocuous substances as alcohol.

The defense team for a suspect charged with driving under the influence hired an expert to test the breathalyzer, manufactured by the German firm Draeger and widely used by the Israel Police.

The expert – Dr. Igal Bar-Ilan, head of the Analytical Chemistry Department at the research institute MIGAL in Kiryat Shmona, and a lecturer at the city’s Tel-Hai Academic College – found that external conditions such as temperature, humidity, and the length and speed of inhalation can affect reported BAC levels, making the driver seem intoxicated when he is not.

Bar-Ilan also found that the device is likely to incorrectly interpret compounds like acetone and acetic acid as alcoholic substances.

The study was conducted under police supervision and in cooperation with Draeger.

The device reported alcohol in Tirosh brand grape juice and the energy drink XL, the experiment found. When small amounts of alcohol were mixed with these beverages, the device reported the quantity was larger than it actually was.

Eran Ben-Ami, the attorney who initiated the study, said thousands of Israeli motorists may have been wrongly convicted of driving under the influence – an offense for which drivers may lose their licenses for two years.

5:50AM: The UN General Assembly announced it will meet next week (November 4) to consider the Goldstone Report.

12:45AM: While Syrian Dorktator Bashar Assad’s statement that Syria is ready to continue peace talks with Israel has been widely reported, not many news outlets are reporting claims by a Kuwaiti news site that an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister in New York (auto-translation):

Arab normalization: Syrian official adviser had met with Netanyahu

New York – Palestine Media – newspaper (Gazette) Kuwait on its website, quoting informed sources in Jerusalem said the Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad recently met in New York Yitzhak Molkho adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

She explained that the meeting was held in the Helmsley Hotel in New York under the auspices of the rich American of Jewish origin Ron Lauder, known for his close ties with Damascus.

Kuwaiti newspaper quoted the sources mentioned as saying that the meeting was cordial and took two hours, during which the parties talked about the circumstances and climates conducive to the resumption of negotiations between Israel and Syria under the auspices of an American, referring to the Israeli side has confirmed his intention to hold talks without conditions. These sources added that Molkho Mekdad reported that Netanyahu is ready to make peace.

The same sources confirmed occurrence of other events at different levels between the Syrian and Israeli officials with the knowledge of authorities on both sides.

British actress Vanessa Redgrave – a well-known critic of Israel – has joined the controversy surrounding the Toronto Film Festival’s decision to showcase Tel Aviv, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

Only this time, she is on Israel’s side.

In a letter to the New York Review of Books co-signed by artist Julian Schnabel and playwright Martin Sherman, Redgrave defends the festival’s choice to spotlight Tel Aviv and denounces those who have called for a boycott.

“We oppose the current Israeli government, but it is a government,” Redgrave and her co-signatories wrote in their letter, “Freely elected. Not a regime. Words matter.”

Redgrave and her co-signatories went on to say in their letter that the films being showcase in Toronto deserved applause and encouragment, precisely because they were created by Israeli troubled by their own government’s actions:

“Thousands of Palestinians have died through the years because the Israeli government, military, and part of the population fervently believe that the Arab states and, indeed, much of the world do not want Israel to exist.

“How then are we halting this never-ending cycle of violence by promoting the very fears that cause it?

“Many citizens of Tel Aviv are particularly aware of the situation of the Palestinians and are concerned about their government’s policies and their country’s future. And none more so than the Tel Aviv creative community. This is exemplified by Israeli films that criticize their government’s behavior.

“These citizens of Tel Aviv and their organizations and their cultural outlets should be applauded and encouraged.

“We do not agree that this involvement is a reason to shun or protest, picket or boycott, or ban people who are expressing thoughts and confronting grief that, ironically, many of the protesters share.”

Artists who called for a boycott included John Grayson, Danny Glover and David Byrne and Jane Fonda – though Fonda later retracted her decision. Meanwhile, a number of Hollywood Jews, including Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen and Natalie Portman, issued a counter statement in defense of the festival’s decision.

Meanwhile, here is Redgrave’s infamous “Zionist hoodlum” Oscar speech of 1978.

Notice who is the first person to appear in the footage.

That was Jane Fonda, who supported the Toronto Film Festival protest.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:40PM: Israel is considering recalling recalling its ambassador to Stockholm in light of Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt’s remarks in support of the Goldstone report.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called to re-examine Israel’s relations with Sweden.

“It is a shame that a person who refused to respond to the blood libel against Israel has come out in praise of this unprofessional report,” Ayalon told Ynet Thursday evening

5:48PM: A 15-year-old Arab boy has been killed after shots were fired at a school bus traveling between two Israeli-Arab villages. Police are looking into the possibility that the shooting revolved around a dispute between students.

5:32PM: Hamas claims to be preparing legal responses to the report’s findings of Hamas war crimes.

And as you can see, they feel confident they can rely on the Goldstone report itself, as well as previous Human Rights Watch findings, to validate their position.

Islamic Hamas movement started preparing “legal responses” to its accusations in a UN fact-finding mission’s report about Israel’s last winter war in the Gaza Strip, officials said on Thursday.

The report by South African Justice Richard Goldstone “was not built on true information regarding Hamas” which controls Gaza, said Mushier al-Massri, a Hamas lawmaker.

The 575-page report accused Israel of committing war crimes during its December 27 to January 18 war and also said that Hamas’ rocket attacks on southern Israel communities violated laws of war.

Al-Massri told Xinhua that a team of legal experts and other leaders from Hamas is working “to present clarifications to Goldstone’s committee because its members have not had complete information.”

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader and a member of the legal committee, told reporters that “the committee “will send its answers to the judge Goldstone as soon as they are ready.”

“The committee will put evidences that prove the opposite to Hamas’ and the resistance factions’ accusations,” Zahar said.

He added that the Hamas experts “will base their evidences on other international reports by rights groups, such Human Rights Watch (HRW) which denied that Hamas militants have used civilians as human shields.”

Zahar was referring to the New York-based rights organization which in March said that there was no evidence of Hamas using human shields in the vicinity at the time of Israeli attacks in various parts of Gaza (a report researched and written by Human Rights Watch staff Marc Garlasco, later revealed to have an unhealthy Nazi memorabilia fetish, for which he is unrepentant – ed.) In a later report, HRW has clearly said that Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel amounted to war crimes.

Meanwhile, Zahar referred to the Israeli bombing of a UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp, defending his movement. From the 35 people who were killed on Jan. 6 attack on al-Fakhoura school, “there was no militant and no fighter was registered” among the casualties. “If Hamas was using the residents as shields, militants would have been killed in that attack.” (Regarding this claim, see here -ed).

Though the Goldstone report does not exclude Israeli allegations that the army fired at the school, which was sheltering about 1,300 people, in response to Palestinian rocket attacks form the area, it considered “the credibility of Israel’s position damaged by the series of inconsistencies, contradictions and factual inaccuracies in the statements justifying the attack.”

4:35PM: Another casualty of Israel’s “blockade” on Gaza: zebra-loving children!

Palestinian boys ride dyed donkeys at Marah Land zoo in Gaza City October 8, 2009. Two white donkeys dyed with black stripes delighted Palestinian kids at a small Gaza zoo on Thursday who had never seen a zebra in the flesh. A genuine zebra would have been too expensive to bring into Israel-blockaded Gaza via the smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt, said zoo owner Mohammed Bargouthi. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA SOCIETY ENVIRONMENT ANIMALS)

Hey, if the palestinians can fool the world into believing there really was such a thing as a Palestinian nation, they are certainly capable of fooling children into believing a donkey with painted stripes is a zebra.

4:22PM: Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said he supports the Goldstone report which claims Israel committed war crimes during Operation Cast lead, and says we erred in not cooperating with the probe.

Perhaps he thinks if we investigate, the organ harvesting claims will be proven true.

1:55PM: Today’s Jerusalem Post caption blooper.

Either that, or he’s found G-d.

9:44AM: A US official has said President Barack Obama is impatient with the current situation (regarding the “peace process”) and expects the sides to move forward.

With all due respect to the President, I would rather we did not rush into anything, especially when lives are at stake, and especially considering we have been so badly burned by all the concessions we have already made.

8:00AM: Quote of the day:

“Building the road to the establishment of an independent state will not be furnished with flowers.”

- Palestinian “Prime Minister” Salam Fayyad

If the palestinians have their way, it might just be furnished with candies.

7:53AM: Highlights from yesterday’s Abbas shoe toss.

7:46AM: The UN Security Council yesterday rejected Libya’s request to hold an emergency session on the Goldstone Report, but did decide to bring forward a scheduled monthly meeting on the Middle East from October 20th to the 14th.

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

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

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

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

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

Last night, the IAF struck a rocket launching device in the Gaza Strip, which was aimed at Israel and set to fire. This followed a day in which palestinians fired 4 Qassam rockets and multiple mortar shells at Israel, and opened fire at IDF troops patrolling the border fence between Israel and Gaza.

In other words, the most “productive” day for palestinian terrorists in quite a while. Did I mention it was also the holiest day in the Jewish calendar?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:15PM: In a busy evening for palestinian terrorists, they fired two Qassams into Israel and shot an Israeli earlier this evening.

10:04PM: Yet another example of the Goldstone Report’s irrelevance.

Dr. Mirella Sidrer, who was severely injured last May when a Grad rocket struck her clinic in Ashkelon, spoke on Tuesday against Justice Richard Goldstone, who led a UN committee to investigate  human rights violations during the Gaza war, saying he excluded her testimony from his final report .

Sidrer spoke during a one-day hearing held by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “I don’t understand why my testimony wasn’t taken into account,” she said, “Especially by justice Goldstone, who sent me a letter saying he appreciated my testimony”.

Sidrer presented the committee with pictures and news articles showing the events that took place following the missile strike. Following her injuries, Sidrer had to undergo seven operations, and still has a long way to go until she is fully recovered.

According to sidrer, when the Goldstone Report was published, she was astonished to find her testimony had been excluded: “It was important that this time, all UN delegates hear what I have to say, as opposed to only Justice Goldstone and the committee.

“When I received the report, I searched for my testimony only to find my name mentioned in two or three lines on page 460… It said that a rocket was fired without warning on the shopping mall where I was injured. I don’t understand why my testimony was not taken into account.”

I guess she’s not considered a reliable witness like Mr Sex Gum.

7:52PM: The following post from a group called the JIDF has been brought to my attention:

YOM KIPPUR FACEBOOK CLAMPDOWN ON THE JEWS: Chabad, AISH, IDF, Arutz Sheva, and others threatened for deactivation!

Facebook plans to make good on their threat to deactivate the account of the founder of the JIDF within 48 hours, it has come to our attention that many other accounts of Jews, pro-Israel activists, bloggers, and others on Facebook are also at risk to be deactivated very soon. These accounts have thousands of friends, personal correspondence, photos, group and page admin privileges, etc.

Facebook will soon deactivate all of them, if the people behind them do not agree to provide government-issued identification and agree to change the names of the following accounts to a “real” name (or remove any religious title):

[follows is a list of Facebook accounts including my own]

For the record, I have never received a warning or threat that my Facebook account will be deactivated. If anyone from the JIDF is reading this, feel free to let me know why you have reason to believe my Facebook account is about to go the way of the Dodo bird.

7:38PM: Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, Professor of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (Israel), a former Minister of Education and Knesset Member, as well as the recipient of the 2006 Israel Prize in Law, finds some humor in the Goldstone report (translated from Hebrew):

Goldstone’s Unconscious Humor

It is not true that the Goldstone report is exclusively anti-Israeli. After having established that Israel is guilty of crimes against international law and (possibly) humanity, after advocating punishing it with and arsenal of all conceivable sanctions, it also chides the Palestinians for some inappropriate measures taken by them.

First, there is Hamas. Goldstone does not let them go Scot free. Thus he blames the Hamas for a grievous offense:

“The mission remains unconvinced that any genuine and effective initiatives have been taken by the (Gaza) authorities to address the serious issues of violation of international human rights in the conduct of armed activities by militant groups in the Gaza strip”.

This refers to the shelling of southern Israel from Gaza in the eight years preceding operation “cast lead”. But what does Goldstone have in mind when he chides the Hamas for not taking genuine and effective initiative against the militants who do not adhere to international human law? Does he refer to their failure to petition the local High Court of Justice to issue a writ of mandamus against the militants? Or does he have in mind the fact that the Hamas Solicitor General has failed to issue an indictment against the offending militants?

Judge Goldstone rebukes the Hamas again for their treatment of Fattah ‘affiliates’. Goldstone finds that “such actions” – i.e. killing the Fatah detainees – “constitute serious violations of Human Rights or the Palestinian Basic Law”. Again, one may ask: what went wrong here? Did the Hamas Supreme Court of Justice ignore the Palestinian Basic Law? Where was the Hamas attorney general? Goldstone is not content with slapping Hamas’ wrist, he also reprimands the Palestinian authority:

“The Palestinian Authority continues to discharge a large number of civil and military service employees, or suspend their salaries, under the pretext of “non-adherence to the legitimate authority” or “non-obtainment of security approval” on their appointments, which has become a pre-requirement for enrolment in public service”. In effect, this measure means the exclusion of Hamas supporters or affiliates from public sector appointment…. The Mission is of the view that the reported measures are inconsistent with the Palestinian Authority’s obligations deriving from the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the Palestinian Basic Law”. In other words, the PA is obliged, by international law, to employ those who want to unseat them.

This surely is an uncontrollable outburst of surreal humor but it pales in comparison with another outburst.

Goldstone, after quoting heavily from Ha’aretz, Israeli jurists, B’tzelem and other Israeli human right NGO’s, states.

“…the Mission received allegations that sources of criticism of actions by Israel during and following the military operations of December 2008-January 2009 from inside Israel were subjected to attempted or actual repression, and that the rights of freedom of association and expression for individuals and groups had been violated. In this regard, concerns were also raised about the denial of access to the media and to human rights monitors prior, during and after the military operations in Gaza”.

The humor stems from the fact that the evidence of this repression was given by Israelis – including those who addressed Goldstone’s committee. Israeli NGO’s who complained about this repression of dissent appear almost daily – loud and clear – on Israeli newspapers and state – owned radio and television.

For some obscure reason, there is no parallel finding about suppression of dissent by Hamas. Indeed, the report should have a sub-heading – Eyeless in Gaza – lifted from John Milton and Aldous Huxley.

* * *

The humor stops where the report alleges actions of wanton brutality and killings by Israeli soldiers; even if only partially true, these cases should be a reason for sleepless nights for every law-abiding, humane Israeli. The IDF authorities state that they have investigated these allegations and, except for one case of looting, found no evidence of such war crimes. However, it is the opinion of this author that due to the severity of the allegations and the number of Palestinian civilians killed in the operation, Israel should re-investigate these thirty-plus cases and that this reinvestigation should be conducted by an independent body headed by an acting or retired judge of the Supreme Court. Such a body should be empowered to see army documents and make recommendations. This step is vital not because of Goldstone’s ludicrous report, replete with its instances of unconscious humor, but because we, Israelis, must be doubly sure that no crimes were perpetrated by our soldiers. We should not be “eyeless in Gaza”.

5:12PM: A group of palestinians is seeking an arrest warrant in the UK for Defense Minister Ehud Barak for alleged war crimes.

Barak decided not to change his plans for his UK visit, with his bureau releasing a statement saying: “No arrest warrant has been issued, and in any event, he has immunity due to his being a minister in the government.”

On Tuesday, two London law firms representing the group – Irvine Thanvi and Natas (ITN) and Imran Khan and Partners – applied for an international arrest warrant at Westminster Magistrates court in central London, claiming that Barak committed war crimes and breaches of the Geneva Convention during Operation Cast Lead.

Barak is currently in the UK and is set to address a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) reception during the Labour Party’s annual conference in Brighton, on the south coast of England, on Tuesday night.

The move came after 16 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip instructed Al-Mezan, a Gaza-based human rights group, to issue the charges. Al-Mezan in turn instructed the two London firms to represent the group.

A spokesman for ITN told The Jerusalem Post that an arrest warrant has been lodged and that the biggest hurdle would be Barak’s diplomatic immunity.

However, the spokesman said that he was confident that they have a strong legal argument which would override the issue of immunity.

He said that the court would decide on Tuesday afternoon if there was a case and added that if the court had not decided by the afternoon, they would issue an injunction to stop Barak from leaving the country.

A loophole in British law – in the International Criminal Court Act 2001 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988 – allows private individual complaints of “war crimes” to be lodged against military personnel, even if they are not British citizens and the alleged crimes were committed elsewhere.

2:56PM: UN investigator Richard Goldstone has defended his report accusing Israel of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead.

Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, Goldstone defended the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’s report, which found that both Israel and Palestinian armed groups had committed actions which amounted to war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity.

The judge urged the committee to refer the report to the UN Security Council, citing the fact that neither Israeli nor Hamas had carried out any internal investigations into Operation Cast Lead. Should parties fail to respond to Security Council demands, he said, the matter would be forwarded to the International Criminal Court.

“Now is the time for action,” Goldstone told the Human Rights Council. “A culture of impunity in the region has existed for too long. The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point; the ongoing lack of justice is undermining any hope for a successful peace process and reinforcing an environment that fosters violence. Time and again, experience has taught us that overlooking justice only leads to increased conflict and violence.”

—-

Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar described the report as “shameful,” claiming it cherry-picked incidents during the conflict for political effect, ignored Israel’s right to self-defense, and provided “support and vindication for terrorist tactics.”

—-

“Israel is committed to fully examining every allegation of wrongdoing, not because of this report, but despite it,” Leshno-Yaar told the council.

Goldstone, however, has called Israel’s efforts so far “pusillanimous.” He also described investigations by Hamas as a “complete failure.”

I guess Goldstone is paid well to use big words like “”pusillanimous” (it apparently means “cowardly”), but he should also be conducting his investigations properly. There are many problems with the report, some of which have already been discussed, and others which will soon see the light of day.

2:04PM: Jerusalem Post caption blooper of the day:

Alternatively, that’s one ugly bastard. And he’s possibly related to this chief Akbar:

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

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

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

US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice responded to the Goldstone report.

“We have very serious concerns about many of the recommendations in the report,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Thursday in response to the findings of a UN team that investigated the recent war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

—-

Rice told reporters following a Security Council session that the US “is reviewing very carefully what is a very lengthy document. We have long expressed our very serious concern with the mandate that was given (to Goldstone’s team) by the Human Rights Council prior to our joining the Council, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable.

“We will expect and believe that the appropriate venue for this report to be considered is the Human Rights Council (in Geneva) and that’s our strong view. And most importantly, our view is that we need to be focused on the future,” she said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:30PM: Here is a nice rebuttal of some Goldstone report findings by a non-Jewish, Aussie blogger.

1:52PM: Yet another example of what miserable failures we are at ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Four Magen David Adom teams evacuated six Palestinians to the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv and the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Zerifin after suffering serious burn wounds from a gas pipe explosion in a restaurant in Gaza on Thursday.

All six are members of the same family and four of them are children. They were transferred to Israel through Erez crossing.

1:35PM: Gorilla boy aka the poisonous midget has delivered his Rosh Hashanah message:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday the Holocaust was a “lie” and a pretext to create a Jewish state that Iranians had a religious duty to confront.

“The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false … It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim,” he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of annual anti-Israel Quds Day rally.

“Confronting the Zionist regime is a national and religious duty,” the Iranian president said.

—-

“This regime [Israel] will not last long. Do not tie your fate to it?. This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end,” he said in the speech broadcasted live on state radio.

And..

“If the Holocaust was planned by the West, why won’t you allow any research on the Holocaust? The Holocaust has turned into a black box and they won’t let anyone open it and examine it… If this is such an important event, why won’t you let us reveal the reality to the entire world?”

Ahmadinejad reiterated his past “proposal”, to have the Jews immigrate to other country. “Why don’t they immigrate to Canada or the United States? They can go live in other countries. The Palestinian people don’t have to pay for your crime. What is the Palestinians’ sin?

“The Zionists are the greatest criminals in history. Resisting the Zionists is a national duty and a religious commandment and a human duty. The Zionist regime is a tree with rotten roots,” Ahmadinejad said.

He added, “It’s clear that this fake regime was established for colonialist goals, and there is no logic behind its establishment.” The crowd responded by chanting, “Death to Israel.”

And a happy new year to you too, big little guy.

1:25PM: Amir Mizroch of the Jerusalem Post:

During his investigations into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas during Operation Cast Lead, Judge Richard Goldstone asked a group of prominent South African expatriates living in Israel to persuade government officials here to cooperate with his commission.

Goldstone told them the commission’s findings and recommendations would be more balanced if Israel made its case.

The expats traveled to Jerusalem with the message, but after a relatively short briefing with Israeli experts, the delegation did a complete about-face and supported Israel’s position of having nothing to do with the UN fact-finding mission.

The trick: Israeli officials briefed the visitors on what Goldstone’s commission was already doing in Gaza, on the makeup of the UN Human Rights Council and on the rancid history of the HRC’s deliberate targeting of Israel.

Officials in Jerusalem say the decision not to cooperate with Goldstone has been vindicated, because the commission largely ignored, or twisted, the information already made available to it to suit its needs.

12:28PM: Here’s some women you don’t want to mess with.

10:30AM: The latest Jerusalem Post caption blooper could actually work well as a slip of the Freudian kind.

I mean, they both don’t seem to be taking the Iranian threat seriously.

10:05AM: One of the ploys used by opponents of Israel is to point to the relatively low number of Israeli casualty figures. For example, we just saw Richard Goldstone mentioning the number of Israelis killed by rockets compared to the number of palestinians killed.

But what about those who were lucky enough to survive terror attacks, yet were still injured? This next heartbreaking video should give you an idea as to the devastating impact of palestinian terror attacks, which reaches far beyond the official casualty figures.

Damascus-based Hamashole Khaled Mashaal admitted his group produces and smuggles weapons despite Israel’s “blockade” on Gaza.

“Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages … despite the fleets from east and west, despite all of this, we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms,” AFP quoted Masshal as saying in a recording of a speech to young members of Sudan’s ruling party

Meanwhile, the leader of the country hosting Mashaal is reportedly optimistic about restarting peace talks with Israel

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:55PM: And I thought only Israel officials had big mouths.

A senior Kremlin official confirmed Wednesday to the Russian paper Kommersant that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did indeed make a clandestine trip to Russia on Monday.

Commenting on the visit, the official said that “this kind of development could only be related to new and threatening information on Iran’s nuclear program.”

The Russian newspaper quoted experts speculating that such a trip would only be justified under extraordinary circumstances, “for example, in the case of Israel planning to attack Iran.”

10:42PM: Did you know that September 9th (9/9) is the most requested wedding date in Israel?

Neither did I, but then again, I also didn’t know you could do this with toilet paper:

7:42PM: Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has stood up Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman in order to meet Venezuelan President Hugo “Boofhead” Chavez.

5:15PM: More creepiness from senior HRW analyst and Nazi fetishist Mark Garlasco.

As you can tell, the “people with dreams” to which he is referring were not Jews butchered at the hands of the Nazis (hat tip: Elder of Ziyon)

2:42PM: Yet another singer has come out of the Jewish closet – Julio Iglesias.

Not only that, he’s the right kind of Jew and not the anti-Israel, shmekky kind.

Sitting on a bar stool between songs, Iglesias took several moments to share anecdotes about his personal connection to Israel. Quite surprising to the audience was his avowal that his mother was Jewish and that he himself was “Jewish from the waist up.” (too much information – ed.)

In regard to the conflict in the region, Iglesias warmly said that he “understands your feelings and your fight,” prompting a resounding round of applause from the audience. Iglesias also remarked on his past travels through the country and emphasized that Israel “is a part of my life” and that playing to an Israeli audience “is an honor.”

And it is an honor to host you too. Just please lay off the Viagra.

Indeed, Julio Iglesias has unmatched debonair credentials, and he lived up to his reputation as a man of passion. Despite his advice in between songs on the proper dosage of Viagra for sexual vitality and how he “makes love” with his songs on stage, it was actually more personally revealing to the attendees to hear of his Jewish mother’s ancestral roots.

2:15PM: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy director Ron Dermer has weighed in on Marc Garlasco’s Nazi fetish.

Human Rights Watch’s employment of a man who trades and collects Nazi memorabilia as its “senior military expert” is a “new low” for the organization that frequently criticizes Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy director Ron Dermer said Wednesday.

“I thought that nothing could top a human rights organization trying to raise money in Saudi Arabia, but I was apparently wrong,” said Dermer, referring to HRW’s fundraising efforts in the kingdom earlier this year, using its reports against Israel as a sales pitch. “A war crimes investigator who is an avid collector and trader in Nazi memorabilia is perhaps a new low.”

Dermer was referring to reports, both in the blogosphere and the press, that Marc Garlasco, HRW’s senior military expert, who has written numerous reports condemning Israel, is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.

12:42PM: Ha’aretz has a report on Nazi aficionado and HRW analyst Marc Garlasco. In it, they refer to him as a former HRW analyst, so they are either having a Jerusalem Post moment, or it is their subtle way of reporting he has resigned.

The report also makes no mention of the fact that this revelation emanated from the blogs, instead referring to “media sources.”

Outgoing IAEA (potato) head Mohamed ElBaradei called the Iranian threat “hyped,” saying there is no proof the Islamic republic will soon have nuclear weapons.

“In many ways, I think the threat has been hyped,” ElBaradei told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in an interview released Tuesday.

“Yes, there’s concern about Iran’s future intentions and Iran needs to be more transparent with the IAEA and international community,” he told the Chicago-based magazine. “But the idea that we’ll wake up tomorrow and Iran will have a nuclear weapon is an idea that isn’t supported by the facts as we have seen them so far.”

“About Iran, I’ve been told, ‘Mind your own business; you’re a technician.’ And yet, at other times, on other matters, I have been told that I’m the custodian of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – sometimes by the very people who tell me to mind my own business when it comes to Iran,” he continued.

“I don’t put much stock in either designation.

I have another designation for him, but since I try to keep this a relatively family friendly site, I won’t mention it here.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:08PM: More on today’s meeting between Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Cooperation Silvan Shalom and PA Economics Minister Bassim Khoury (bonus: Seth Green lookalike news anchor).

10:22PM: The Jerusalem Post displaying more of the patented brilliance that sees them head the list of popular Jewish news sites in the US.

In other words, we don’t actually have a photo of an Iranian nuclear site, so here’s a photo of some other site instead. But we’ll still refer to it as an Iranian nuclear site.

8:24PM: Sky News reports that palestinians are not happy that Madonna said all those nice things about Israel and draped herself with the Israeli flag at the end of her concert last night (see video). Like, d’uh.

8:12PM: From the Department of Apparently Superfluous Adjectives:

‘Shi’ite Bernard Madoff’ held in custody in Lebanon

Actually, it’s not referring to the..err..real deal (if I can call him that).

6:28PM: Here’s footage taken of Madonna saying those nice things about Israel at last night’s concert.

6:18PM: Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Cooperation Silvan Shalom and PA Economics Minister Bassim Khoury have met to discuss how to improve the lives of palestinians.

This is all well and good, but I would also like to hear of Israel and PA officials meeting to discuss how to improve the lives of Israelis, like those in Sderot and other communities in the firing line.

1:58PM: The Jerusalem Post is reportedly the most popular Jewish news website in the US.

A recent study – not commissioned by The Jerusalem Post – has revealed that of all Jewish news Web sites, Jpost.com is the clear leader in the United States, garnering more than twice as many readers as its closest competitor, and almost twice as many readers as all American Jewish news Web sites combined.

Although the Post was unaware of the study until after it was published, the newspaper welcomed the data as a sign that it was maintaining a critical lead in the cutthroat world of Internet news.

In mid-August, 4Wall, which operates the JInsider site, conducted what it called “the Jewish Internet Metric Study,” borrowing from the practices of McKinsey & Company to analyze Internet use and its business implications and applications.

The study found that Jpost.com hosted 1,454,649 unique visitors per month, while competitor Haaretz.com lagged far behind, with 691,467.

All of the American Jewish news sources combined – including the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Jewish Journal, New York’s The Jewish Week, the Forward, Philadelphia’s The Jewish Exponent and The Jewish Press – received barely half of Jpost.com’s traffic figures, with 808,516 unique visitors.

Not only did Jpost.com leave other sites far behind, but the study also found visitors spent “significantly more time per visit” on the two Israel-based sites, and that “many more of those visitors are ‘regulars’ [people who visit more than once per month] and addicts [people who visit more than 30 times per month.]”

“I think that our success can be attributed to a combination of great original content, a never-ending pace of news flow, the power of the brand name and the fact that every day at 3:30 p.m. Jerusalem time, as far as we’re concerned, we enter US time,” explained Jpost.com Managing Editor Shani Rosenfelder. “We look at our North American audience in terms of what stories should be highlighted and what issues take center stage in those readers’ eyes.”

Color me surprised. Of the three main English news sites in Israel, I consider the Post to be the worst. It frequently borrows from other sites, and is often slow on stories. And regular Israellycool readers would already be aware of their buggy picture caption generator thing-a-me-bob, which provides constant grist for my mill.

Aussie Dave’s guilty confession: I prefer the Ha’aretz site. Sure, the op-eds annoy the daylights out of me, but the site is way more up-to-date than the others, and I find the site layout to be easier to follow.

I’m hoping Israellycool is on the list next year. Help me get there by telling your family and friends about it, and sending them posts of mine that you like.

10:50AM: The EU’s rapporteur on piracy (apparently a real job title), Admiral Tarmo Kouts (apparently his real name), has told TIME that Israel was likely behind the July hijacking of a Russian-manned ship en route to Algeria.

“There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can’t explain this situation in any other way,” he told the magazine, becoming the highest-ranking official to date to support the theory. “As a sailor with years of experience, I can tell you that the official versions are not realistic.”

Meanwhile, it looks like everyone is a comedian, whether it be the Jerusalem Post..

Until today, no government official of any kind has gone on the record to accuse Israel as being behind the hijacking, but many have admitted that the story – or at least the official version – does not appear to hold water

..or former Israeli deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh:

“There is something fishy about this whole story, no doubt about it,” former Israeli deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh told The Media Line. “But I can’t comment further on this.”

6:04AM: Pop star and FoTz (Friend of Tzipi) Madonna played in front of 50,000 fans last night, showing her love for Israel in the procees.

“I shouldn’t have stayed so long away,” she told the adoring crowd midway through the show, as she broke away from the script to express her affection for the country.

“Every time I come here, I get so supercharged with energy,” she said. “I truly believe that Israel is the energy center of the world. And I also believe that if we can all live together in harmony in this place, then we can live in peace all over the world.”

Meanwhile, judging by the pictures, I would say she also showed a whole lot more. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu was not available for comment.

5:54AM: Guess who’s coming to dinner? Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren yesterday attended a White House Ramadan dinner.

Courtesy of the ever (un)reliable Jerusalem Post picture-caption-generator-thingamebob.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2008/12/13/jerusalem-post-slams-my-mumbai-comment-is-free-post/

I’ve arrived in a manner of speaking.  The right-wing Jerusalem Post finds me a significant enough presence to devote an entire article to attacking my Comment is Free post about the Mumbai attacks, Exploiting Mumbai’s Tragedy, in which I argued that the attack was anti-Israeli more than it was anti-Semitic.  I did so in order to diminish the Jewish urge for vengeance and holy war against Islam.

How noble of him! At least he admits he did not argue this on the basis of the logic and facts, which clearly pointed towards anti-Semitic motives.

The headline claims that I “sparked a fury” on the Jewish right with the claim that the Chabad House massacre was not anti-Semitic.  Of course, that headline left out the fact that I did claim it was anti-Israeli and denounced it no matter what the motivation was.  This omission allows a lazy right wing reader (of which there are so many at the Jpost) to presume that I didn’t denounce the attack at all.

Actually, the very first paragraph mentions that Silverstein considered the attack anti-Israeli. So JPost readers would have to be extremely lazy to miss this. Say, as lazy as Tikun Olam readers.

My biggest complaint was that the reporter didn’t show enough koved toward my work to link to it in his article.  LInkage is the coin of the internet realm.  Ironic that the Jerusalem Post blog section does link to Tikun Olam, but its reporter finds my work so outrageous that he refuses to link to it in an article entirely devoted to it.

I don’t really know why Silverstein is complaining. The reporter called him an author, whereas he is nothing more than a blogger with an abundance of time and ignorance. He should be flattered.

And hey, maybe I’ll hit the trifecta: if Rosner writes an entire post at JPost denouncing me it’ll be like going to leftie Jewish heaven.

Presumably with 72 virgins awaiting him.

Meanwhile, if Silverstein is going to take notice of the Jerusalem Post, here’s another article he may want to read.