Hamas’ political leader has said that his Islamist organization is willing to form an investigative committee to present “the facts” of its actions during the winter conflict with Israel, following a United Nations report which accused both sides of war crimes during the hostilities.

“When Hamas deals seriously with the Goldstone report, with some reservations on it, this is evidence that Hamas respects the international law and is ready to cooperate with this law,” Khaled Meshal told the Web site Palestine Note in an interview from his base in Damascus.

“If the report or any other side has any reservations on Hamas’ actions, we are ready to explain them and we will form an honest and neutral investigative committee in Gaza to give Goldstone and its committee and the international community the facts.”

—-

But Meshal rejected the claim that Hamas had deliberately targeted Israeli civilians during the fighting, when thousands of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip – which it controls – into Israeli communities.

“Hamas does not aim to kill civilians. Hamas does not want to target the civilians,” he said. “Hamas defends itself, but because it has simple abilities and its rockets are inaccurate in targeting, so it reaches the civilians, but we do not intend to do that.”

The Hamas leader also said that the group is willing to abide by any international attempts to secure a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, and that Hamas is willing to accept the borders that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War.

—-

Meshal said that the Palestinians, including Hamas, would be willing to accept a peace deal based on the 1967, and warned that this was the only option for peace.

“…[I]f the Arabs and the Palestinians found seriousness from the American administration in pressuring Israel to withdraw to 1967 borders, and recognize the Palestinian and Arab rights and stops its occupation and aggression, I’m telling you that the Arabs and Palestinians will cooperate with the American administration and there will be peace in the region,” he told Palestine Note. “Without that, the struggle will remain and all the American and international attempts will fail because in brief they’re not moving in the right direction.”

You can watch the interview here.

[Warning: Fast moving subtitles may cause severe dizziness. As may trying to comprehend the ridiculousness of Meshaal's answers]

The only thing more infuriating than Meshaal’s audacity in believing people will swallow his blatant lies is the fact that in this regard, he’s right.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:52PM: Disturbing report on the largest cult in Israel – Scientology.

Pay special attention to what the reporter says about Tom Cruise.

7:50PM: Anti-Israel blogger Richard Silverstein has posted about the J Street conference (http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/10/28/2-12-cheers-for-historic-j-street-national-conference/). Here’s his reaction to Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel getting mocked.

Returning to the blogger panel, Blumenthal had one of the more memorably funny quotes of the day criticizing Elie Wiesel’s address to Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel national event (the joke refers to Wiesel’s investment losses with Bernie Madoff):

The last person Elie Wiesel trusted this much was Bernie Madoff.

Nice guy, huh?

Meanwhile, here’s Silverstein’s version of the infamous “blogger ejection incident.”

Another denizen of the right-wing Jewish deep slime, Hillel Stavis, crashed the panel, taking pictures of the panelists and attendees without authorization and had to be escorted from the room.  Since he was a registered conference goer, J Street allowed him to remain in the hall even though he wrote a scummy report at his own blog complaining of his “shabby” treatment.

Notice how Silverstein does not mention his own role in Stavis being escorted from the room (he was the one who approached security), nor the fact notification was not given to participants that filming or recording was prohibited.

6:00PM: Here is a debate on the Goldstone Report with perhaps the worst representative of the Israeli side I have ever seen – aggressive, rude, inarticulate, and showing more than a passing resemblance to Dr Evil.

Of course, the Iranian they chose to debate him is very articulate.

Ouch.

It’s a shame they didn’t invite someone like Richard Landes or other Understanding the Goldstone Report contributors instead.

5:25PM: Israelis are increasingly getting cheesed off with Turkey.

An employee stands behind a sign depicting a crossed out Turkish flag taped to the window of a coffee shop in Tel Aviv October 27, 2009. A manager at the coffee house said the decision not to sell Turkish coffee was made in protest at Turkish criticism of Israel over its military offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Israel this month summoned a senior Turkish diplomat to protest a Turkish television drama that depicted an Israeli soldier shooting dead a Palestinian baby. Picture taken October 27, 2009. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL FOOD POLITICS CONFLICT)

If you think this is harsh, consider the kinds of signs displayed in Turkish shop windows.

1:00PM: Lebanese troops have found and dismantled four rockets ready to be fired into Israel, in the same area from where yesterday’s Katusha was fired.

Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev has filed an official complaint with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council president over yesterday’s rocket attack, expressing concern over the rise in hostile activity from Lebanese territory and stressing that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for any attack to come from its territory.

6:05AM: Lawfare: Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has faced possible arrest on war crimes charges during an official visit to the UK.

Ayalon returned to Israel on Tuesday evening after a two-day visit to London, during which pro-Palestinian activists attempted to use a section of British law to have him arrested.

The International Criminal Court Act of 2001 and the Criminal Justice Act of 1988 allow for 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.

Ayalon and his advisers received the news on Monday evening before he was scheduled to give a keynote speech at the London School of Economics. His team took the necessary precautions and, after consulting with the Israeli Embassy, decided that he would continue with his trip.

On Monday night, Ayalon spoke at LSE. However, a student wearing a keffiyeh held up proceedings by shouting at the minister as soon as he took to the podium to deliver his speech, “The Situation in the Middle East: The View from Israel.”

Despite appeals from Prof. Michael Cox, head of LSE’s International Relations department and chairman of the event, the student refused to stop hurling abuse at Ayalon. Eventually the audience turned against the student, after the chairman lost control, and the minister was able to give his speech and engage in debate afterward.

—-

Ayalon’s advisers believe that the material advertising the university event was the catalyst behind the call for his arrest, as it described him as a former IDF officer: “Mr. Ayalon is a former captain in the Israeli army who served as foreign policy adviser to prime minister Ariel Sharon and as Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2006.”

No further details were available at press time regarding who demanded the arrest.

Earlier this month, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon, a former chief of General Staff, declined an invitation to travel to the UK to speak at a Jewish charity fund-raiser, for fear that he might face arrest on charges of war crimes.

On Tuesday, Ayalon had meetings with government officials, in which he raised the absurdity of Israeli officials facing possible arrest under the universal jurisdiction law when they visited the UK. The minister also discussed the boycott call by a number of British trade unions, and bilateral relations.

Ayalon has yet to tweet about his experience.

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.”

Israel responded to yesterday’s Qassam rocket attack by striking a smuggling tunnel. Yes, I’m sure you’re shocked.

And in more shocking news, the palestinians are lying.

Hamas described the target of the Israeli air strike as “open ground” but witnesses said it was a building with two rooms and a courtyard, which were ravaged by the attack.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:55PM: Former NBA player Allan Houston is here in Israel. And unlike the Elders of Moron, he’s actually doing some good and learning in the process.

Chen Kabasa has a pair of New York Knicks shorts. He even went to a Knicks game last Passover.

But for some reason, unclear even to him, when the 17-year-old Sderot resident left his house Thursday to meet former Knicks star Allan Houston, he put on his LA Lakers shorts instead.

Houston, who held a basketball clinic in Sderot on Thursday with about 20 kids from southern Israel, didn’t seem to care about the disloyalty.

He was all business, determined in his task of teaching the young Israelis the fundamentals of shooting a basketball and to encourage them to follow their dreams to play in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem – or maybe even in the NBA like new Sacramento Kings recruit Omri Casspi.

“Hopefully something like this inspires them and creates some joy for the moment,” he told The Jerusalem Post while taking a break from the training session.

A three-time NBA all-star and Olympic gold medal winner, Houston played for three years with the Detroit Pistons before moving to the Knicks as a free agent in 1996. In his nine seasons with the team, he helped take it to the playoffs six times.

His career is best remembered, perhaps, for a game winning shot in the last seconds of Game 5 of the 1999 Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Miami Heat, eventually leading the team to advance to that year’s Finals.

Houston, 38, who now works as an assistant to the Knicks’ President of Basketball Operations, is in Israel for a week with his wife Tamara on a mission of civic leaders sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

In addition to meeting with politicians, journalists, and community leaders, Houston had two basketball clinics on his schedule – one in Sderot and another on Sunday in the Arab town of Iksal in the north.

A devout Christian, Houston said he feels this trip has given him a greater understanding of the Bible, which he said has “leaped off the pages for him,” and a better grasp of the significance of Israel for Jews.

In 2001, Houston was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for comments he made during a team prayer meeting about Jews persecuting Jesus, which were quoted in a New York Times magazine article, and which he said were taken out of context.

” The thing that really sticks out to me most on this trip is the Jewish identity and how the Jewish people have held on throughout the years to their faith, their hope, and their identity,” Houston told the Post.

While he said it will take him time to fully appreciate everything he has experienced in Israel, he has made an effort to capture the people and sights around him through recordings on his video camera and posts to Twitter from his iPhone.

“Man this Israel trip is serious. Now leaving Ashkelon where we visited Barzilai Hospital where patients are treated from rocket attacks,” he tweeted on Thursday morning, before heading to Sderot.

Houston was visibly impacted by the words of Shalom HaLevy, a representative of the Sderot municipality who spoke to the group over lunch about life in the shadow of rockets from Gaza.

“It’s hard for me to picture having the experience of waking up and not even knowing when I’m gonna have 15 seconds to run for my life,” Houston said.

He said he hoped the basketball clinic would help the kids, who came not only from Sderot but also Beersheba, Kiryat Gat, Gadera, Ofakim, and some of the kibbutzim in the area, to forget about the political situation for a while and to focus on basketball.

“I would imagine that if this were somebody’s reality every day, that this [clinic] would be something that would take them away from it for a moment,” he said.

“Just to see them laugh, to me, to see their minds off of that for an hour, gives me hope that maybe they will remember it.”

Both Houston and the kids spent a lot of time laughing. At one point, after finishing a drill on shooting, Houston stepped to the three-point line and asked the kids how many baskets they thought he could make in a row.

“Three!” “Four!” “Ten!” the audience shouted. He made sixteen, and the group erupted in applause and smiles after he missed the seventeenth.

“I won’t even tell you what my record is,” Houston said to them.

Before leaving, Houston and the JCRC presented coach Yisrael Baruch with two new NBA regulation basketballs.

In return, Houston received a red and white Maccabi Sderot jersey, which he said he plans to hang up when he gets home.

But in the end, the kids may have gotten the most out of the afternoon.

“I’m leaving here with a big smile and a lot of good basketball tips,” Kabesa said.

“And an autograph and a picture,” he added.

For the record, here’s Houston’s famous series winning shot of Game 5 of the 1999 Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Miami Heat.

7:35PM: Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been indicted on multiple corruption charges including fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate records, receiving illicit benefits and tax evasion.

The former prime minister has now been charged with accepting cash envelopes from American businessman Morris Talansky.

He is also suspected of illegally double-billing charities and a government ministry for the same flights he booked through Rishon Tours, sending them falsified receipts for travel expenses and using the surplus to finance personal and family trips abroad.

The Investments Center affair, which was first reported in Haaretz, concerned allegations that Olmert granted personal favors to his old law partner, Uri Messer, who was acting on behalf of a company, an act which would constitute a conflict of interest, breach of trust, and fraud.

The charges against Olmert include fraud, breach of trust and failure to report income, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

I was thinking about doing a limerick, but I already met my daily quota of 1. Plus the old “bending over for the soap” joke only works well in moderation.

5:22PM: Palestinian terrorists have fired shots at IDF soldiers who were fixing the Gaza border fence.

4:50PM: A limerick.

Fuad Shubaki was that real dope

Who organized a weapon-laden boat

He was caught and convicted

For those he afflicted

Now he better not bend for the soap

1:56PM: This next story illustrates just how deluded the Left really are.

The Israeli Left reacted with dismay over the weekend to the results of a Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll published on Friday that found only 4 percent of Jewish Israelis believe that US President Barack Obama’s policies are more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian.

—-

Meretz and Peace Now said the survey indicated that Israelis did not yet realize the potential benefits of the regional peace initiative that Obama was advocating, but they expressed confidence that they eventually would.

Right. That’s what it indicates. It must be a problem with Israelis not realizing what’s good for them, as opposed to the Left not realizing they are completely out of touch with reality.

11:05AM: Like the rest of the world, the Elders of Moron have a blog.

While I find it generally irritating (like the Elders themselves), there is also some unintentional humor.

(hat tip: Soccer Dad)

6:15AM: Israel has slammed an ambiguously worded IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program released Friday, accusing the IAEA of “hiding critical information on Iran’s nuclear progress.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said:

“This is a harsh report, but it does not reflect all the information possessed by the IAEA on Iranian efforts to advance its military program, on its continuing efforts to hide and deceive, and on [Iran's] noncooperation with the IAEA and the demands of the international community.”

“…we’re talking about information that would be far more incriminating for Iran.”

“The 35 member states of the IAEA can’t let [the organization] get away with hiding critical information on the dangers of the Iranian program.”

6:02AM: What is going on with kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit?

a) The German mediator in the talks for his release has presented Hamas with a new, comprehensive proposal to which Hamas would have three days to respond.

b) Chief Hamashole Khaled Meshal is due to arrive in Cairo to approve a deal for his release.

c) There has been limited progress in finalizing a deal for his release.

And the answer is d) All of the above if you are to take notice of all the media reports.

5:54AM: Forget the Elders of Moron. We need more people like these for there to be hope of peace.

That is until one fateful day..

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal estimated Monday that the governmental changes in Israel would not end the stalemate in the negotiations aimed at securing the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Mashaal blamed Israel for the standstill in the talks.

Shalit has been held captive in Gaza for more than two years, and the talks for his release have been mediated by Israel in the past few months, without any results. According to Mashaal, the reason for the negotiations’ failure is Israel’s conduct.

“The talks with Israel were frozen because of the unreliability on the Israeli side,” he claimed.

Yep, you heard it. The leader of a terror organization that will stop at nothing (including lying) to achieve its goals calling Israel unreliable.

But it gets better. Or, perhaps more accurately, worse.

“Hamas did not reject the talks for a prisoner release and did not set new conditions. However, we object to any extortion on the part of Israel, which is interested in reducing the number of Palestinian prisoners who should be released,” Mashaal said in a Damascus speech in honor of the month of Ramadan.

Mashaal was asked to respond to the interviewer’s claim that “many Israelis say you want to throw them into the sea.”

“That’s not true. We have no problem with the Jews, only with those who occupy our land and rob us of our right. Their religion or race is irrelevant,” he explained.

I guess that would sound reasonable to someone not actually familiar with the Hamas Charter. The rest of us don’t appreciate having our intelligence insulted.

Introduction: ..Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious

Article Seven:…The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

Article Twenty Eight: ..Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. “May the cowards never sleep.”