As Michelle Malkin blogs, this caused “all hell to break loose” with palestinian, Muslim and progressive Twitterers firing some salvos of their own at Perry.

Instead of sticking to her guns, Katy Perry went the route of appeasement.

She’s no Jon Voight.

REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Despite Hamas declaring a ceasefire, palestinian terrorists continued to fire rockets and mortar shells  at Israel Sunday evening and early today, including Qassams fired at Ashkelon and Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, and mortar shells at Eshkol Regional Council.  

On our side, the IAF reportedly hit a terrorist cell, wounding several people.

8:44PM: “So, how’s that ceasire going?”

“Oh, not so well.”

1:45PM: Turkey’s Hurriyet paper has reported that Israel’s refusal to issue an apology for the flotilla events “will lead to further deterioration in the relations between the countries.” 

12:35PM: Reuters reports that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire.

Starting from now…

Kind of reminds me of this.

One official who was involved in mediating talks between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza said the groups had “reached an understanding on a truce and that the truce has started.”

12:20PM: Those brave Hamasholes have reportedly soiled their pants and gone underground. Here’s hoping they end up marinating the soil.

11:36AM: The IDF Spokesperson has tweeted that 16 rockets were fired into Israel overnight from Gaza.

8:38AM: Yesterday, I posted how Hollywood actor Jon Voight visited rocket attack victims at Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center.

Today I have the video (courtesy of Ynet).

Photo by: Eliahu Ben-Yigal

“A police bomb disposal team examined a number of mortars that were fired today. We can confirm that two out of the nine mortars contained phosphorous,” Rosenfeld added.

Israel Police said it was not the first time that phosphorous shells had been fired at Israel from Gaza.

Haim Yalin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council where the phosphorous mortars landed,  reacted sharply to the news of the phosphorus mortar attacks. “These weapons have been banned by the Geneva convention. They cause burns among victims and they kill. This is an agricultural area, and we now have to explain to farmers how to deal with burns in light of the phosphorus mortars,” he told the Post.

I’m looking forward to hearing from the UN, the International Red Cross, human right organizations and all those who have accused Israel of using phosphorous in the past.

Of course, they have hardly commented on the thousands of rockets – phosphorous or not – that have rained down on Israel the past years, so I am not holding my breath.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:15PM: The fabulous British colonel is back in Israel, and explains why he defends Israel and ripped Goldstone a new one.

7:15PM: The EU is also pressuring Israel to extend the settlement freeze.

According to the report, the EU “recalls that settlements are illegal under international law and calls for an extension of the moratorium decided by Israel,” read the declaration which was adopted by foreign ministers.

The EU will soon learn need to preoccupy themselves with what is illegal under Sharia law.

5:32PM: Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, responds to the Time magazine article which alleged Israelis do not care about peace.

Imagine that you’re a parent who sends her children off to school in the morning worrying whether their bus will become a target of suicide bombers. Imagine that, instead of going off to college, your children become soldiers at age 18, serve for three years and remain in the active reserves into their 40s. Imagine that you have fought in several wars, as have your parents and even your grandparents, that you’ve seen rockets raining down on your neighborhood and have lost close family and friends to terrorist attacks. Picture all of that and you’ll begin to understand what it is to be an Israeli. And you’ll know why all Israelis desperately want peace.

Recent media reports, in Time magazine and elsewhere, have alleged that Israelis — who are currently experiencing economic growth and a relative lull in terrorism — may not care about peace. According to a poll cited, Israelis are more concerned about education, crime and poverty — issues that resonate with Americans — than about the peace process with the Palestinians. But such findings do not in any way indicate an indifference to peace, but rather the determination of Israelis to build normal, fruitful lives in the face of incredible adversity.

Yes, many Israelis are skeptical about peace, and who wouldn’t be? We withdrew our troops from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in order to generate peace, and instead received thousands of missiles crashing into our homes. We negotiated with the Palestinians for 17 years and twice offered them an independent state, only to have those offers rejected. Over the last decade, we saw more than 1,000 Israelis — proportionally the equivalent of about 43,000 Americans — killed by suicide bombers, and tens of thousands maimed. We watched bereaved mothers on Israeli television urging our leaders to persist in their peace efforts, while Palestinian mothers praised their martyred children and wished to sacrifice others for jihad.

Given our experience of disappointment and trauma, it’s astonishing that Israelis still support the peace process at all. Yet we do, and by an overwhelming majority. According to the prestigious Peace Index conducted by the Tamal Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University and released in July, more than 70% of Israelis back negotiations with the Palestinians, and nearly that number endorse the two-state solution. These percentages exist even though multiple Palestinian polls show much less enthusiasm for living side by side in peace with Israel, or that most Israelis believe that international criticism of the Jewish state will continue even if peace is achieved.

Indeed, Israelis have always grasped at opportunities for peace. When Arab leaders such as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat or King Hussein of Jordan offered genuine peace to Israel, our people passionately responded and even made painful concessions. That most Israelis are still willing to take incalculable risks for peace — the proposed Palestinian state would border their biggest cities — and are still willing to share their ancestral homeland with a people that has repeatedly tried to destroy them is nothing short of miraculous.

It’s true that Israel is a success story. The country has six world-class universities, more scientific papers and Nobel Prizes per capita than any other nation and the most advanced high-tech sector outside of Silicon Valley. The economy is flourishing, tourism is at an all-time high and our citizen army selflessly protects our borders. In the face of unrelenting pressures, we have preserved a democratic system in which both Jews and Arabs can serve in our parliament and sit on our Supreme Court. We have accomplished this without knowing a nanosecond of peace.

We shouldn’t have to apologize for our achievements. Nor should outside observers conclude that the great improvements in our society in any way lessen our deep desire for peace. That yearning was expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the recent White House ceremony for the start of direct negotiations with the Palestinians. Addressing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as “my partner in peace,” Netanyahu called for “a peace that will last for generations — our generation, our children’s generation and the next.”

For Israelis who don’t have to imagine what it’s like to live in a perpetual war zone, that vision of peace is our lifeline.

5:22PM: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak  has urged Israel to expand the settlement construction freeze for three more months to give peacemaking a chance.

As far as I am concerned, there should be no freeze. No freeze on construction, and no freezing cold peace with Egypt.

4:50PM: Yet more incitement from our “peace partners”, the PA, courtesy of PMW.

The band is apparently available for wedding, parties and barmitzvahs.

As for the dancers, they apparently call themselves Riverdance From the River to the Sea Dance.

4:40PM: A palestinian terrorist has admitted his group used phosphorus in the rockets fired yesterday, but has claimed they got it from us.

A member of the one of the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza admitted to Ynet on Thursday that the phosphorus used in the rockets fired on Israel Wednesday contained material gathered from shells Israel itself fired on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

“The phosphorus was taken from bombs Israel fired, that didn’t explode,” he said.

Still, the source said the groups’ use of phosphorous shells was “an experiment” and that there are no plans to put it to mass use. “We don’t have the kind of phosphorous the Israelis are talking about.”

Nice to see the palestinians involved in experiments, although they may one day want to do the kind that benefit humanity and possibly even win Nobel prizes, rather than those aimed towards killing innocents.

As for the claim they got the phosphorus from unexploded bombs, I think it more likely they obtained it from the likes of Iran.

11:28AM: Meet the Belgian band which doesn’t waffle.

Making a statement: For the second time in four months, Belgian band K’s Choice traveled to Israel for two shows, despite boycott calls.

Back in May, the band’s bass player Eric Grossman referred to English singer Elvis Costello as a “douchebag” for calling off his concerts in Israel. Grossman wrote on his Facebook page: “Well done. You’re an idiot. Ditto to Santana, Bono, and all the other self important ego-maniacs, who think the Israeli people don’t deserve their presence.”

Playing to a sold-out crowd in Tel Aviv Tuesday night, Singer Sarah Bettens said the band resisted calls to boycott the latest shows, and vowed to return to Israel in the future. The concert featured several unique moments highlighting the band’s great affection for its Israeli fans.

Bettens opened the show by declaring that band members enjoyed their May trip to Israel so much they immediately decided to return this time. In a sign of things to come, she wished the crowd “Shana Tova” in Hebrew, drawing great cheers.

Later on, Bettens declared that the local audience was “the best crowd in the world.”

“You probably think I say this wherever we perform, so to prove it I will post it on our Facebook page tonight,” she said.

Bettens explicitly addressed the boycott issue later in the show, making a brief statement during an interlude between songs.

“We were asked to boycott this show, but we’re a band, and we’re here to play for our fans,” she said, drawing more cheers. She later said the band will “definitely” be back in Israel. Bettens and other band members seemed to be in high spirits, maintaining a warm interaction with the audience throughout the night.

In another special moment during the show, Bettens told the crowd the band’s soundman was celebrating his birthday Tuesday. She then asked the audience to sing a birthday song for him, in Hebrew, prompting the entire venue to erupt in song for what must have been a once-in-lifetime experience for the surprised soundman.

In another gesture to the local crowd, the band performed special acoustic renditions of its songs in the first half of the concert, before picking up the electric guitars in the second half. The enthusiastic fans on hand were also treated to two encores at the end of the show.

K’s Choice was formed in the mid-1990s and went on to tour extensively in Europe and in the US, producing both gold and platinum albums.

I’ve added K’s Choice to my Pro-Israel Celebrities post.

9:38AM: The PA is reportedly not happy with the talks so far.

The talks with Israel still face “major obstacles,” especially because of Israel’s refusal to commit to a comprehensive freeze of settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, a Palestinian official in Ramallah said on Wednesday.

“The talks are very difficult,” the official told reporters. “So far we can’t talk about any progress.”

Compare to George Mitchell’s comments (see 5:48AM update).

I guess Mitchell sees the glass as half full.

With whisky.

5:55AM: The wonderful Jon Voight has slammed Time magazine for its September 13th cover story”Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace,” which I have blogged about on here.

“This is anti-Semitism. Who are these anti-Semites who are running Time magazine?” he asked host Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate. “If Israel falls, we all fall.”

“What are we going to do? Should we boycott Time magazine? Maybe so, because they shouldn’t have the right to create wars,” he said to applause from the live audience.

You can see it here (from 6:30 onwards).

5:48AM: US. special envoy George Mitchell said yesterday that the peace talks between Israel and the PA were being conducted more seriously and faster than the ones he brokered in Northern Ireland in the 1990s, while noting progress regarding the construction freeze in the settlements.

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Livni, who spoke after Netanyahu during a Jewish Agency conference in Jerusalem, said: “In this neighborhood… Israel must make decisions willingly and based on its interests, not due to pressure. Voluntary decisions show strength, while decisions made due to pressure show weakness – and we cannot afford weakness.”

“This is true regarding a political agreement, it’s true regarding the blockade, and it’s true regarding every decision,” she added.

While the prime minister blames the Palestinians for the political dead end, Livni said “It’s not enough to say nice things at a university,” referring to Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan speech.

“Policies require tough decisions, and those will not be made without understanding that an agreement is not a gift for the Arabs, or even for the US president, but rather is in our own interest,” she said. “Only when we have a leader who understands that the price of no agreement is greater than the price of an agreement – only then will there be an agreement.”

Agreed?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:26PM: Received via mail:

The Saudi newspaper “Al-Shaq Al-Awsat” is reporting today that, according to the Lebanese Minister of Transport, the women’s’ ship “Miriam” is fictitious, and the Lebanese flotilla consists of just one vessel – the French-registered “Julia”, which has taken the name “Naji El’adi”.

A source close to the flotilla, who refused to be identified, told the newspaper that the flotilla’s organizers are encountering
difficulties. He added that the vessel “Naji El’adi”, which will fly the Bolivian flag, will carry just 1000 tonnes of equipment, and 16 people on board, 7 of them crew members. This comes in spite of reports that there will be 50 journalists, as well as dozens more
human rights activists and European members of parliament, on board.

He also noted that another option exists: that the flotilla’s organizers will rent another boat. In any case, however, there is no
expectation that the flotilla will depart from Lebanon to Cyprus in the next 2-3 days.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, maintenance work continued on the “Naji El’adi”, while soldiers from the Lebanese Army guarded the vessel and prevented people from approaching it. Workers at the port told the newspaper that cargo has not yet been loaded onto the ship.

Regarding the international perspective on the ship, the newspaper reported that a large number of foreign embassies in Beirut expressed suspicion that their citizens will participate in the flotilla, and even approached the Lebanese government about this, though this is probably not intended to achieve anything to prevent them from sailing to Gaza.

In conclusion: According to this report, it can be seen that the key operations currently being undertaken by the organizers of the
Lebanese flotilla media-oriented only.

On the other hand, Samar Al-Hajj – the organizer of the women’s flotilla – was interviewed today by Al Jazeera and said that all the
preparations for the departure of the ship “Miriam” have been completed, and that soon the ship will set out on its journey. It is
interesting to note, however, that the very reporter from Al Jazeera that interviewed Al-Hajj expressed doubt about this.

8:20PM: This is almost two weeks old, but there’s no statute of limitations on integrity.

8:08PM: According to the Islam Times, IAF aircraft landed at a military base in Saudi Arabia and unloaded large quantities of military gear last weekend.

The report, which has questionable credibility, claimed the equipment was unloaded at a base in the city of Tabuk, in the north western part of the country, ahead of a possible strike on Iran.

The controversial report was also published by the Iranian news agency Fars, under the title “Suspicious military activity of the Zionist regime in Saudi Arabia.”

According to the report, the IDF built a military base approximately 9 km (5.5 miles) from Tabuk, and while Israeli planes landed there on June 18 and 19, all civilian flights were cancelled at the local airport.

One of the passengers in Tabuk noted that civilians at the airport were not given an explanation for the flight cancellations, but were compensated by the Saudi authorities and accommodated in nearby hotels.

The report further claimed that “the secret relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia became the main topic of conversation among the city’s residents.”

Another report published two weeks ago claimed Saudi Arabia tested its defense missile systems In order to allow IAF airplanes to pass through its airspace en route to bombarding nuclear facilities in Iran.

Security elements in the Persian Gulf told the London-based Times magazine that Riyadh gave Israel the green light to fly through a narrow airspace in the north of the country, in order to shorten the flight time to the Islamic Republic.

According to the Times, in order to ensure that IAF aircraft are not intercepted by Saudi defense missiles, Riyadh conducted tests to make sure the system does not activate if Israeli planes are detected. After the aircraft clear the area, the system will resume to normal activity.

Yeah, I’ll have a grain of salt with this report, please.

5:30PM: “Just” hatred of Israel, huh?

5:05PM: I really detest these meatballs.

3:05PM: Oh pride, where art thou?

Despite growing strains in Turkey’s relationship with Israel, which reached a nadir following the deadly commando raid  on a Gaza-bound flotilla, a delegation of more than 20 Turkish officers and soldiers landed in the Jewish state on Tuesday for a two-week visit, during which they will be trained to operate the Heron drone, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Turkey has purchased 10 Heron drones for an estimated $190 million. Six of them have already been delivered. The Turkish delegation, which also includes senior government officials, is expected to return to Ankara with the remaining four drones.

I wonder when Turkey will be using these drones against us.

12:24PM: Hamas has rejected the latest request from the International Red Cross to visit abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Hamas denied the request for fear that the visit might lead Israel to try to free Shalit in a military operation, according to Hamas lawmaker Yehia Moussa, who told a Hamas newspaper that the Red Cross did not take the military reality in the Middle East into account when it made the request.

The reality being that Hamas are not reasonable people who care about the human rights of a Jew.

8:25AM: What happened when Jordan’s King Abdullah fell asleep in the barber’s chair:

AP Photo/Nader Daoud

8:18AM: Israel has launched a new spy satellite called the Ofek 9, which should provide the IDF with “unprecedented operational capabilities.”

It is called the Ofek, because upon hearing the news, our enemies say “Ofek, another spy satellite.”

6:12AM: Hollywood actor and all-round mensch Jon Voight has penned an open letter to US President Barack Obama.

An open letter from actor Jon Voight to President Obama:

June 22, 2010

President Obama:

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone’s enemy — and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm’s way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.

You have brought this to a people who have given the world the Ten Commandments and most laws we live by today. The Jewish people have given the world our greatest scientists and philosophers, and the cures for many diseases, and now you play a very dangerous game so you can look like a true martyr to what you see and say are the underdogs. But the underdogs you defend are murderers and criminals who want Israel eradicated.

You have brought to Arizona a civil war, once again defending the criminals and illegals, creating a meltdown for good, loyal, law-abiding citizens. Your destruction of this country may never be remedied, and we may never recover. I pray to God you stop, and I hope the people in this great country realize your agenda is not for the betterment of mankind, but for the betterment of your politics.

With heartfelt and deep concern for America and Israel,

Jon Voight

6:10AM: Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar and a group of other notables including former Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble and former Permanent US Representative to the UN John Bolton, are behind a new initiative:

The Friends of Israel have joined together in a new international initiative on the basis of the following convictions:

1. Israel is a Western country. With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.

2. Israel´s right to exist should not be questioned. In the face of a uniquely campaign of deligitimation, we remind all people of goodwill of the true historical context in which the State of Israel was re-established following United Nations Resolution 181 in 1947. We state emphatically that that decision to recognize the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination was not merely a gesture of compassion following the horrors that had befallen the Jewish people during the Holocaust. It was, above all, a recognition of the right of the Jewish people to establish a sovereign state on land in which they have had an enduring presence and to which they have had a historical claim for thousands of years.

3. Israel, as a sovereign country, has the right to self-defense. Israel is indeed a normal Western country, but it is one which faces unique threats and challenges. Israel is the only state in the world forced to fight one war after another to secure its very existence. Confronting some of the most violent and well equipped terrorist groups in the world it is also the only country whose right to self-defense is consistently and widely questioned. Today, Israel has been forced to fight on two fronts: one to defend its borders and another to defend its legitimacy. We stand with Israel, and demand that it be accorded the same legitimacy and the same right to defend itself as any other Western country. Human rights statutes designed to defend the dignity of people everywhere, laws on universal jurisdiction intended to be used against criminals and tyrants and international bodies established to secure justice, have been subverted, their guiding principles stood on their head, to wage war against Israeli democracy. The campaign against Israel is corroding the international system from within.

4. Israel is on our side. With this in mind, we must be clear in recognizing that Israel’s fight is our fight. Western democracy will not prevail unless we recognize and assume the Judeo-Christian cultural and moral heritage which first gave rise to those institutions and the values which initially inspired them, and strengthen them. The assault on Israel is itself an assault on Judeo-Christian values. Israel stands on the front line, but we are next in line. If Israel’s right to self defense is questioned in the Middle East, our right to self-defense will be questioned when fighting similar terrorist enemies in Afghanistan, and at home. If principles of human rights and universal jurisdiction are to be turned into weapons against Israeli democracy, what makes us so sure they will not one day be used against European and North American democracy? Israel’s future is our fate.

5. We believe in peace, but peace in the Middle East is not just about Israel and the Palestinians. The aspiration for an enduring peace in the Middle East is a noble one, and it is one we share. But outsiders, helpful as they can sometimes be, can only achieve so much. The parties involved should know how to reach a satisfactory solution themselves. Attempts to impose solutions from the outside will fail. The key to ending this conflict is for the Palestinian side to unequivocally recognize Israel as the legitimate national homeland of the Jewish people. Once that step has been taken, good faith negotiations have a chance of achieving success.

6. We share the same threats and challenges. There are two related threats which also imperil the region, and the wider world: the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and jihadism; and the prospect of a nuclear Iran. These threats are as existential for the state of Israel as for the rest of us: the jihad knows no boundaries and a nuclear Iran represents a strategic revolution of global dimensions. Israel cannot and should not face those threats alone. For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last.

7. Believing that the continuous deligitimation of Israel has a great deal of responsibility in raising an aggressive and dangerous anti-semitism, in a spirit of solidarity with the State of Israel, and in recognition that we, the Western nations, must stand together lest we fall together, we therefore launch the Friends of Israel Initiative to do the following:

a) To combat the deligitimization of the State of Israel at home, abroad and inside the institutions of the international community.

b) To publicly show our solidarity with Israel’s democratic institutions – the legitimate expression of the Jewish people’s millennial aspiration to live in peace and freedom in its national homeland.

c) To support Israel’s inalienable right to secure borders unmolested by terrorists or tyrannical regimes so that its citizens can continue living with the same guarantees that our own societies enjoy.

d) To consistently and firmly oppose the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.

e) To work to ensure that Israel is fully accepted as a normal Western country, an essential and indivisible part of the Western world to which we belong.

f) To reaffirm the value of the religious, moral, and cultural Judeo-Christian heritage as the main source of the liberal and democratic Western societies.

These convictions inspire this Friends of Israel Initiative. We invite all men and women of goodwill to join us.

6:00AM: Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal foreign-affairs columnist and deputy editorial page editor, speaks about the liberal case for Israel.

“The Secretary-General takes note of the Israeli announcement on their inquiry,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.

“A thorough Israeli investigation is important and could fit with the secretary-general’s proposal, which would fully meet the international community’s expectation for a credible and impartial investigation,” he said.

But Haq added that Ban’s “proposal for an international inquiry remains on the table and he hopes for a positive Israeli response.” He said Israel had not rejected Ban’s idea.

Diplomats said Ban urged Israel to accept a neutral inquiry panel led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and the cautious UN reaction may indicate that Ban had doubts about whether an Israeli-led probe would suffice.

Perhaps if we added Richard Goldstone to the panel, then the UN would be placated?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top

11:42PM: Bill Maher on why the media takes an anti-Israeli stance.

I think he has a point.

9:20PM: Excellent piece on the lies of Canadian flotilla guerrilla, Kevin Neish (hat tip: Blazing Cat Fur).

You know things are particularly rotten in Denmark when the people over at the left-wing website rabble.ca accuse the CBC of pro-Israel bias. Surely this had to be what passes for a joke at the normally bland and satire-deprived rabble.ca . Are memories so short over there that they have forgotten Neil Macdonald?

On June 8th I wrote an article in the Full Comment section of the National Post about the strangely selective peace activism of Victoria resident Kevin Neish. In that article I expanded on how he and his knife-wielding and iron-bar swinging flotilla shipmates represent a brand of narcissistic do-gooders that are both Israel-obsessed and embarrassingly naïve about the reasons for the blockade to the Hamas-controlled Gaza by both Israel and Egypt.

Subsequent to that article, I was contacted by a sharp-eyed scanner of left-wing media sites known as “John Watson” who like his partner, Sherlock Holmes, keenly noticed a number of spurious inconsistencies in Mr. Neish’s interview with the CBC’s Carole MacNeil and another video recently released and posted by one of the “activists” on the Mavi Marmara. When queried in detail by MacNeil as to what Neish saw or did not see given his many positions described on the vessel, Neish immediately bridles at MacNeil and huffily accuses her of “taking the Israeli position.”  In his interview with Ms. MacNeil, Neish expressly says, at the 4:10 mark to be exact, that he “didn’t see any wounds” on the Israeli soldiers.  At the 7:52 mark of the interview, he says that the soldiers were released “unharmed as far as I understand”.

In a second video made by Mr. Neish’s friends on the Mavi Marmara, Mr. Neish addresses the camera below decks during the hostilities, and at the 5:57 mark says very clearly that he’s seen “two soldiers hauled down here bleeding and wounded”.  He even appears quite excited by the fact.

So, it’s unclear to me why he would tell the CBC a different story than the one he gave to a fellow camera-wielding activist? As he knew they were bleeding and wounded, why would he say that they were released unharmed? Furthermore, at the 5:30 mark of the same video, Mr. Neish is holding a laminated booklet used to identify the flotilla’s ships and various parties thereon which he or someone else removed from one of the soldiers.

My very well-trained eye recognizes this booklet to be authentic which would be carried within the soldier’s vest. I wonder if during his or one of his cohort’s rifling around the wounded soldier’s pockets, Mr. Neish decided at that point that he’d ignore the stab wounds and report to the Canadian media that he didn’t see any injured Israeli soldiers?

In their protest and pursuant dissembling, it is clear that many of these activists are either lying about events or changing their stories to portray themselves as hapless innocents and surprise, surprise, the IDF as brutal aggressors. I know this IDF unit very well. It’s known as “Shayetet 13” and akin to the U.S. Navy SEALS with whom it often trains. Neish’s claims of rampant shooting are as ridiculous as his other claims. This is a well-known tactic known in counter-terrorism circles; terrorist organizations carefully brief their training cadres to claim to have been tortured and brutalized as it plays well with western media audiences. I have no doubt that this is clearly a case of strategic lying and with the exception of Ms. MacNeil; it’s working in front of the television cameras every day.

One of the most interesting footnotes to this story is that NDP Deputy Leader, Libby Davies’ spouse, Kim Elliot, is the publisher of rabble.ca , the very same website that so stridently accuses the CBC of a “pro-Israeli bias”. Watching any species of animal devour its young is never a pretty sight but in this case it’s just bizarre. Interestingly,

Ms. Davies is one of those ahistorical souls I alluded to earlier given her belief that Israel’s occupation began in 1948, the year that the UN recognized Israel as a member state and a full 19 years before the Six Day War when Jordan, Syria, and Egypt “occupied” Palestine.

Sadly, Ms. MacNeil was clearly alone in her journalistic due-diligence in questioning Kevin Neish’s veracity. Clearly, if there are any charges of media bias to be made in this case, the CBC is the last place anyone should be pointing their finger.

8:10PM: According to the fifth annual Survey of Contemporary Israeli Attitudes Toward World Jewry conducted on behalf of the B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem:

• 65% of Jewish Israelis believe US Jews should criticize the Obama administration’s policy toward Israel
• 12% said American Jews should support Obama’s current policy on Israel
• 46% believe American Jews are reluctant to criticize the Obama administration’s Israeli policy due to fear of being accused of dual loyalty.
• 36% said that type of accusation has no effect on them.
• 54% believe that Jewish advocacy groups who work with foreign governments and call themselves “pro-Israel” should always support Israeli government policy.
• 55% believe a two-state solution to the conflict is essential to the survival of Israel as a Jewish democratic state.
• 49% disagree that settlements pose a threat to Israel and “feed the delegitimization process” that Israel currently faces.

8:00PM: My favorite Hollywood actor with a brain (granted, it’s a small field).

7:45PM: A heartfelt message from a young Arab-Druze man living in Israel.

5:30PM: What do Duke, Israel and the Yankees have in common?

3:25PM: After making all sorts of unfounded accusations against Israel in this piece, terror enabler and sister-in-law of Tony Blair, Lauren Booth, is now accusing Israel of stealing up to $3.5 million worth of money, electrical equipment and other items from the Gaza flotilla passengers.

On Iran’s Press TV, of course.

1:05PM: With the EU pressuring Israel to lift the naval blockade on Gaza, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin has warned of the dangerous repercussions.

Speaking at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, Diskin said that lifting the blockade, put in place three years ago when Hamas wrestled power over the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup, would be a “dangerous development for Israel.”

“It would be a huge security breach, even if ships are inspected along the way in international ports en route to Gaza,” he warned. The port of Nicosia was mentioned during the meeting, as it was the port where the ships of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla docked last month before Israeli navy commandos clashed with activists aboard one of the ships in international waters.

Diskin added that terror organizations in Gaza are continuing to arm themselves and gain strength, both by independent production of weapons and by smuggling.

“The Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are in possession of 5,000 rockets in the Gaza Strip, with a range of up to 40 kilometers,” Diskin explained. “Of those rockets, 4,000 belong to Hamas.”

“Hamas also possesses several rockets that can reach central Israel,” Diskin went on to say.

The director of the Shin Bet also addressed Israel’s willingness to ease the general blockade on Gaza, saying that “there is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. I don’t have any problem with easing the transfer of goods from Israel. But weapons are being smuggled right now from Sinai.”

12:50PM: Excellent expose on the lies and fabrications regarding the Gaza flotilla being thrown around in the media.

10:00AM: Israel has denounced comments made yesterday by former Cuban president Fidel Castro, who compared Israel’s treatment of palestinians to the Nazi extermination of Jews.

“The hatred felt by the state of Israel against the Palestinians is such that they would not hesitate to send the one and a half million men, women and children of that country to the crematoria where millions of Jews of all ages were exterminated by the Nazis,” the ex-Cuban leader said.

“It would seem that the Fuehrer’s [Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's] swastika is today Israel’s banner,” the 83-year-old Castro declared in the latest of a series of articles dubbed “reflections” in the communist-ruled island’s media.

In other news, Fidel Castro is still alive.

6:18AM: Middle East Quarter envoy Tony Blair said he believed Israel will ease its blockade of Gaza “in the next days” by allowing in commercial goods and construction materials.

6:15AM: The Israeli navy is bracing itself for flotillas from Iran and Lebanon.

6:10AM: University of California, Irvine, has suspended the Muslim Student Union (MSU) for one year and placed it on disciplinary probation for an additional year for disorderly conduct, obstructing university activities, furnishing false information and other violations of campus policy arising from their heckling of Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren.

MSU attorney Reem Salahi had this to say about the decision:

“It really does have very lasting constitutional implications…It’s a chilling effect for Muslims on campus and their right to associate.”

Funny, because I would reserve the word chilling for something like this:

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“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities,” Ali Shirazi, Khamenei’s representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Can anyone say Declaration of War with me?

And speaking of Iran, there are those who argue the flotilla was a decoy for providing more Iranian missiles to Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.

But the more ominous development this flotilla is camouflaging is a real land fleet bringing missiles and advanced weapons to Hezbollah from Syria to the Bekaa Valley.

Over the past weeks reports have abounded about Iranian long-range missiles shipped via Syria to Hezbollah and satellite images have shown terror bases in the vicinity of Damascus growing under Baathist protection. As soon as the attention of the international community began to focus on the flow of strategic weapons to Hezbollah, the “brotherhood of regimes” unleashed the Gaza flotilla across the Mediterranean. Seasoned geopolitical experts would rationally link the move to create an incident off the coasts of Gaza with the move to equipping Hezbollah with lethal missiles.

In the end we’re looking at two flotillas, the maritime one in the south being only a decoy for the land fleet to achieve its goal of war preparations in the north.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:50PM:I wonder what mad Mahmoud would say:

Argentinian soccer star Diego Maradona puts a note with a secret wish in between the stones of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem's Old City 30 May. It's the third time that Maradona and the team come to the Wall before the World Cup finals. Argentina will play Israel 31 May in a friendly game. (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)

I have put a note of my own in the Wall, begging that Argentina doesn’t win the World Cup.

10:22PM: Thousands attended a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles yesterday, including Hollywood legends Jon Voight and Arnold Schwartznegger.

9:30PM: Quote of the day:

“Turkey has embraced the leaders of Iran and Hamas, all of whom called for Israel’s destruction,”

- Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren

8:15PM: Comparative photos of Gaza and the rest of the Muslim world.

Posted by a Syrian! (hat tip: LGF reader Joo-Liz and Israel Matzav)

7:00PM: The funniest thing you will see all day (honest).

6:12PM: Reuters have re-released the previously cropped photos (see 5:50AM and 9:50AM updates) to include the incriminating parts, as if nothing had happened.

No doubt after all of the complaints about their underhanded tactics came to light.

4:18PM: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Turkish Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of supporting Israel (I would only accuse him of having a bitch of a name to spell and pronounce).

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the main opposition leader Sunday of “advocating on behalf of Tel Aviv.”

Although Erdoğan did not give any names, arguing that he did not want to “promote them,” his remarks in the northwestern province of Bursa were clearly directed at Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“Some people speak in the name of Tel Aviv, advocate for Tel Aviv,” Erdoğan said. “They question our way of diplomacy. The way you did things put us in this dire situation. As I said earlier, we do not work as the ‘mon cher’ diplomats do.”

Erdoğan said Turkey could not step aside since it has historical ties with the region and Jerusalem is a holy city for all three of the world’s largest monotheistic religions.

Kılıçdaroğlu had said Turkey should have made more diplomatic efforts for the Gaza aid flotilla, which was the target of a deadly attack by Israeli soldiers last week.

The CHP chief had also criticized Erdoğan for making a reference to the Torah and telling the Jewish people that their religion forbids murders. “Erdoğan uses the Ten Commandments as a tool,” he said. “But the eighth commandment says, ‘Thou shall not steal,’ what about that?” asked Kılıçdaroğlu, accusing the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government of corruption.

Erdoğan was harsh in his response. “Thank God, I have read both the Torah and the Bible,” Erdoğan said Sunday. “I have read the Quran various times, he should read them. He should then talk to the people around him before making such comments.”

(hat tip: juvanaya)

4:06PM: British press marvels at Israel’s PR. I kid you not.

So either our PR has gotten better, or the British press is about as good as their dental care.

(I think it is a combination of the two).

1:50PM: From the Anti-Zionist-Not-Anti-Semitic-Yeah-Right Department:

A Lebanese woman steps on a repilica of the Star of David as several hundred left-wingers demonstrate near the US embassy in Awkar close to Beirut on June 6, 2010, calling for an end to Israel's blockade of the Palestinian Gaza Strip following the May 31, deadly assault by Israeli commandos on a flotilla of aid ships sailing to Gaza. AFP PHOTO/ANWAR AMRO (Photo credit should read ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images)

Notice how this is a modern-looking woman and not someone who looks like this.

1:46PM: Hot on the heels of the report that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have expressed readiness to escort flotillas to Gaza, the Iranian Red Crescent has now decided to send two aid ships to Gaza this week.

9:50AM: Charles Johnson of LGF has found even more photo cropping, further suggesting deliberate media bias on the part of Reuters.

8:32AM: The Jerusalem Post adds:

According to IDF brass, the size of the unit and equipment it was carrying, indicate an intention of carrying out a large scale attack. Only the commandos’ quick, effective response prevented a disaster.

8:30AM: The Israeli navy has thwarted a terror attack, killing 4 terrorists in the process.

The Israeli Navy opened fire on an armed Palestinians wearing diving suits and apparently on their way to attack Israel targets, the IDF said on Monday morning.

An army source told Haaretz that at about 4:30 A.M., naval commandos identified and fired on a boat carrying five armed Palestinians heading north from waters off the Nuseirath refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Of course, the palestinians can always claim the palestinians were mere peace activists on a humanitarian mission, with the diving suits and weapons necessary to catch really big fish to feed the poor starving people of Gaza. Or something.

Gaza sources reported that four Palestinians were killed in what appears to have been a rare attempt at a seaborne attack on Israel. Hamas later confirmed the deaths and said a fifth Palestinian was missing.

Four bodies were retrieved and taken to a hospital in central Gaza, said Moawiya Hassanain, a Palestinian health official. Two of the dead had suffered multiple gunshots to the head, Hassanain said.

The IDF said there were no Israeli casualties.

An unnamed military official told Army Radio that the operation had been a success for the Navy’s elite commando unit, Shayetet 13, which has come under international scrutiny since killing nine pro-Palestinian activists in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla a week ago.

“This will be a shot in the arm for the commandos after the hard week they have been through,” the official said.

Poor choice of words if you ask me.

5:50AM: Charles Johnson of LGF notices something “interesting” about the Reuters version of the Turkish newspaper photo I posted yesterday.

5:48AM: Salafi Jihadi Sheikh Hussein Bin Mahmud, a pseudonymous cleric who is well respected in the online global jihadist community,  had this to say about the Gaza flotilla.

“The Jews Have Become Less Rough and Violent than They Used to Be”

“Hundreds of troops from the navy of the Jews, with air support, mounted a coordinated assault on the ships in the flotilla, using bullets and gas, and killing several of the unarmed passengers; the rest they brought to Ashdod port in occupied Palestine…

“What drew my attention is that the Jews have become less rough and violent than they used to be. There was an aspect of softness and calm in their dealings with these ships. Some might express amazement at these words, but they are the truth…

“The Jews betrayed Moses… They killed many of the prophets, and especially Yahya bin Zakariya [i.e. John the Baptist]… They conspired to kill our Prophet Muhammad… They are hard of heart, feeble of mind, and lacking in manners. They are a people of deception, deceit, wickedness, unbelief, heresy, and polytheism.”

Hitler Left Some Jews Alive So the World Could See Why He Killed the Rest

“Everyone who has had contact with them and lived alongside them, in the East and in the West, has spurned them, loathed them, and detested them, to the point where Hitler said: I could kill all the Jews in the world, but I left a few alive so that the entire world will know why I killed the Jews…

“Given that these are some of the Jews’ characteristics, what were the members of the Freedom Flotilla expecting from them?…

“Those people who have condemned the mujahideen’s… marytrdom operations, calling them ‘suicide operations,’ would do well to abandon the idea of flotillas like these, which are truly suicide in the full sense of the term.

“The Jews have been laying siege to the Muslims [in Gaza] for the past four years, and the entire world did nothing [about it] – do these [ship passengers] think that their being killed by the Jews will disturb a single fly[?]…

“The oddest thing about this flotilla was the Turkish people’s stance. We would have expected more from the Turkish people than what we saw. We know that most of the Arab peoples are dead, having been buried by their rulers in the coffins of poverty, desperation, humiliation, and oppression… But the Turkish people still has a shred of honor… and it still has some innate savagery.

“We would have expected [the Turks] to storm and burn down the Jewish embassies, chase down and kill all those within them, and kill every Jew in Turkey and threaten the rest of the Jews in the world with Turkish rage, in a manner reminiscent of the awe-inspiring Ottoman state. But none of this happened. Just a few hundred Turks stood in front of the Israeli Embassy chanting slogans and voicing condemnation – as though they were an Arab people, and not a Turkish one!…”

“How Does a Person Put His Life in the Hands of His Jewish Enemy When He Is Unarmed?”

“How does a person put his life in the hands of his Jewish enemy when he is unarmed? Do they expect mercy from the Jews? The Jews didn’t show mercy [even] to the prophets…

“Were the Turkish government serious in its response, the least that would have been incumbent on it would have been to act against the Jews according to the principle of retribution in kind: ordering Turkish fleets to attack the ships on the high seas, kill some of their men, imprison the others, and bring the ships into Turkish territory… [But in fact] the shari’a obligation is to declare jihad for the sake of Allah, in order to liberate Palestine from the hands of the Jews and return it to the hands of the Muslims. This is the shari’a obligation that no country that claims to be Muslim can evade…

“When has freedom ever been attained without fighting? When has honor ever been available for purchase in the market of betrayal and humiliation? When has glory ever been granted [to someone] apart from on the battlefield?…

“Gaza does not need all this media coverage… Gaza needs bombs, bullets, iron, fire, missiles, tanks, mines, and missile launchers held on the shoulders of lions such as [the Arab commanders in Chechnya] Thamir Al-Suweilem (‘Khattab’) and Abu Al-Walid Al-Ghamdi, Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi and Yahya Ayyash… It needs extraordinary leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi, and Shamil Basayev…”

“Gaza… Is Thirsty and Wants to Drink the Blood of the Sons of Apes and Pigs”

“Gaza will not agree to a ceasefire with the Jews. On the contrary – it is thirsty and wants to drink the blood of the sons of apes and pigs, and it is hungry and longs to devour the body parts of these cowards. Proud Gaza calls to the Muslims, [saying] that it does not want people to defend it, but rather wants people to set out from it to liberate Palestine and to expel the accursed Jews.

“Gaza does not want ‘freedom ships’ bearing blonde women with Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and atheist men; it wants a naval fleet and a land army [bearing] black Islamic banners that are Khorasani [i.e. Afghan], Syrian, Egyptian, Maghrebi, Yemeni, Turk, and Kurdish, set east of the Jordan River with the Jews to its west, with sparks flying from the eyes of the Muslims…

“Our problem is not Gaza, but [all] Palestine. [Our problem is with] those who protect the Jews from outside its borders, and prevent the mujahideen from entering Palestine to wage jihad for the sake of Allah and to liberate our holy lands. Thus, we say to the mujahideen: Those who want to enter Palestine and fight the Jews must start first [by fighting] the border guards [i.e. the Arab regimes], so as to protect their rear – because a wise man does not leave his rear exposed to his enemy. It is not forbidden to kill the Jewish state’s border guards, even if they pray and fast…”

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The Toronto Film Festival opened on Thursday with an outcry against the fest’s City to City program, which spotlights Tel Aviv this year. Some prominent names in the industry — including Harry Belafonte, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie and Viggo Mortensen — are protesting the inclusion in light of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. One filmmaker, John Greyson, withdrew his doc “Covered” in protest, although the group, led by writer Naomi Klein, says that their protest is not a boycott. Their letter is called “The Toronto Declaration — No Celebration of Occupation.”

I will admit he is a good actor, since watching him as Aragorn, one could be convinced he is a hero.

Meanwhile, some other celebrities have joined Jon Voight in speaking out against this anti-Israel protest.

TORONTO, Sept. 10 /CNW/ – Leading members of the film industry are speaking out against the group that opposes the Toronto International Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv. Judging films, they say, by their country of origin rather than the quality of the artistic product, is censorship. “I am against censorship in all its forms. The attempts to stop TIFF’s City to City spotlight on Tel Aviv amount to political censorship. I am against it.” David Cronenberg, Filmmaker.

“Empowered groups of people, deciding whose stories can, and cannot be told, does nothing but remind us of oppression that has no place in film-making.” Minnie Driver, Actor.

“The recent attack on Israeli films at TIFF is an attempt to politicize art. It has been demonstrated that in Israel, artists are free to create work, which often is critical of their own society. “Waltz with Bashir” was nominated for an Academy Award last year, despite its criticism of Israeli government policy. This recent attempt at political censorship smacks of anti-Semitic bigotry. Let’s keep political hatred out of the artistic community. Artists should treat each other with respect and support regardless of religion, colour, or nationality. You can have a great career and become a Hollywood legend – but there’s a spirit of humanity and caring for others – that we are honouring tonight and we thank you for coming to Toronto.” Norman Jewison, Filmaker.

“Israel is the only country in the Middle East where films are made without censorship of any sort. Films that are critical of the country, or some aspect of Israeli society, even the Israel Defense Forces, are made freely, without interference and with the State’s financial support. Witness last year’s Academy Award nominated Waltz With Bashir, which, despite its ferocious criticism of Israel, was largely funded by the Israel Film fund, a government agency. The attack on TIFF is a vile attempt by a gang of fashionable bigots to use coercive tactics to stifle voices they don’t like. These are not crusaders for justice. If they were, they would be alarmed by films from countries like Malaysia (where a woman gets lashes for wearing trousers), China and Iran where civil liberties are in short supply. But these vigilantes have no stomach for standing up to ruthless totalitarian regimes. They prefer to wage their crusade against a tried and tested target: Jews. Today, Jewish filmmakers from Tel Aviv get their turn. Their brand of political censorship is at odds with the most cherished values of Canadian society: Freedom of expression and freedom of choice. Bigotry like theirs has no place at the Toronto International Film Festival.” Robert Lantos, Filmmaker.

“Film is essentially about telling global stories – of exploring the complexities and contradictions of the human condition. Any attempt to silence that conversation – to hijack the festival for any political agenda in the end, only serves to silence artistic voices.” Ivan Reitman, Filmmaker.

“Back in the early 1970′s when I was performing at the newly founded Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Free Theatre and Factory Lab Theatre, Toronto police had what was called a “Morality Squad” to protect the population from unseemly material. I remember an early production by playwright Hrant Alianak was seen by the squad and deemed unworthy of public performance. They threatened that if the show wasn’t closed immediately, the next night anyone onstage could be arrested and charged – and so over fifty well-known Toronto artists like Pierre Berton sat on the stage the next night and dared the police to arrest them. That night effectively ended the power of Toronto’s Morality Squad. Censorship has reared its ugly head now and again, against all kinds of art, for all kinds of reasons. The reasons invariably suit only the agenda of the one doing the censoring – as if the same specious logic couldn’t be turned on them one day.” Saul Rubinek, Actor and Director.

“The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been hijacked by a group of so-called activists bent on furthering their agenda – to demonize Jews and to marginalize Israel, in order to bring about the destruction of the Jewish State. Clearly, they do not support a two state solution. By objecting to a “spotlight” on Tel Aviv they are saying that no place in Israel is legitimate. From their twisted perspective, everything that Israel does is – by definition – illegitimate and everything that the enemies of Israel do is – by definition – legitimate. This is anti-Semitism in its crudest form. Furthermore, they have chosen to align themselves with Gaza’s Hamas regime that stands for terrorism, fundamentalism and totalitarianism. It is a Holocaust denying organization that is against Jews, Christians, gays and women. There is no worse regime in the world and yet Naomi Klein, John Greyson and company have chosen to identify themselves with it. You can tell a person by their friends.” Simcha Jacobovici, Filmmaker.

At the annual Likud party Rosh Hashana toast yesterday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said:

“We have proven that we desire peace and we are willing to compromise, but we will not be taken for fools.”

“One thing is clear – there is a government in Israel that bolsters security, that is leading the economy and that is pursuing a responsible peace process, while preserving Israel’s crucial interests.”

—-

“Jerusalem will remain united. And Israel’s capital forever.”

The Israeli people will not be taken for fools either, Mr Prime Minister. So please keep your actions consistent with your words.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

5:02PM: The IDF has stated that we hold the Lebanese government responsible.

And on that note, I have to log off and prepare for the Sabbath.

4:38PM: Three Katusha rockets fired from southern Lebanon reportedly struck northern Israel earlier this afternoon, with no reports of casualties but an electric tower being hit.

The IDF has fired artillery into southern Lebanon in response.

3:58PM: Speaking of Jane Fonda, she published my response to her protest in the comments on her blog. Unfortunately, there were a few Israeli commenters who actually agreed with her stance. There were also a couple of appearances from you-know-who, doing his best to bash Israel and his fellow Jews who support her.

Like this one:

Richard Silverstein says:
September 9, 2009 at 12:43 am

Sorry I clicked on the wrong reply button above & placed my comment in the wrong place.

Tel Aviv, likely the only city in the Middle East where being gay isn’t punishable by violence

Glenn, Glenn. How much do you know about Israel? You do realize that only a few wks ago a mass murderer decided to go on a shooting rampage in Tel Aviv & killed several gay teenagers & hasn’t yet been found by a police dept. not particulary known for their interest in solving crimes against gays.

Perhaps you’d like to rewrite yr comment to reflect reality, as opposed to yr own version of it.

And this one:

Richard Silverstein says:
September 9, 2009 at 12:39 am

Yours was a principled position and the fact that the right pro-Israel figures have resorted to twisting yr position out of context (or lying about it) isn’t surprising) since that’s how these people do their politics.

I’ve got news for you, Marvin Hier was only yr friend as long as you could do something for him. He’s a user. He used the lie that the Iranian parliament passed a law forcing Jews to wear a yellow start (a lie) to advance his own group’s anti-Semitism agenda. He is building a “Museum of Remembrance” on a Muslim cemetery in West Jerusalem thereby oblitering the memory of the Muslims buried within it.

Not a nice man. Not a good rabbinic model (& I am a proud American Jew btw).

Silverstein is anything but a proud American Jew and certain not in a position to accuse another of being “not a nice man.”

3:26PM: Actor Jon Voight has attacked Jane Fonda and company for their protest against the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to hold the City to City Spotlight on Tel Aviv.

Actor Jon Voight said he was speaking out against an “evil, destructive force” in taking on his former co-star Jane Fonda and other high-profile protesters condemning the Toronto International Film Festival in a controversy involving Israel.

“What’s going on is they’re taking over the festival with this agenda that they have,” he said in an interview explaining his take on the controversy that threatens to overshadow the opening today of the 34th edition of the festival.

Last week a group of authors, academics and celebrities released The Toronto Declaration criticizing the festival’s decision to hold the City to City Spotlight on Tel Aviv, which highlights films from 10 Israeli directors. Among the signatories were Naomi Klein, Danny Glover and Jane Fonda, who starred with Mr. Voight in the 1978 Vietnam War drama Coming Home, which netted both actors Oscars.

“I think that validating these guys in any way is the wrong approach. I’m not interested in their answers to things because it’s all going to be a bunch of poison,” he said.

“I know the situation that exists on the left, because I was there in the late ’60s, and I know Jane,” said Mr. Voight, now 70, who even appeared with Ms. Fonda at events supporting a leftist Chilean political party. (In an opinion article that appeared last year in The Washington Times, however, the actor said his political activism was due to “Marxist propaganda.”)

Mr. Voight, in a letter published today in the National Post, blasts Ms. Fonda “and all those who signed the letter with her, of aiding and abetting those who seek the destruction of Israel. How do you not respond to a very dangerous lie against a democratic country, Israel, who for years tries to defend themselves against constant wars and aggression?” the actor told the Post when asked why he had written the letter.

“I’m seeing a very dangerous precedent beginning to catch hold now in the United States. If our movie stars start protecting the enemy against Israel, we can be sure the beginning of a very evil destructive force is showing its face.”

I really love this guy. He is always there defending Israel amongst a sea of cretins. In fact, given the extent to which Hollywood is “Jewish”, it is amazing – and sad – that he is the only one doing so in a vocal way.

Negligent father, Jon Voight,

who is also a serial adulterer, got rich and made his mark by very convincingly, almost TOO convincingly portraying a male prostitute opposite d. hoffman in midnight cowboy, now insults thinking americans further by attacking the leader of our country, our first elected President in eight years!
I am a Jew, and I do not support Jon Voight, the whitest man on earth when he blabs on about Israel. You honky peckerwood, shut your stupid bill kristol directed mouth!

If you were to try to breach my security here in the state where obama was born, I now would have the right as a legal rifle bearing citizen to shoot your rosacea-encrusted face off. So stay out of here! Jon voight is not for socialism without the national part!

I am guessing Barr (or her lawyer) decided it wise to take down this post, which she seems to have done – from her home page (Notice how there are a couple of posts from August 19th, and then one from August 17th).

The problem for her is the August 18th post remains at the link above, and I’ve taken the screen shot just in case she tries to fully delete the evidence.

Could it be that this post will get Barr into more trouble than her Hitler-dressing exploits?

I sure hope so.