No, I have not lost my marbles. Those were pro-democracy Iranians condemning Neturei Karta Jews for supporting the Islamic dictatorship in Iran.

Just when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was beginning to sound somewhat sane, he goes and says something like this: “We don’t need to build (atomic) bombs,” he told a crowd at a ceremony inaugurating a new dam in Western Iran. “Bombs are for retarded people.”  The Adam Sandler-esque soundbite comes from a report by Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency, which doesn’t give any sort of explanation for Ahmadinejad’s befuddling connection between the mentally handicapped and weapons of mass destruction.

Funny, but I thought Ahmadinjead was more sensitive to those who are challenged.

In February, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a space capsule designed to carry a live monkey into space, along with four new prototypes of home-built satellites the country hopes to launch before March 2012.

The Kavoshgar-5 rocket will be launched during the month of Mordad (July 23 to August 23) with a 285-kilogram capsule carrying a monkey to an altitude of 120 kilometres (74 miles),” said Hamid Fazeli, head of Iran’s Space Organisation.

At the time, Mr Fazeli touted the launch of a large animal into space as the first step towards sending a man into space, which Tehran says is scheduled for 2020.

Iran has conducted another experiment in its race to reach space, launching a rocket that bears a capsule that can contain an animal into the atmosphere Tuesday, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported. The Islamic republic plans to send a manned spaceship into space by 2022; in this experiment they made do with launching only a monkey doll.

Monkey doll? Ahmadinejad truly has delusions of grandeur.

Troubled US actor Charlie Sheen rounded off a rollercoaster week by claiming that he couldn’t be anti-Semitic because he is Jewish – and saying he is off to Haiti, to help out there.

Sheen, whose children were taken away from him a week after the hit TV series in which he stars was cancelled, said he should have mentioned his Jewishness when he was accused of anti-Semitism last week.

“My mom is Jewish. Here’s where it gets confusing – we don’t know who her father was,” he told the TV show Access Hollywood Live. “But she is, in fact, Jewish. So, I guess that would make me Jewish, and my children Jewish.

“And Brooke, my ex-wife, is Jewish. So, I guess I should’ve rolled all that out too,” he added.

Challenged about why he didn’t mention this earlier, he added: “I know, I know – stupid me… I just got caught sleeping. Caught napping. Which is rare for me.”

The comments came a week after hit TV show “Two and a Half Men” was canceled for the rest of the season following Sheen’s repeated attack on its producer, Chuck Lorre.

Sheen notably referred to Lorre by the Hebrew translation of his name, Chaim Levine, drawing condemnation from the Anti Defamation League lobby group which described it as “borderline anti-Semitism.”

If you think that’s weird, the same is being said about the other celebrity recently in the news for (more blatant) antisemitic comments: ex Dior designer John Galliano.

Why Galliano imploded: The fashion king is now in rehab fighting his obsession with his own Jewish roots

—-

What is less well known is that — according to a confidant of his, whom the Mail talked to this week — the designer loved to emphasise his own Jewish ancestry.

Perched in La Perle, mojito (his preferred cocktail) in hand, Galliano would tell anyone who listened about the melting pot of his heritage.

He always insisted he had Jewish blood from the Sephardi Jews who came from Spain and Portugal in the 19th century.

‘Johnny is obsessed with the idea of being descended from Jews,’ the confidant, who often drank with him at La Perle, reports. ‘He was brought up a Catholic, but has always been aware of the influence Jews have had on his life.

‘Johnny was particularly fascinated by the fact that couture in Paris was traditionally a Jewish industry.’

He added that, when sober, Galliano spoke authoritatively about the Holocaust, and particularly about the fact that thousands who worked in the fashion business in Paris were murdered by the Nazis.

‘Johnny knows that Paris designers were exterminated systematically by the Nazis in living memory. To me, the freaky language in a Paris bar was just nonsense — an attempt to shock strangers in bars.

‘He just didn’t want to present them with the image they expected — he wanted to surprise. He does this on the catwalk, so why not in a bar?’

Galliano has attempted to fightback, apologising for the video and said he is not responsible for any other racist abuse
His supporters are insisting he is not anti-Semitic but simply attention-seeking.

Heck, if Ahmadinejad and Gaddafi can be Jewish, so can anyone.

Updat: I can’t work out who the bigger dumbass is: Sheen who claims he just remembered he’s Jewish, or the interviewer who refers to Sheen’s “antisemitical” remarks.

Iran’s nuclear program presents a threat to international stability.  Yet successive American administrations—Republican and Democratic alike—have misread the intentions and actions of the Iranian regime.

How dangerous is a nuclear Iran, even if it never detonates a weapon?  What are the guiding principles of the Iranian leadership?  To what lengths would the regime go to carry out its agenda?  How far have Iran’s leaders already gone to fund the world’s most powerful terrorist organizations?  And why have American leaders failed to gain the upper hand in relations with Iran during the past 30 years?

In approximately 60 minutes, Iranium powerfully reports on the many aspects of the threat America and the world now face using rarely-before seen footage of Iranian leaders, and interviews with 25 leading politicians, Iranian dissidents, and experts on: Middle East policy, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation.

• Iranium documents the development of Iran’s nuclear threat, beginning with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the ideology installed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
• Iranium tracks Iran’s use of terror as a tool of policy, beginning with the 444 day seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, through Iran’s insurgent actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Iranium details the brutal nature of the Iranian regime to its own citizens, and the Iranian people’s desire to rejoin the international community.
• Iranium outlines the various scenarios the greater Middle East and the Western world may face should Iran cross the nuclear threshold.

Update: Here’s an interesting write-up of the film, including this photo of the narrator Shohreh Aghdashloo:

At the risk of stating the obvious, she’s hell of a lot more attractive than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Oy gevalt, these Je..I mean Zionists..must be destroyed!"

The members of the Asian People’s Solidarity for Palestine convoy met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Monday.

The members of the aid convoy began their journey to the besieged territory of Gaza in India, travelled through Pakistan, and then arrived in Sistan-Baluchestan Province in southern Iran on Wednesday. After travelling through Kerman, Yazd, Isfahan, and Qom, they arrived in Tehran Province on Monday. They will continue their journey through Zanjan and Tabriz and then cross into Turkey.

Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic, along with other countries, will always make efforts to help Palestinians, including the besieged Gazans, attain their freedom and rid themselves of the Zionist regime.

He stated that the most important problem of the modern world is the existence of the Zionist regime.

The Zionist regime was established in order to help the hegemonistic powers’ efforts to dominate the entire world, he observed.

Crimes like humiliating people, conducting terrorist acts, selling people into slavery, and depriving people of their basic rights, which have been committed in the world throughout history, are now committed almost every day in Palestine, he stated.

He went on to say that the Zionists are neither Jewish, nor Christian, nor Muslim, but rather, they are unbelievers who also do not care about basic human values.

The Zionists are pursuing only one mission and that is to destroy the culture of other nations, Ahmadinejad noted.

Today, everybody knows that Palestine is not a conflict between Arabs and Jews or between Muslims and Jews, but rather, it is a global issue that should be solved globally, he said.

And there’s more:

“The settlement of the Palestinian issue and wiping the Zionist regime off the occupied territories is a humane and global responsibility,” Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with members of the Asian continent’s first humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza in Tehran on Monday.

Stressing that existence of the Zionist regime is the most important problem for humanity today, he said, “The behavior of the usurper regime is an insult to all human beings and man’s identity has been despised by this regime.”

Well, professing a wish that we are wiped off the occupied territories actually sounds like an improvement from his previous statements that Israel should be wiped off the map.

He’s clearly becoming more moderate!

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:55PM: We’ve pissed off the smallest Muslim country in the world..by trying to help them!

The Republic of Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean and the smallest Muslim country in the world, has been enraged in the past few days due to an Israeli delegation of eye surgeons who arrived to treat locals’ eyesight problems.

The Eye of Zion organization’s delegation was sent to the islands on behalf of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who renewed diplomatic relations with Israel only about a year ago. The relationship was frozen following the Yom Kippur War.

The purpose of sending Israeli experts was to improve the relations between the countries. But no one thought the Israeli doctors would be welcomed by raging demonstrations in front of their hotel, including Muslim demonstrators calling to banish the physicians and burning the Israeli flag.

Islamic opposition party Adhaalath and the Islamic Association of the Republic of Maldives officially claimed the Israeli doctors arrived to their country as part of an Israeli-Zionist conspiracy intended to harvest the organs of citizens and then steal them.

Looks like the only ones mistreating body parts are the Maldivians, who are biting the hand that feeds them.

4:10PM: From Hamas with love?

Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement has politicians sweeping streets to show community spirit, activists distributing chocolates and cards signed “from Hamas with love” and police officers visiting homes and schools to soften the often harsh image of the security forces.

—-

During a Muslim holiday in November, some 12,000 Hamas activists went door to door, distributing boxes of chocolate to more than 300,000 families, said Ashraf Abu Daya, a Hamas official. “We simply wanted to send a message that Hamas is still close to the street, despite being busy being in power and politics,” he said.

Each box had a holiday card signed “from Hamas with Love.”

In the run-up to the rally, Hamas politicians helped clean Gaza’s streets.

Last week, dozens of Hamas leaders and government officials, including Barhoum and Health Minister Bassem Naim, swept and shoveled dirt and debris in Omar al-Mukhtar Street, Gaza City’s main thoroughfare. In the Jebaliya refugee camp, Hamas lawmakers Mushir al-Masri and Ismail Ashqar walked the streets after sunset prayers and took notes as residents talked about their problems.

The third campaign, to last for 50 days, is aimed at improving the image of the security forces, said Col. Kamal Abul Nada, who heads the effort. He said officers have been visiting schools, mosques and clan chiefs to give talks. Police also sent out text messages with the phone numbers and e-mails of commanders so residents can lodge complaints. Officers have distributed flowers and sweets to drivers, helped farmers harvest crops and played soccer with children.

“Our aim is to erase the bad image that some ordinary people might have about the police,” the colonel said.

Reactions are mixed.

Taxi driver Marwan Abdel Fatah, used to arguing with traffic police, said he was shocked to get sweets at a police checkpoint instead of a traffic ticket, and was skeptical the bonhomie would last.

Talal Hamad, 45, who owns a warehouse for food supplies, said Hamas has done a good job, considering the tough circumstances.

But Maher, a 33-year-old Gaza shop owner and Fatah supporter who would not give his last name for fear of repercussions, said Hamas is trying to mislead the public. “Since they came to power, we have lived under blockade and no one enjoyed a good life, except for Hamas people,” he said.

10:50AM: A newly released Wikileak reveals that Israeli Ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem considered former Australian PM and current Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to be “very pro-Israel.”

The Israeli ambassador to Australia found Kevin Rudd to be “very pro-Israel” and senior Australian diplomats warned the former prime minister that his condemnation of Iran risked retaliation against Australia’s embassy in Tehran, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.

The secret cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald, reveal the Israeli ambassador, Yuval Rotem, was pleased with Mr Rudd’s “very supportive” attitude towards Israel’s position in the Middle East peace process and his strong attacks on the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

—-

The leaked cables reveal that Israeli diplomats saw Mr Rudd as an important ally.

Mr Rotem told US officials in July 2008 that during his first meeting with Mr Rudd after the 2007 federal election, the newly elected prime minister had described Mr Ahmedinejad as a ”loathsome individual on every level” and that his anti-Semitism ”turns my stomach”.

The US embassy noted that while opposition leader, Mr Rudd had taken a “very strong stance” on Iran, including calling for Mr Ahmadinejad to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for his calls for the destruction of Israel.

The Israeli ambassador said that the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Michael l’Estrange, and the director-general of the Office of National Assessments, Peter Varghese, had “met several times to convince the PM to think through the consequences of his rhetoric on Iran”.

“The Israeli ambassador believes PM Rudd is very concerned about the Iranian nuclear program and firm in his desire to do whatever possible to signal Australia’s opposition to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions,” the embassy reported. “The Israelis believe Rudd is very firm in his overall support for Israel.”

Asked by the US embassy about whether Mr Rudd’s views on Iran had elicited any response, Mr Rotem said the Iranian government had reacted to the prime minister’s statements by taking ”retaliatory measures” against the Australian embassy in Tehran.

“These measures make it harder for the embassy to conduct its day-to-day business,” Mr Rotem observed.

The Australian government has never publicly acknowledged any Iranian response to Mr Rudd’s public criticism of Iran and its President.

Mr Rotem went on to tell the US embassy that Israel saw Australia “as playing an important role in the ‘global PR battle’ on Iran because PM Rudd is viewed favourably by the ‘European Left’, many of whom are sceptical about taking a tough line towards Tehran”.

The ambassador said Israeli officials would normally have been concerned at the prospect of a Labor government: “However, this was not the case because Rudd had long gone out of his way to stress his strong commitment to Israel and appreciation for its security concerns.”

”Commenting that DFAT officials are very frank in expressing their annoyance with the PM’s micromanaging of foreign policy issues, Rotem laughingly said that ‘while I understand their point of view, how can I complain about having that kind of attention from the PM’.”

The Israeli ambassador’s enthusiasm for the Labor government extended to the deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, with the US embassy reporting in January last year that Mr Rotem was “very satisfied” with the Australian response to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

“Rotem said he had been impressed with acting PM Julia Gillard, who has taken the lead in co-ordinating the [Australian government] public and private response to the Gaza fighting … Rotem said that Gillard and [national security adviser Duncan] Lewis have been very understanding of Israel’s military action, while stressing the need to minimise civilian casualties and address humanitarian concerns.”

Mr Rotem said Ms Gillard’s public statements surprised many Israeli embassy contacts as being “far more supportive than they had expected”.

Mr Rotem told his US counterparts that several senior Labor Party contacts had told him privately that Mr Rudd had been “a bit jealous of the attention garnered by Gillard” and that this led him to speak to the Gaza issue later in January 2009.

The ambassador added that he would be “playing to Rudd’s vanity” to encourage him to pay an early visit to Israel and continue to speak out in support of a hard line against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Kevin Rudd vain? I wouldn’t have guessed.

Meanwhile, yes, he seems supportive of Israel. But I wouldn’t get too carried away.

The revelation of Mr Rotem’s description of Mr Rudd last year comes as the Foreign Minister wraps up a visit to Cairo where he expressed concern that ”no real progress” has been made in the US-brokered Middle East peace process.

Following a weekend meeting with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Abul Gheit, Mr Rudd said Israeli settlements on Palestinian land were ”destroying” the chances of peace. He said he would visit Israel this week and reiterate his position, but added Israel had security fears that needed to be taken into account.

The Obama administration on Tuesday strongly condemned a Palestinian official’s claim that the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem has no religious significance for Jews and is actually Muslim property. 

The State Department said the US rejects the claim as “factually incorrect, insensitive and highly provocative.” Spokesman P.J. Crowley said statements of that kind damage US efforts to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and could incite violence. 

“We have repeatedly raised with the Palestinian Authority leadership the need to consistently combat all forms of de-legitimization of Israel, including denying historic Jewish connections to the land,” he told reporters. 

“As the United States has long maintained, the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in final status negotiations between the parties,” Crowley said. “We recognize that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue to Israelis and Palestinians, to Jews, to Muslims and to Christians everywhere.” 

Crowley stressed that neither side should do anything to prejudice the negotiations, including unilateral acts in Jerusalem. When pressed, he noted that the United States had also frequently expressed its concerns to Israel about the construction of Jewish housing in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital. 

“They both have responsibilities here,” he said. “Both have to take the responsibility to create conditions for negotiations to resume.” 

While I welcome this statement, I do have a number of questions: 

• When Crowley says “statements of that kind..could incite violence,” from which side does he believe the violence may come?
• If the US has “repeatedly raised with the Palestinian Authority leadership the need to consistently combat all forms of de-legitimization of Israel,” how come all we hear about is the huge impediment that “settlement” building represents?

You can view Crowley’s statement here (from 04:10): 

You can also read the full transcript here. 

Notice what one of the reporters says to Crowley regarding the lack of “equivalence” between the PA’s denial of Jewish history and “settlement” construction: 

Well, you’re right. There’s absolutely no equivalence between some guy mouthing off and giving his opinion, whether you agree with it or not, and actual bricks and mortar going up in an area that’s disputed. I mean, the equivalent – you come out and denounce this statement, which is mere – simply words, and it took a question from a reporter to get you to say anything about the actual, physical, on-the-ground construction there. So I don’t understand the equivalence that you’re – your idea of equivalence here. One seems to be much more serious than another. 

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top) 

6:45PM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas would accept the agreement of a Palestinian referendum on peace with Israel; has used car he wants to sell.

6:35PM: Weird site of the day (hat tip: Guillermo).

2:22PM: The PA has removed from its website the report claiming that Jerusalem’s Western Wall isn’t holy to Jews.

1:58PM: A Jordanian restaurant owner has kicked out of her restaurant a group of tourists.

For the crime of being Israeli (hat tip: Jason)

A Jordanian woman gained tremendous fame after refusing to receive a group of Israeli tourists at her restaurant in protest of the crimes of the Jewish state against the Palestinian people. 

Several professional associations and rights organizations praised the action taken by Salwa al-Barghouti when she decided to kick Israeli tourists out of her restaurant in the coastal city of al-Aqaba, 370 kilometers off the capital Amman.

Jordanian restaurant owner Salwa al-Barghouti Barghouti represents all the Jordanian people in their rejection of the Zionist state, said Maysara Malas, head of the Higher Executive Committee for Anti-Normalization.

“Many Jordanians take similar actions, yet nobody knows about them because the media doesn’t know what they do,” he added.

News of Barghouti’s stance spread all over Jordan and shortly after, she made headlines and several media outlets vied for posting her statements.

“I heard customers entering the restaurants speak Hebrew,” she told the press. “I felt extremely angry and remembered all the crimes Israel is committing against Palestinians, so I asked them to leave.”

Barghouti said she does not approve of the strong attention that was given to her action by the media.

“I am against dealing with Zionists in any possible way and I see this as very normal.”

The Israeli tourists who were kicked out, Barghouti added, filed a complaint against her and she was summoned by state security.

“They asked me to sign a document pledging not to mistreat tourists or kick them out of my restaurant again, but I refused.”

Barghouti insisted on her stance and stressed that she will act in the same way if a similar situation takes places.

“My position will never change and I will never allow Israelis into my restaurant,” she concluded.

Could you imagine the uproar if this happened in Israel to a group of Arabs?

Of course, it wouldn’t happen here, and if it did, the restaurant owner would feel the full brunt of the law.

12:05PM: Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. 

Who’s the boss? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received a slap in the face from Revolutionary Guards Commander, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, during a national security council meeting in Tehran, an Azerbaijani source told American diplomats. 

According to a document published by WikiLeaks, Jafari began arguing with Ahmadinjead over his “support for freedom of the press.”  Jafari, who was infuriated by Ahmadinejad’s stance, confronted the president and slapped him in the face, the report claimed.  

10:04AM: Photo of the day: 

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (L) stands with Germany's President Christian Wulff (2nd R) as he looks at a model of a German financed police stationto be built in the West Bank, during their meeting in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The Palestinians will explore alternative ways to gain international recognition if US efforts to advance peace talks with Israel fail, Abbas said (AFP/POOL/Darren Whiteside)

REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is on a two-day visit to Lebanon, spoke before a mass rally organized in is honor by Hezbollah at the Dahiya quarter of Beirut, which is considered one of the Shiite group’s strongholds.

Wednesday’s rally, which saw masses gather at a local soccer field, waving Iranian flags and chanted “Welcome” in Persian, was missing Hezbollah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who welcomed Ahmadinejad to Lebanon via a video feed from his bunker: “I welcome you here on behalf of the injured, the dead, the released prisoners and this people, who have fought to create the miracle of victory. You are a steadfast staff for the resistance.”

“I come from the land of the Imam Khomeini, bearing the best wishes of the Iranian people and its leaders,” Ahmadinejad told the masses. “Lebanon is the an example and school for unwavering resistance to the world’s tyrants and a university for Jihad. Visiting Lebanon and meeting the leaders is a dream come true for me.”

Ahmadinejad spoke in Persian and used an interpreter.

The Iranian leader wasted no time in attacking Israel for violating the Palestinians’ rights: “Do you see anything but crimes in the past actions of the Zionist regime? The massacre of innocent people, the use of weapons, razing homes, confiscating medicine, food and water, attacking civilians in international waters and threatening the world is an everyday occurrence for them.”

The West, he added, considers Israel “means of dominating the world,” and to that end it has given it nuclear weapons.

‘Israel’s weakness exposed’

Turning his attention to the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead, the Iranian president said the two military campaigns “exposed Israel’s weakness… it is also possible that those barbaric Zionists will seek a new regional adventure to try and compensate. I say – any attack will only bring this phony regime closer to its end.”

‘A dream come true.’ Ahmadinejad

As for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the talks are taking place while Israel “is perpetuating the occupation and disrespects International Law,” he said. “The only way to resolve the problems in Palestine and bring peace to the region is to recognize the rights of the Palestinians, allow the refugees to return to their land and send the conquerors back to their homelands. The Zionists must return Palestine to its true owner, or they will be obliterated by the wrath of the Palestinian people.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

6:46PM: Well done to Ha’aretz for finding a way to demonize Israeli “settlers” in a story about palestinians who drowned in a well.

Three Palestinians in the West Bank drowned in a well full of olive mulch on Thursday after a boy fell into the pit and two men dived in to save him.

The freak accident at a village near Tul Karm occurred just a few days into the West Bank olive harvest season, where risks of injury are usually linked to clashes with Israeli settlers over access to olive groves.

The three drowned in a three-meter (13-foot) deep pool of thick liquid waste left over from the olive oil pressing process. Police took the owner of the press into custody for questioning.

I’m just surprised they didn’t accuse “settlers” of pushing them down the well.

3:32PM: Regarding that explosion in Iran I blogged about earlier:

More than 18 Revolutionary guards were killed and 14 others wounded in an explosion Tuesday at a base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRG) Corps in the Western Iranian province of Lurestan, reported Iran’s official news agency IRNA Wednesday.

A Deputy Commander of the Corps said that blast resulted from a fire that spread to a munitions depot at the corps’s base in Khoramabad, 300 miles southwest of the capital, Tehran, and close to Iran’s restive Kurdistan region.

Police and fire-and-rescue teams were rushed to the IRG base and the injured were taken to a hospital in Khoramabad, the agency said.

The base houses underground launching and storage facilities for Iran’s medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, said research group Global Security.

Lorestan Governor General Hassan Shariatnejad visited the injured persons hospitalized and offered his condolences over the tragic incident. Local officials declared a two-day mourning Wednesday and a funeral was scheduled for Thursday.

Hat tip: Carl, via Shy Guy.

3:22PM: In the Independent, Adrian Hamilton argues that Israel has no future as a purely Jewish state.

But here’s the clincher:

The more closely you define Israel as a uniquely “Jewish” state, the less room there is for it to act as a co-operative member of a Muslim majority Middle East. Its role becomes that of an enclave which views itself as not just separate but in clear opposition to everyone else about it.

In other words, Hamilton opposes a Jewish state because it is not a Muslim one (hat tip: Just Journalism).

3:08PM: Oneindia News reports:

18 guards from the powerful Revolutionary Guard force were killed in an explosion in Iran’s military base on Oct 12.

According the country’s domestic media report, 14 other Guard troops were wounded in the blast at the military base, which was situated in 300 miles southwest of the capital, Tehran.

As per the report, a fire, which spread to the ammunition depot, caused the massive explosion in the military depot.

Iran is battling armed militant and separatist movements in the remote southeast along the border with Pakistan and in the far northwest along the border with Iraq.

2:42PM: Quote of the day:

“If you’re going to the Middle East to look for oil, you can skip Israel. If you’re looking for brains, look no further.
Israel has shown that it has a disproportionate amount of brains and energy.”

- Businessman Warren Buffet

2:35PM: It has been reported that Israel has one of the hottest property markets in the world.

Israel, despite perennial fears of war, has emerged as one of the hottest — and least likely — property markets in the world: Since real estate collapsed around the globe in 2008, at least one industry watchdog lists it as the fastest-rising property market on earth.

But with global economic meltdown — and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco that precipitated it — still fresh in people’s minds, officials are stepping up efforts to rein in its overheated property sector. The fear is that a property bubble could shake confidence in an economy that withstood the worst of the world’s financial crisis.

In the span of months, the central bank has raised interest rates several times and the government is rallying to build new units in this land-strapped country.

“The housing market has set off enough crises, and we’re not going to let that happen in Israel,” Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said earlier this month in announcing his sixth rate hike in just over a year.

According to Global Property Guide, a trade magazine that monitors the housing market, Israeli housing prices in the second quarter of 2010 rose sixth-fastest in a ranking of 36 countries. Four of the top five, including Singapore and Latvia, were rebounding from sharp price drops. So looking at the past two years ended in June — the last period for which there is data — Israeli real estate clocks in at No. 1.

9:46AM: If only…

(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

6:10AM: Meet Hisham Abu Varia, the first Arab-Israeli IDF officer.

“The army is the entry pass into the Israeli society,” Hisham explains. “The Arab sector thinks it’s second rate here, but to get privileges one has to give and not just receive. The state protects its citizens even if they don’t serve – my parents live off income support. You must contribute to the country you live off. What other country would have an Arab Knesset member, who is being paid by the state, promoting the interests of the Islamic movement and screwing the promotion of the sector it is supposed to represent?”

Read the whole thing here.

6:05AM: Ahmadinejad speaking at the rally in Lebanon:

5:56AM: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has extended Israel’s blessings to Chile following the rescue of the miners. Followed by a “I predicted this.”

Say what?

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the rescue of the Chilean miners today that it was one of those rare moments of elation,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Wednesday, adding that “the entire world has been moved by this human act of saving miners trapped in the belly of the earth. We extend our blessings and the blessing of the people of Israel to the Chilean nation and to everyone who assisted in the rescue.”

The statement goes on to mention that “Netanyahu predicted such an event – a mine disaster – in his book Terrorism: How the West can win from 1987.” Quotes from the book were sent to reporters in addition to a scanned page from the actual volume.

In his book, Netanyahu described a possible mine disaster, saying that even though only a handful of miners may be trapped, the entire world’s attention would be riveted to their welfare “for a long time.” He explained his argument, saying that it would not only be the intense media coverage of such an event that would turn people’s attention to the event, but every individual’s private feeling that it could be him or her trapped in a similar situation.

Here’s my prediction: conspiracy theorists are going to use this to argue that Israel was actually behind the mine collapse.