‘U.S.-Israel relations at their worst in 35 years’
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country’s diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to project a sense of “business as usual.”

I hate Mondays.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:45PM: BREAKING NEWS: Backbone sighted.

8:32PM: The palestinians have gotten their panties in a bunch over the latest Israeli “provocation.”

Rededicating a synagogue destroyed by the Jordanians 60 years ago.

AP

Personal status courts in the West Bank and Jerusalem will strike Monday and Tuesday in protest over the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue, officials announced.

The ceremonies at the synagogue, 330 meters away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, have been called a “provocation” in the wake of an Israeli raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the declaration of two Palestinian mosques as “Israeli heritage sites” on 21 February.

“The synagogue is not located near the Temple Mount compound,” an Israeli government news release replied to the accusations.

—-

The Palestinian Higher Judicial Council, headed by Supreme Judge Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, released a statement calling on “Palestinian people everywhere, especially those who live in Jerusalem and in other cities inside Israel,” to head to Jerusalem to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque from Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups, which the statement said planned a raid on the compound following the synagogue rededication.

Tamimi accused Israeli leaders of plotting to lay the cornerstone of the “Third Temple,” following the rededication, in what he called the first move in the planned destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger responded to this accusation.

“Pay no attention to malicious slander. All we are doing is resurrecting the ‘Hurva,’ which was destroyed 60 years ago. We have no intention of rebuilding the temple, not this week – unless the Almighty God descends it from the heavens,” said the chief rabbi during the inauguration ceremony.

“All the rumors that suggest we will later march on Temple Mount are just that – rumors. A media spin by anti-Semites that wish us harm.”

5:26PM: Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Brazilian President Lula da Silva embrace during the latter’s visit to the Knesset today.

Reuven Rivlin: I can’t quite get my arms around you.

Lula da Silva: I know the feeling.

4:25PM: Wall Street Journal op-ed on the latest US-Israel crisis (via Ynet):

In response, the Wall Street Journal op-ed wrote that the Obama administration “has endorsed ‘healthy relations’ between Iran and Syria, mildly rebuked Syrian President Bashar Assad for accusing the US of ‘colonialism,’ and publicly apologized to Muammar Gadhafi for treating him with less than appropriate deference after the Libyan called for ‘a jihad’ against Switzerland.”

However, when it comes to Israel, “the administration has no trouble rising to a high pitch of public indignation,” wrote the article entitled “Obama’s Turn Against Israel.”

“Repeated apologies from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—at what White House sources ostentatiously said was the personal direction of President Obama—from calling the announcement ‘an insult to the United States,’” stated the opinion piece.

“Since nobody is defending the Israeli announcement, least of all an obviously embarrassed Israeli government, it’s difficult to see why the Administration has chosen this occasion to spark a full-blown diplomatic crisis with its most reliable Middle Eastern ally… If Israel senses that the Administration is looking for any pretext to blow up relations, it will care much less how the US might react to a military strike on Iran.’

The financial newspaper took an opposite stance on West Bank settlements than that adopted by the Obama administration: “As for the West Bank settlements, it is increasingly difficult to argue that their existence is the key obstacle to a peace deal with the Palestinians. Israel withdrew all of its settlements from Gaza in 2005, only to see the Strip transform itself into a Hamas statelet and a base for continuous rocket fire against Israeli civilians.”

“This episode does fit Mr. Obama’s foreign policy pattern to date: Our enemies get courted; our friends get the squeeze. It has happened to Poland, the Czech Republic, Honduras and Colombia. Now it’s Israel’s turn,” quipped the Wall Street Journal.

12:25PM: What I did last night.

12:10PM: Oh, the horror of the treatment of palestinians in Israeli prisons!

Dr Evil

Jailed Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for his role in attacks that killed and wounded several Israelis during the second intifada, has completed his doctorate in political science, his supporters said over the weekend.

Barghouti, 50, is one of several hundred Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons who enroll in studies at universities around the world, including in Israel.

According to his supporters, Barghouti was accepted by the University of Cairo and the Arab Academy for Research and Studies in the Egyptian capital back in 1999, three years before he was arrested by the IDF.

Barghouti’s doctoral thesis is titled “The Legislative and Political Performance of the Palestinian Legislative Council and its Contribution to the Democratic Process in Palestine from 1996 to 2008.”

The 341-page document will be brought on Tuesday for discussion before a special panel headed by Prof. Ahmad Yussuf, dean of the Arab Academy for Research and Studies.

Barghouti was able to complete his thesis with the help of hundreds of books and documents that Israeli authorities allow inmates to bring into prison.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are currently enrolled as students with the Open University of Israel, which facilitates their studies by allowing them to sit exams in jail.

Barghouti, who is also a Fatah member on the Palestinian Legislative Council, completed his high school exams while in Israeli prison in 1980. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history/ political science and in international relations, respectively, from Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah. His master’s thesis dealt with Palestinian-French relations from 1967 to 1997.

On May 20, 2004, he was convicted of five counts of murder – including authorizing and organizing the Sea Food Market attack in Tel Aviv in which three civilians were killed. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks for “lack of sufficient evidence.” On June 6, 2004, he was sentenced to five life sentences for the five murders and 40 years imprisonment for the attempted murder.

The only doctorate I wish he had completed in prison is his doctorate in Bubba science (specialization in soap retrieval from prison shower).

11:50AM: Here’s the report mentioned in my previous update, which refutes every claim of the Goldstone report and proves Hamas’ use of children as human shields (hat tip: Barry).

6:06AM: According to a new report being released by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Malam), Hamas used children as human shields, and established command centers and Qassam launch pads in and near more than 100 mosques and hospitals during Operation Cast Lead.

Ok, nothing new there, but it contains hundreds of declassified photographs, videos, prisoner interrogations and Hamas-drawn sketches as part of an effort to counter the criticism leveled at Israel in the Goldstone Report. In essence, it is “the first real, aggressive Israeli response to the Goldstone Report, taking it apart piece-by-piece and explaining the true nature of the conflict against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel already released its preliminary response to the Goldstone Report over a month ago.

5:45AM: Australia’s ABC news deals with this latest US-Israel rift. Notice how White House Official David Axelrod calls the timing of Israel’s announcement of new housing units “calculated,” clearly not accepting Israel’s explanation it was accidental.

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A widely predicted crisis between Israel and the United States upon Benjamin Netanyahu taking office as prime minister finally erupted this weekend.

U.S. President Barack Obama did not hold back in condemning the humiliation caused to Joe Biden with the Israeli announcement of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during what was supposed to be the vice president’s friendly visit to Israel.

Instead of accepting Netanyahu’s partial apology and letting bygones be bygones, Obama issued a stern warning to the Israeli prime minister and is now demanding that he take “specific actions” to show he is “committed” to the U.S.-Israel relationship and to the peace process itself.

Washington did not reveal the contents of the ultimatum or the list of demands reportedly presented to Netanyahu.

This follows Israel’s Ambassador in Washington Michael Oren being summoned and reprimanded by the US State Department, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling Israel’s conduct “insulting.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:36PM: I’ve always said that the only difference between Fatah and Hamas is the suits. But now it seems as though this may no longer be the case, if this photo of captured Hamashole Maher Odeh is anything to go by.

The mother of Maher Uda, a top Hamas commander arrested by Israel in the West Bank overnight, shows journalists a framed picture of her 47-year-old son in formal dress at the family's home in the village of Ein Yabrud near Ramallah on March 14, 2010. Uda, a senior commander in Hamas's armed wing in the occupied territory, has been arrested by the Israeli security services after more than a decade on the run, an Israeli military spokesman announced. Palestinian security official in the West Bank said his forces did not know of Uda's whereabouts because he had gone underground several years ago and said they had yet to determine where exactly he was arrested. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI (Photo credit should read ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

9:22PM: Sorry for the lack of updates today, but work and a lovely dinner with some pro-Israel Canadian bloggers got in the way of my blogging.

1:32PM: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is displaying for the first time Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

1:16PM: A joint force of IDF, Shin Beit and police officers last night arrested Hamashole Maher Odeh, who headed a cell responsible for a number of deadly terror attacks including the Café Hillel bombing in Jerusalem and the suicide attack at the Zerifin junction hitchhikers’ station in 2003.

It should be noted he was arrested by the PA in 1998, but released shortly after.

Odeh has been wanted by Israel since the 1990s, and is considered one of the commanders of Hamas’ military wing in Ramallah – an organization that killed 70 Israelis during the second intifada.

The 47-year-old father of four, who was born in Ein-Yabrud, northeast of Ramallah, is one of the founders of the Hamas movement in the West Bank city. He began operating in the early 1990s, when he formed the Hamas cell in his village, which was responsible for kidnapping and interrogating Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel, and seeking weapons to use in terror attacks.

In 1998, he was questioned by the Palestinians security forces and spent several months in a Palestinian prison. After his release he became one of the organization’s most wanted men.

6:00AM: Further fallout from the Israeli announcement to build more houses in our own land: EU foreign policy chief said the EU might use its trade ties with Israel as leverage to pressure it into renewing peace talks with the palestinians (I purposely blogged this as an update, since I am not comfortable using That’s What Friends Are For when it comes to the Europeans).

Meanwhile, the Swedish Foreign Minister is still being a meatball head.

Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, said that Israel’s announcement on building in east Jerusalem during United States Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week was intentional and not coincidental.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to alleviate new tensions with the United States on Tuesday, after an announcement that Israel will build 1,600 new homes in an ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood drew strong condemnation from the White House, and visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

The prime minister reportedly promised Biden “No one was seeking to embarrass you or undermine your visit – on the contrary, you are a true friend to Israel.”

Biden arrived in Israel on Monday in an attempt to kick-start long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which had been expected to resume in the coming days, but looked in danger Tuesday after a furious response from the Palestinians to the construction plan.

Netanyahu told Biden during their meeting in Jerusalem earlier in the day that he had had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorize the additional construction, and added that the program had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day. It could take several months, Netanyahu assured him, before the program is granted final approval.

Netanyahu told his guest that the regional councils are not under the political leadership’s direct authority, and that his administration tries not to interfere with their work.

A high-ranking official in Jerusalem, however, said Netanyahu has “no problem” with construction in Jerusalem and has no intention of apologizing for building there. The official acknowledged, however, that the announcement’s timing was harmful to Israel’s diplomatic interests.

“We didn’t want to humiliate Biden or sow division while he is in Israel,” the official said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:40PM: Oh, this should be good:

Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will open the first international conference on the theology of peace, justice and reconciliation in a Palestinain context, hosted by the Bethlehem Bible College and Holly Land Trust, organizers said.

The conference, titled Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Peace and Justice, is set to run 12-17 March, and “aims to equip the global church to understand Scripture as it relates to the Palestinian context,” a news brief about the conference said.

Perhaps a good starting point would be to look at references to the palestinians in scripture.

Yes, exactly.

8:00PM: Biased caption of the day:

Palestinian women supporters of the Islamic Jihad movement march during a rally against Israel’s decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites, in the Jebaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Forgetting a minor detail there, Mr caption writer?

5:52PM: With Joe Biden in Israel, the PA ordered the cancellation of a ceremony to honor terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi by naming a traffic circle near Ramallah after her and unveiling a memorial plaque.

Or should that be postponement.

4:50PM: Ynet reports:

US Vice President Joe Biden has told the Palestinians that they deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory.

—-

At a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Biden reiterated his condemnation of Israel’s plan and urged both sides to refrain from actions that could “inflame” tensions.

The American VP said Israel’s plan was undermining Palestinian faith in new peace negotiations.

“It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” Biden told reporters.

“Yesterday the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem undermines that very trust, the trust that we need right now in order to begin … profitable negotiations,” he said.

Abbas, for his part, urged Israel to commit to the peace process. “The Palestinians remain committed to peace as a strategic choice,” he said.

If I am not mistaken, Biden made this comments while standing under a banner of arch terrorist and father of the airline hijacking, Yasser Arafat, which serves as a reminder as to how the palestinians do not deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory, and are not committed to peace as a strategic choice.

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, talks during a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, not pictured, as he is backdropped by a banner of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Israel’s new plan to build 1,600 homes for Jews in Palestinian-claimed east Jerusalem overshadowed Biden’s visit to the West Bank on Wednesday.

3:10PM:  The Corrie circus is in town.

A court today began hearing a civil suit brought against the Israeli government over the death of Rachel Corrie, the US activist who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago.

The case, brought before a Haifa court by Corrie’s family, challenges the official Israeli version of events in which the military said its troops were not to blame. The family hopes the hearing will be a chance to put on public record the events that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003. If the Israeli state is found responsible, the family will press for at least $300,000 (£201,000) in damages.

Before the hearing began, Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, said the family had been on a “seven-year search for justice in Rachel’s name”.

“I think when the truth comes out about Rachel, the truth will not wound Israel, the truth is the start of making us heal,” he said.

Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, said the family was still waiting for the credible, transparent investigation Israel first promised into her daughter’s death.

“I just want to say to Rachel that our family is here today trying to just do right by her and I hope that she will be very proud of the effort we are making,” she said.

The family’s lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, will argue that witness evidence shows the soldiers saw Corrie at the scene, with other activists, well before the incident and could have arrested her or removed her from the area before there was any risk of her being killed.

He will argue her death was either due to gross negligence by the Israeli authorities or was intentional.

Four key witnesses – three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed are to give evidence.

The first witness to give evidence was Richard Purssell, a Briton who was an ISM volunteer along with Corrie. He described how he had gone to Gaza to see the situation for himself and to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing Palestinian houses.

He said the ISM told him it was a strictly non-violent organisation. “Our role was to support Palestinian non-violent resistance.”

He briefly described the moment Corrie was killed. “Rachel disappeared inside the earth and the bulldozer continued for 4 metres and then reversed,” he told the court.

Corrie, who was born in Olympia, Washington, travelled to Gaza to act as a human shield at a moment of intense conflict between the Israeli military and the Palestinians.

On the day she died, when she was just 23, she was dressed in a fluorescent orange vest and was trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah. She was crushed under a military Caterpillar D9R bulldozer and died shortly afterwards.

A month after her death the Israeli military said an investigation had determined its troops were not to blame and said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and did not intentionally run her over.

Instead, it accused her and the group she was with, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), of behaviour that was “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous.”

The army report, obtained by the Guardian in April 2003, said she “was struck as she stood behind a mound of earth that was created by an engineering vehicle operating in the area and she was hidden from the view of the vehicle’s operator who continued with his work. Corrie was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete resulting in her death.”

But several witnesses offered a different version of events, saying the driver had seen her but continued anyway, hitting her with the bulldozer blade. She was severely injured and died shortly afterwards in an ambulance.

While Corrie was in the Palestinian territories, she wrote vividly about her experiences. Her diaries were later turned into a play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, which has toured internationally, including in Israel and the West Bank.

I have to chuckle. The ISM is constantly complaining when Israel arrests its “activists” (i.e. terror enablers) who are obstructing IDF operations designed to bring security to Israeli civilians. Yet now Corrie’s lawyer is arguing Israel could have arrested her.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about what happened to Rachel Corrie, I suggest you start here:

The Upcoming Rachel Corrie Trial: Go After Her Real Killers

The Myth of Rachel Corrie

Rachel Corrie’s Dreams

Myths and Facts

11:52AM: Old and busted: settlement freeze.

New hotness: Illegal palestinian worker freeze.

Despite the hot weather, an ice cream truck investigated in Netanya on Tuesday was not transporting ice cream to bathers on the beach, but Palestinians illegally present in Israel.

Netanya police carried out routine checks in the city’s southern neighborhoods. “We got to Ramat Poleg beach, where we saw an ice cream truck parked near the restaurant on the beach,” Community Officer Avinoam Shoshan said. “I know this beach well, and know there isn’t an ice cream truck there usually. We observed the truck, and saw people going into the vehicle.”

The vehicle and the activity around it raised the suspicions of the police. “We decided to check it out from close up,” Shoshan said

“We knocked on the vehicle, but nobody opened it. We continued until finally the door was opened and people began to exit – not one or two, but 14, one after the other. Upon investigation, we saw that the vehicle’s storage area had been turned into a big bedroom, for 14 people.”

Further checks revealed that all 14 are Palestinians who are in Israel illegally. Some of them have a criminal past, some are not permitted to enter at all.

6:18AM: Interview with a Syrian political analyst regarding Syria’s claim that Israel dropped uranium particles in an attempt to justify bombing a desert site.

Noteworthy: Syrian political analyst’s “didn’t hear your question” when faced with a tough one, followed by lame answer (from 1:40 onwards).

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The American envoy also called on “the parties, and all concerned, to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks.”

Sources in the Prime Minister’s Bureau expressed satisfaction that negotiations are restarting after more than a year, but refused to comment on the details of the process.

The United States has told the Palestinians that if the sides do not meet expectations, it will “act accordingly.”

A senior Palestinian source told Haaretz Monday that the Palestinians and the Arab League have received American assurances that “we will be actively involved in managing the indirect talks, and also proposing ideas and bridging ideas of our own.”

The U.S. has allotted the process four months to reach results. Regarding whether the U.S. would then announce whether the sides’ positions reflect the international consensus on the conflict, the Americans told the Palestinians that the U.S. “expects both sides to behave seriously, with honesty and in good will because, if one of the sides, in our judgment, does not fulfill our expectations, we will make our concerns clear and we will act accordingly in order to overcome every obstacle.”

The announcement that negotiations are resuming came despite disagreements between the three sides over the structure of the talks.

—-

In a Jerusalem meeting with quartet envoys on Friday, Mitchell’s deputy David Hale said the negotiations after Annapolis and the understandings reached by Tzipi Livni and Ahmed Qureia, as well as Ehud Olmert and Abbas, would not be binding.

The talks will be based on agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, including the road map.

Olmert had offered Abbas an Israeli withdrawal from 94 percent of the West Bank, and Israeli territory in exchange for the remaining 6 percent. In addition, Israel would symbolically accept 5,000 Palestinian refugees and enable international governance for the holy sites in the Old City.

Abbas never responded to Olmert’s offer, but the Palestinians insisted that the negotiations resume from where they stopped during Olmert’s term as prime minister.

The U.S. apparently accepted Israel’s position on the matter, which was to ignore everything that was not signed as part of an agreement.

The talks will also be based on the Obama administration’s two statements from the past year: President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations, which described the goal of a secure, Jewish state in Israel alongside a viable, independent Palestine and an end to the 1967 occupation; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement regarding a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with territory exchanges, combined with Israel’s desire for a secure Jewish state that includes “recent developments,” meaning the settlement blocs

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:15PM: More stolen passports. Except something’s different this time.

Three Iranians were caught holding stolen Israeli passports as they arrived in the an archipelago nation of Seychelles, northeast of Madagascar, the Israeli daily newspaper Ma’ariv reported on Tuesday.

The three were reportedly detained at Seychelles International Airport and were returned to Nairobi where their flight originated.

Seychelles authorities informed Israel, who’s authorities allegedly revealed that the passports were stolen from Israeli passengers while they were visiting Thailand.

“Israeli security circles believe the Iranians intended to carry out attacks against Israeli tourists in Seychelles especially as the Jewish Passover holiday nears,” Ma’ariv quoted Israeli security sources as saying.

8:05PM: Today’s must read is from Alan Howe of the Melbourne Herald Sun, who deals with the Mossad’s supposed hit in Dubai, and the resultant backlash.

Here are the latest scores in the war on terror. If you don’t want to know, look away now.

Israelis 1, Palestinians 0.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a virtueless scrap of humanity, is dead. All good so far.

But how he died and who killed him have now become the story.

There are two possibilities about his death in Dubai: that he was killed in a pillow fight gone wrong; or that Mossad agents bumped him off in a daring, indeed thrillingly bold, assassination on enemy soil. Israel isn’t saying anything. That’s the second scenario confirmed then.

On the evening of January 19, four people entered the Palestinian’s room at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel using an electronic device that decoded Mabhouh’s pass.

The assassins ambushed their target, injected him with a paralysing sedative and then suffocated him using a pillow. It was all over in 10 minutes. Nothing in the room was disturbed. The killers left calmly, leaving the door locked – from the inside.

The agents – and another 23 colleagues who joined them as plotters, spotters and decoys – then headed for the airport, flying to Asia and Europe.

That’s a slick operation. You have to stand in awe at the audacity of the planning and the courage of the men – and one woman – who volunteered for it. Just 19 hours earlier none of them had even arrived in Dubai.

Al-Mabhouh had been gloating recently about how he killed two Israeli soldiers in 1989. He had a brain-squirming hatred for the Israelis who claim evidence that he spent his days smuggling rockets into Gaza. Ever since the Israelis retreated from their territory and left the locals to their own devices Gazans have thanked their neighbours with an almost ceaseless volley of deadly rockets.

Just days off turning 50, al-Mabhouh knew he was a worthy target for assassination. Usually, he travelled with a team of bodyguards, but they couldn’t get seats on his flight, which was said to be the first leg of a weapons-buying trip to Thailand.

To help secure the success of this well-thought-out killing, Mossad’s agents travelled on forged passports appearing to have been issued in Germany, France, Ireland, the UK and Australia.

Foreign ministers from these countries, including our own Stephen Smith, have been mildly critical of Israel, at least compared with the excitable Hamas spokesman who told Israel to “prepare to receive the hellfire of our anger”. What, and that’s new?

Our reaction was more subdued; forging Australian passports was not “the act of a friend”.

Yes it was.

We cancelled the screening in Parliament House of an Israeli film called Noodle.

Take that, Tel Aviv!

Then we sent a small team from the Australian Federal Police to investigate the passport issue.

Uh-oh. That’s asking for trouble. Yet to recover from the laugh-a-minute leadership of Mick Keelty, the AFP is capable of almost anything. Within hours of arriving in Tel Aviv, these Keystone clowns had screeched out of the underground car park beneath the Australian embassy there, hit a woman riding a bicycle and sped off.

The Mossad team also can be said to have done a hit and run, but I know who I’d want looking after my interests.

The woman they hit, Oshra Bar, 22, wants an apology from the AFP. Maybe that will come after they have worked up the courage to grovel to Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Brisbane doctor they falsely charged with providing assistance to terrorists, ruining his life.

If Australia’s security services had to defend Israel, surrounded as it is by Arabs who attack it regularly and who, with a few Persian nutters running Iran – all of them united under the Koran – now plan its nuclear destruction, Israelis would clog their country’s airports seeking a quick exit.

Even that brave people would know the game was up.

What could the agents of our Australian Secret Intelligence Service do in defence of the Middle East’s lone democracy – don monkey masks and take on Hamas?

That’s what they did during exercises at the Sheraton Hotel on Spring St. Disguised in “grotesque masks” they stormed the 10th floor, destroying property, panicking guests and assaulting the hotel manager. Taxpayers attended to the compensation bill, which ran to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Imagine if they – we – had real enemies. Australia’s security services and federal police are a hopeless embarrassment and that would be a serious problem for us all if we had anything other than oceans for neighbours.

It was reported that a former ASIS agent said last week that forging passports was old hat – indeed as old as the espionage game itself. It’s probably fair to assume we have done the same – if your security agency has the words secret in its title, don’t expect to find out – but there is less need for it. Australian agents don’t need to travel the globe eliminating people who threaten our very existence.

In any case, I can picture now passports forged by ASIS. Two innocents from, say, Nunawading, have had their identity stolen, but the pictures are certainly not of them. Standing before the immigration desk at Ben-Gurion Airport are two men. The talkative one is in a blue jacket, red polka dot bow tie and red-and-white striped bucket hat on which is written Peters Ice Cream. “No, I’m Zig!” he insists.

Security in Israel is no joking matter. Except to the United Nations, which last year hosted a conference against racism unforgivably inviting the unpredictable Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak. He ranted about how the Holocaust never happened – he doesn’t want anything overshadowing the modern nuclear holocaust he plans.

IT’S bad enough that the UN cannot get international action to make a rogue state such as Iran adhere to its Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons.

So, mostly alone but always threatened, Israel is forced to police its own future. Its defence must always be in its own hands.

That’s why, on a Sunday afternoon in June 1981, using US provided satellite pictures it sent in its American-made fighter jets to bomb and destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility just outside Baghdad.

The nuclear plant – being built using technology supplied by the West’s most unreliable “ally”, France – was near completion, but was to have been used only for the peaceful generation of power. Saddam Hussein had promised.

At the time, Israel’s critics condemned it for trying to be the region’s police, and pointed out that it had long been suspected that Israel itself was moving towards becoming a nuclear power. Golly, why would it be doing that?

Quietly, over the years, after having breathed a sigh of relief, most of the world came to understand what a favour that little country had performed for them.

These days attention has turned towards Iran and its development of a nuclear program. This, too, is to generate power. Then why hide it at terrific expense under the desert?

Gaza is an Iranian proxy state where that country’s hate for the West is played out in fights against Israel.

This is the War on Terror.

Iran is the terror. Its Gaza agents are the terrorists. We must kill them.

And next on the agenda is Iran’s nuclear plant.

Bonus: You can also read Alan Howe’s answers to reader questions at the link, using the same software I did to liveblog the last Israeli elections with my pal Barry Rubin.

6:15PM: Israel has reacted as follows to a claim by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Israel accepted Turkey as a mediator for talks with Syria.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office denied that Israel has decided to renew negotiations with Syria with Turkish mediation.

“No decision was made to renew the Turkish mediation, but if this reflects Turkey’s wish to strengthen its relations with Israel and support peace in the region – it is naturally a blessed aspiration,” the statement read.

I would have thought a better response would be “Turkish can take its mediation offer and stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

5:15PM: Separated at birth?

4:40PM: Quote of the day:

“A person like Ahmadinejad, who calls openly to destroy the state of Israel, cannot be a full member of the United Nations.”

“A man who calls for acts of terror, and who hangs people in the street … he should be placed in his proper definition. He cannot go around almost like a cultural hero.”

“Ahmadinejad has to be isolated and not be welcomed in the capitals of the world.”

- Israeli President Shimon Peres, as he met visiting U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden in Jerusalem.

12:50PM: Israeli President Shimon Peres meets with visiting US Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden: I hope he doesn’t kiss me.

Peres: “You know, I really like what you’ve done with your hair.”

6:18AM: Here is Colonel Desmond Travers, one of the members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced the Goldstone Report, answering a question regarding evidence that Gaza mosques were being used to store weapons, contrary to his assertions.

Notice how a main part of Travers’ answer is “If I was an insurgent – and I have insurgent ancestors – the last place I would place military material into is a place of worship because it is an unreliable repository of military materials. It is too open and too insecure.” Besides the laughable suggestion that he is somehow qualified to make that statement because of his ancestors, the answer ignores a main reason why the palestinian terrorists do use mosques in this way – it is a great hiding place since many people frequent mosques, they know Israel will be loathe to strike them and if they do, it will cause great pressure and condemnation to bear down on Israel (as has been the case). Travers’ inability to see that the terrorists love to use civilian areas – including open and insecure places like residential houses – to store weapons speaks volumes about the veracity of his findings.

Notice also how he avoids another question regarding an anti-Semitic statement of his.

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Israel has conveyed messages to the Palestinian Authority over the past few days that it must contain the popular protests that have recently erupted in the West Bank, stop PA officials from participating in them and keep them from turning violent, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

The PA has so far done nothing to curtail the protests and as of yesterday, had conveyed no message to its grassroots activists to maintain a lower profile at upcoming rallies.

Sources in the Israeli security establishment say they sense that the PA is taking an active part in organizing popular protests in the West Bank. Security sources say that at this point a third intifada does not appear imminent. However, the sources say, the PA could lose control if it gives the protesters too much leeway.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:42PM: More palestinian tractor-related hi-jinx. Although not all think it was a terrorist attack.

10:38PM: I can’t work out if this is a real report, or a belated Purim spoof.

8:28PM: More on Mossadmania!

7:48PM: Believe it or not, Hamas now has an official Twitter account here.

Let’s get them banned by reporting them to Twitter, who I’d assume would take issue with having a terrorist organization use their service to spread propaganda.

In the meantime, you can join me in subjecting them to unbridled mockery on Twitter.

5:30PM: On International Women’s Day, I now present to you Israel’s most sexist ads.

12:12PM: Introducing our Chief Elder of Zion:

He has trouble seeing, but as one who has repeated the prayers for more than a century, he knows them by heart. David Pur, age 115, continues to learn Torah and to pray every day, now in the nursing home to where he moved just three months ago.

Pur will soon be visited by an envoy of the Guinness Book of World Records – an event much anticipated by the rest of his family. Three of his nine children are still alive, as are 18 grandchildren and 56 great-grandchildren, all of whom are waiting with excitement for the envoy to formalize his title.

“I have had plenty of time to memorize the Biblical writings,” he said. He prays every morning while standing next to Moshe, who has just turned 100, and who Pur says sometimes seems lost – but is guided by his older friend.

Born in 1895 in what was then Persia and today is Iran, Pur became an adviser to the Shah, who admired his mastery of languages, including Persian, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and French. He later added Tagalog, a language spoke in the Philippines, while learning to care for Filipinos. He and his family made aliyah to Israel in 1948.

Pur still listens to the news of the day on radio and television, and discusses current events with his grandson, IDF Gen. Yoav Mordechai, who says, “We must be strong with the regime of the ayatollahs and not fear them.” Pur’s 70-year-old son Salim, who often accompanies him, comments that his father solves everything with a smile, and says wistfully, “I wish I could be like him.”

The old man is known for his smiles and for laughing and joking with the various members of his large family, who visit him daily. “The main thing is not to lose your optimism,” he said. “I, who buried the woman of my life 50 years ago, and six of my children – I understand that we must not let bitterness take hold of us.”

He rejected a potential remarriage ten years ago, when the 80-year-old doctor with whom he was close tried to suggest a new wife for him. Politely apologizing, Pur told his friend, “Sorry, no woman can replace my deceased wife.”

For nearly 110 years he smoked, but he says the damage was minimized because he “never swallowed the smoke.” At breakfast, he drinks a glass of brandy and eats nuts. “It is best not to eat on [from on-the-street establishments],” he advises, “because who knows when they change the oil, and you could unknowingly swallow poison. I avoid meat and fried foods, and eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible.”

A new study conducted by researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the medical clinic at the Nuclear Research Center in Dimona and Soroka Medical Center, has backed up what the world’s oldest living man already knows. The findings, published in the current issue of Circulation, the leading medical journal of the American Heart Association, revealed that weight loss achieved through a Mediterranean diet was able to reverse carotid atherosclerosis.

6:00AM: Yet another interview with son-of-Hamashole-cum-Shin-Bet-informant Masab Yousef, this time with Yair Lapid of Israel’s channel 2.

What is particularly interesting to me is that Yousef sounds less pro-Israel than he has in past interviews. In fact, he states unequivocally that he is not pro-Israel, refers to Israel killing children in Gaza, and opposes Israel “assassinating even terrorist leaders.” Perhaps he is toning down his rhetoric because he really does fear for his life?

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Incidentally, the leftist Ha’aretz had the figure at approximately 5,000.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:22PM: Golda Meir once made the following now-famous statement:

“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

This next story is yet more proof that the palestinians would rather their own suffer than benefit Israelis.

The Palestinian government will move to prevent Palestinian workers from taking jobs in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian economics minister said Sunday.

Palestinians vehemently oppose the settlements Israel has built on land they want for a future state, but an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Palestinians work in the settlements. Palestinian construction workers have been key to building homes for settlers, while others work in factories in settlements. Many say the West Bank’s poor economy leaves them no choice.

The law, set to be signed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by the end of the month, would constitute the most determined Palestinian campaign yet against the settlement economy.

Economics Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh, who drafted the law, said it is important for the Palestinians to be consistent with its opposition. “My population, my society, is contributing to the lifeline of settlements, so I am targeting this contribution,” he said.

8:00PM: The BBC has all the goss on the Lemba, our brothas from anotha motha.

In many ways, the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa are just like their neighbours.

But in other ways their customs are remarkably similar to Jewish ones.

They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps and they put the Star of David on their gravestones.

Their oral traditions claim that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago.

It may sound like another myth of a lost tribe of Israel, but British scientists have carried out DNA tests which confirm their Semitic origin.

These tests back up the group’s belief that a group of perhaps seven men married African women and settled on the continent. The Lemba, who number perhaps 80,000, live in central Zimbabwe and the north of South Africa.

And they also have a prized religious artefact that they say connects them to their Jewish ancestry – a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant known as the ngoma lungundu, meaning “the drum that thunders”.

The object went on display recently at a Harare museum to much fanfare, and instilled pride in many of the Lemba.

“For me it’s the starting point,” says religious singer Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave.

“Very few people knew about us and this is the time to come out. I’m very proud to realise that we have a rich culture and I’m proud to be a Lemba.

“We have been a very secretive people, because we believe we are a special people.”

The Lemba have many customs and regulations that tally with Jewish tradition.

They wear skull caps, practise circumcision, which is not a tradition for most Zimbabweans, avoid eating pork and food with animal blood, and have 12 tribes.

Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science

They slaughter animals in the same way as Jewish people, and they put the Jewish Star of David on their tombstones.

Members of the priestly clan of the Lemba, known as the Buba, were even discovered to have a genetic element also found among the Jewish priestly line.

“This was amazing,” said Prof Tudor Parfitt, from the University of London.

“It looks as if the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba.

“They have a common ancestor who geneticists say lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron when the Jewish priesthood started.”

Prof Parfitt is a world-renowned expert, having spent 20 years researching the Lemba, and living with them for six months.

The Lemba have a sacred prayer language which is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, pointing to their roots in Israel and Yemen.

Despite their ties to Judaism, many of the Lemba in Zimbabwe are Christians, while some are Muslims.

“Christianity is my religion, and Judaism is my culture,” explains Perez Hamandishe, a pastor and member of parliament from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Despite their centuries-old traditions, some younger Lemba are taking a more liberal view.

“In the old days you didn’t marry a non-Lemba, but these days we interact with others,” says Alex Makotore, son of the late Chief Mposi from the Lemba “headquarters” in Mberengwa.

“I feel special in my heart but not in front of others such that I’m separated from them. Culture is dynamic.”

The oral traditions of the Lemba say that the ngoma lungundu is the Biblical wooden Ark made by Moses, and that centuries ago a small group of men began a long journey carrying it from Yemen to southern Africa.

The object went missing during the 1970s and was eventually rediscovered in Harare in 2007 by Prof Parfitt.

“Many people say that the story is far-fetched, but the oral traditions of the Lemba have been backed up by science,” he says.

Carbon dating shows the ngoma to be nearly 700 years old – pretty ancient, if not as old as Bible stories would suggest.

But Prof Parfitt says this is because the ngoma was used in battles, and would explode and be rebuilt.

The ngoma now on display was a replica, he says, possibly built from the remains of the original.

“So it’s the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of,” Prof Parfitt says.

Large crowds came to see the unveiling of the ngoma and to attend lectures on the identity of the Lemba.

For David Maramwidze, an elder in his village, the discovery of the ngoma has been a defining moment.

“Hearing from those professors in Harare and seeing the ngoma makes it clear that we are a great people and I’m very proud,” he says.

“I heard about it all my life and it was hard for me to believe, because I had no idea of what it really is.

“I’m still seeing the picture of the ngoma in my mind and it will never come out from my brain. Now we want it to be given back to the Lemba people.”

Here’s more on Jewish genes and the Lemba.

7:40PM: PMW has more on the PA’s naming of a square after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who was part of a group who hijacked a bus and murdered 37 civilians in 1978

5:20PM: Being Jewish and Australian, I am ashamed of these numbskulls.

A petition signed by 35 distinguished Australian Jews rejecting the automatic right of Jews from anywhere in the world to settle in Israel is printed below. Under the racist “law of return”, Jews do not need to have any connection with Israel to obtain citizenship. Signatories include ethicist Peter Singer, feminist campaigner Eva Cox, author and journalist Antony Loewenstein and writer Sara Dowse.

We are Jews from Australia, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel’s “law of return”. While this law may seem intended to enable a Jewish homeland, we submit that it is in fact a form of racist privilege that abets the colonial oppression of the Palestinians.

Today there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land — a right recognised and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish, thereby potentially taking the place of Palestinians who would dearly love to return to their ancestral lands.

We renounce this “right” to “return” offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may “return” to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.

Tellingly enough, even according to UNRWA, there are nowhere near 7 million palestinian refugees (try 4.7 million). And even that figure is grossly exaggerated considering the unprecedented width of their definition of a “palestinian refugee”, which includes “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948″ (they could have been temporary residents in those years only), as well as descendants.

3:58PM: Abdullah Iyad Barghouti, one of the Hamasholes whose release has been demanded in return for Gilad Shalit, has demonstrated why he should never be released.

Unless it’s via a swamp filled with crocodiles, or from a plane without a parachute.

Abdullah Iyad Barghouti, who has been mentioned as one of the Hamas  officials currently jailed in Israel  that the organization demands in return for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, does not believe he will be freed in the near future, and blames Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  for sabotaging the deal.

“There is no way the deal will be executed soon, Netanyahu does not want to execute the deal, he is busy with many other things,” Barghouti said Sunday afternoon at a hearing on the conditions of his imprisonment at the Nazareth District Court. The hearing addressed whether or not Barghouti should remain in confinement.

After he told the court that there is “no way” he believes in the Israeli court system, he responded to questions by reporters – in fluent Hebrew. He stated that if he were to be released, he would continue to “fight the occupation.” When asked if he was referring only to the occupation in Gaza or in other places, such as Nazareth, he said: “The occupation in all of Palestine”.

1:55PM: When he’s not denying anti-Semitism is flourishing in his country, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is denying Jewish history.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday continued his assault on Israel, according to Saudi paper Al Wattan, which quoted him as saying that that al Aksa Mosque, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb “were not and never will be Jewish sites, but Islamic sites.”

Speaking to Palestinian journalists, Erdogan reportedly said “Palestine [was] always at the top of Turkey’s priorities.” He expressed his support for the renewal of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Donning a cloak of pan-Islamic identity, Erdogan told Al Wattan that he “loves my brothers in Fatah and my brothers in Hamas to the same degree, because they are my Muslim brothers and I cannot distinguish between them.”

Erdogan’s sticking of his nose in the recent Palestinian rancor over Israel’s declaration that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb will be part of a list of sites slated for preservation is the latest in a seemingly calculated series of moves based on Turkey’s reassessment of a power-shift occurring in the Middle East. It was not clear why he mentioned the mosque, as Israel never declared it part of the list.

Then again, he also denies Turkish history.

6:20AM: Darwin Awards candidate of the day:

A Palestinian moves a burning tyre during clashes with Israeli border police in the village of Issawiya in East Jerusalem March 6, 2010. Dozens of people were injured in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Friday, as tension over land and holy sites mounted ahead of a relaunch of U.S.-mediated peace negotiations (Reuters).

My mum always taught me to watch what I am doing when handling fire.

6:10AM: According to Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara, an Israeli strike on Iran may be supported by some of Israel’s other enemies.

Deputy Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, MK Ayoob Kara (Likud), said Israel had received messages from radical Muslim states with which it does not have diplomatic relations saying they would back any Israeli or US move against Iran.

“These are positive, secretive messages which say that they will support any move,” Kara said at a cultural event in Beersheba Saturday. “They have conveyed clear messages that they are concerned about the Iranian problem.”

He refused to name the states involved, but said there was a “wall to wall coalition” of Muslim nations against the Islamic Republic.

5:50AM: According to an internal Foreign Ministry report distributed to Israeli diplomatic missions abroad, the US administration has adopted positions closer to those of the palestinians.

The classified report claims that in the preparatory discussions for the Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks the Obama administration adopted positions that are closer to Palestinian demands.

“The recent American statements point to the adoption of wording in line, even if partially and cautiously, with Palestinian demands in regard to the framework and structure of negotiations,” the report stated. “Still, the [U.S.] administration is making sure to avoid commenting on its position on core issues.”

—-

The report released recently by the Foreign Ministry’s center for political research, which focuses on strategic foreign policy, is less optimistic about the chances for progress in the next round of peace talks. The document was delivered to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and to Israeli diplomatic missions abroad several days ago.

According to the report Washington is aware of the domestic political problems faced separately by both Netanyahu and Abbas and has decided to concentrate on achieving the limited goal of restarting the negotiations. The peace talks will not be at the top of the Obama administration’s agenda, the report claims.

“In our assessment the administration will focus in the coming year on domestic issues that are expected to determine the results of the Congressional elections,” the report’s authors wrote. “As such, and due to the difficulties to date in achieving significant gains in the peace process we can assume that the administration’s focus on this issue will be limited and will predominantly remain in the hands of Mitchell’s teams.”

According to the report, Washington can be expected to portray the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian talks as a domestic and international achievement, in the hope of creating an atmosphere that is conducive to direct negotiations between the parties on the core issues.

The authors of the report also predict that the administration will avoid taking any position that suggests disagreement with Israel, because of the support that Israel enjoys among both parties in Congress.

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Then things got weird.

Australian Federal Police officers were involved in a hit-and-run car accident in Tel Aviv early this morning, just hours after landing in Israel to investigate how three forged Australian passports were used in the assassination of top Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Mr Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20 in what Dubai police have alleged was an assassination carried out by Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad.

After hiding out at the Australian embassy for most of Wednesday, the agents tried to give waiting media the slip as they tried to move to their hotel.

Instead their silver armoured Toyota Prado ploughed into Israeli cyclist Oshra Bar as it sped from the embassy’s underground carpark, and then failed to stop.

Ms Bar was not seriously injured, but told The Age that she had suffered lacerations to her leg.

“I want an apology and a new wheel,” Ms Bar said. “I was hit and I kind of bounced.”

Ms Bar managed to get the license plate of the SUV, which matched the license plate of a car that was later parked in the Australian Embassy car parking space.

She said she had already spoken to a lawyer and had been to hospital for a check-up.

The Australian Embassy last night confirmed that it was investigating the incident but would not confirm whether the car was carrying the AFP agents.

An embassy spokeswoman said as part of the investigation embassy officials had spoken to the driver of the car. She would not say what he had said had occurred.

“We are treating this issue very seriously,” the embassy spokeswoman said. “We have not been contacted by anyone who has been knocked off her bike, or by the police in Israel.”

“I can confirm that an incident did occur involving one of our vehicles. But I cannot comment any further until we know more about what happened.

The spokeswoman said she did have advice from the driver as to “whether something did or did not occur.”

The driver of the car, when asked if he had been involved in a hit-and-run accident, continued walking into the embassy offices and said: “Can you shut the door.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:10PM: Quote of the day:

”This does sound to me like a very weird incident..You have law enforcement officers here from Australia, they are involved in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident, and then are seen escaping from the scene? This is a sketch from Saturday Night Live, it’s new-generation Monty Python.”

- Israeli Foreign Ministry official talking about the Tel Aviv hit-and-run involving Australian Federal Police officers.

6:05PM: Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi gets his own Nike commercial.

5:38PM: Today’s must-read (hat tip: Melvyn):

Is state-sanctioned assassination justifiable, or does it somehow de-legitimise the state that undertakes it? Two articles in this newspaper last week, by Henry Siegman and David Gardner, have been violently critical of Israel in the wake of the assassination of the Hamas arms smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 19 January.

Mr Siegman wrote of how “Israel’s colonial ambitions” and “checkpoints, barbed wire and separation walls” were “turning Israel from a democracy into an apartheid state”, thereby creating a “looming global threat to the country’s legitimacy”. Two days later Mr Gardner wrote of how Israel’s “militarist extroversion” over the Dubai murder demonstrated an “Israeli preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions to complex political and geopolitical problems” which would “widen the international battle-space for tit-for-tat attacks” and “encourage the perception that [Israel] is a rogue state”.

Both commentators are completely wrong. All that the Dubai operation will do is remind the world that the security services of states at war – and Israel’s struggle with Hamas, Fatah and Hizbollah certainly constitutes that – occasionally employ targeted assassination as one of the weapons in their armoury, and that this in no way weakens their legitimacy. As for the “separation walls” and checkpoints that one sees in Israel, the 99 per cent drop in the number of suicide bombings since their erection justifies the policy. There is simply no parallel between apartheid South Africa – where the white minority wielded power over the black majority – and the occupied territories, taken by Israel only after it was invaded by its neighbours. To make such a link is not only inaccurate, but offensive. If Arab Israelis were deprived of civil and franchise rights, that would justify such hyperbole, but of course they have the same rights as every Jewish Israeli.

Far from having any colonial ambitions, Israel wants nothing more than to live peaceably within defensible borders. But equally it demands nothing less.

Furthermore, rather than some kind of knee-jerk “preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions”, the decision to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh – assuming it was sanctioned, planned and carried out by Mossad alone, which is anything but clear at this stage – would have been minutely examined from every political and operational angle. Yet sometimes complex political and geopolitical problems do require the cutting of the Gordian knot, and this was one such.

When Britain was at war, Winston Churchill sanctioned the assassination by its Special Operations Executive of the SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the capture (and killing if necessary) of General Heinrich Kreipe on Crete; ditto Erwin Rommel. Just as with some Mossad operations, such as the disaster in Amman in 1997 when agents were captured after failing to kill Khaled Meshal of Hamas, not all Churchill’s hits were successful. But the British state was not de-legitimised in any way as a result.

The intelligence agents of states – sometimes operating with direct authority, sometimes not – have carried out many assassinations and assassination attempts in peacetime without the legitimacy of those states being called into question, or their being described as “rogue”. In 1985 the French Deuxième Bureau sank Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior trawler, killing photographer Fernando Pereira, without anyone denouncing France as a rogue state. Similarly, in 2006, polonium 210 was used to murder Alexander Litvinenko without Putin’s Russia being described as “illegitimate”. That kind of language is only reserved for Israel, even though neither Pereira nor Litvinenko posed the danger to French and Russian citizens that was posed to Israelis by the activities of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

The reason that such double standards still apply – more than six decades after the foundation of the state of Israel – is not because of the nature of that doughty, brave, embattled, tiny, surrounded, yet proudly defiant country, but because of the nature of its foes. Even though one has to be in one’s seventies to remember a time when Israel didn’t exist, nevertheless there are still those who call the country’s legitimacy into question, employing anything that happens to be in the news at the time – such as this latest assassination – to try to argue that Israel is not a real country, and therefore doesn’t really deserve to exist. Real rogue states such as North Korea might be loathed and criticised, but even they do not have their very legitimacy as a state called into question because of their actions.

Those who wish to understand Israel’s actions and put them in their proper historical context should read Michael Burleigh’s cultural history of terrorism, Blood and Rage. Burleigh quotes a senior Mossad agent saying after the Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes: “If there was intelligence information, the target was reachable and if there was an opportunity, we took it. As far as we were concerned we were creating a deterrence, forcing them to crawl into a defensive shell and not plan offensive attacks against us.”

Is that attitude so very different from the pre-emptive targeted assassination of Taliban leaders that Nato carries out by flying drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan today? Yet are Messrs Siegman and Gardner going to call into question America’s legitimacy? No, that insult is reserved for only one country: Israel.

5:22PM: Syria has offered it’s latest (ridiculous) excuse for the presence of suspicious uranium particles found at a Syrian desert complex bombed  two years ago by Israeli planes.

Delegates inside the meeting told The Associated Press that Bassam Al-Sabbag, Syria’s chief IAEA delegate offered a new theory Thursday, suggesting that Israel had dropped uranium particles from the air after the bombing to implicate his country.

5:08PM: Hamashole founder’s son-cum-Mossad agent Mosab Hassan Yousef talks to Hannity on Fox.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour holds a discussion on Yousef’s story with guests including an Israeli and a Hamashole.

3:10PM: The UK Government is set to amend a law to ensure visiting Israeli officials are not arrested on charges of war crimes.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “the Crown Prosecution Service will take over responsibility for prosecuting war crimes and other violations of international law, ending the current system in which magistrates are obliged to consider a case for an arrest warrant presented by any individual.”

Writing for the Telegraph, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would submit plans to put the CPS in sole charge of “judging the merits of any case brought under international law.”

Brown said the right to prosecute international crimes in Britain had been abused by activists.

“The only question for me is whether our purpose is best served by a process where an arrest warrant for the gravest crimes can be issued on the slightest of evidence,” he said. “As we have seen, there is now significant danger of such a provision being exploited by politically-motivated organizations or individuals.”

1:40PM: Apparently, Woody Harrelson didn’t just play a dumbass on tv. He really is one.

Watch him say, amongst other things, that suicide bombings are not nearly as bad as Israeli military action.

6:05AM: I wonder if this is the same Oshra Bar, the cyclist apparently hit by Australian Federal police officers currently in Israel.

Oshra Bar, 22, described himself (should be “herself” – ed.) as a longtime activist. After high school he (“she” – ed) refused service in the Israeli army.

“It’s impossible to have a democratic state when you have race laws,” Bar said, pointing to “Jewish only” roads in the West Bank and restrictions on the sale of land to Palestinians.

“What is happening here [in Sheikh Jarrah] is a direct continuation of the Palestinian Nakba – the people [Arabs] are being dispossessed again,” Bar said, adding that she believes in a secular, bi-national state with equal rights for all citizens. “I’m here to show that I’m against race laws.”

She looked then toward the police. Her chin down and her dark eyes raised, Bar said defiantly, “I’m not afraid to be arrested.”

But perhaps afraid of being run over.

The system, dubbed “spot and strike,” is operated by the IDF’s Field Intelligence Corps. The footage shows how the system targets a Palestinian terrorist who was involved in an attempted attack that took place in late December 2009.

The system was controlled by a female officer from the Nesher Observation Unit. The officer directed a military helicopter and a Golani force to the location of the terrorist, while also following three other cell members, thus foiling the attack.

The officer stands to receive a special presidential commendation for her actions, as part of the coming Independence Day celebrations.

The new system, which has been operational for about a year, affords the IDF a new and effective way of dealing with terror threats, army officials say.

“The system proves most effective when we’re dealing with real-time events that require immediate response,” Chief Field Intelligence Officer Eli Pollack told Ynet.

Lt.-Col. Eran Gabai, head of the Nesher Unit, added that the observers’ work is very complex: “They canvass the area constantly to spot potential threats among otherwise mundane parameters.”

The IDF found a ladder, ropes and explosives in the documented incident, indicating that the terrorists were planning to climb over the security fence in order to carry out their attack.

Field Intelligence officers employ state-of-the-art technology in their reconnaissance efforts. “It’s a 24/7 operation which involves both mobile and stationary teams,” said Pollack.

“Our officers and observers are part of almost every military operation today. Our challenge is to keep misleading the enemy,” he concluded.

Of course, all of this would be unnecessary if the palestinians were not trying to commit terrorist attacks, a fact worth noting next time a pro-palestinian claims the security fence is a “land grab.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:15PM: Oops!

Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants fall off of a truck after one of them was injured, center, during a training session on the outskirts of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

(hat tip: Brian)

If only a similar mishap had occurred at Hamas training…

Palestinian security forces from Hamas demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony at a training area in Gaza City, Monday, March 1, 2010.

6:24PM: Photo of the day. Presumably taken on Purim, but given Jerusalem Syndrome, who knows (hat tip: Eli)

“Must..resist…urge…to….climb..”

6:06PM: According to Facebook’s head of strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Israelis spend over one billion minutes on Facebook every month, making it by far Israel’s most popular site and more than the time they spend on Google, Walla, and YouTube combined.

Here’s a case in point.

The Israel Defense Forces called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details, including the time and place, on the social networking website Facebook, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

The soldier – since relieved of combat duty – described in a status update how his unit planned a “clean-up” arrest raid in a West Bank area, Army Radio said.

“On Wednesday we clean up Qatanah, and on Thursday, god willing, we come home,” the soldier wrote on his Facebook page, refering to a West Bank village near Ramallah.

The soldier also disclosed the name of the combat unit, the place of the operation and the time it will take place. Facebook friends then reported him to military authorities.

The Israeli military spokesman’s office had no immediate comment.

Israel says raids in the West Bank are aimed at detaining militants suspected of planning attacks on Israelis. Palestinian officials say the incursions undermine efforts by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to enforce law and order in the territory.

Next status update from the IDF soldier in question: Guess who just did a really stupid thing?

11:35AM: Despite yesterday’s report that Hamas believes Egypt or Jordan were behind the Mahmoud al-Mabhouh hit, the Dubai police chief plans to pursue the arrest of the Israeli Prime Minister and Mossad chief.

Dubai’s police chief plans to seek the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.

Dahi Khalfan Tamim “said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for … Netanyahu and the head of Mossad,” the television said. It did not give details.

Tamim has said he is “almost certain” Israeli agents were involved in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel in January, calling for Mossad’s boss, Meir Dagan, to be arrested if it is proved responsible.

6:15AM: Relations between Israel and New Zealand seem to be thawing after the horrible Helen Clark years (hat tip: Zak)

A reciprocal deal has been struck between New Zealand and Israel on working holiday visas.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully signed the arrangement in Jerusalem overnight. It allows up to 200 people aged from 18 to 30 to stay and work in Israel for a year. The same applies to young Israelis travelling to New Zealand.

Mr McCully says the move will help to deepen tourism and education links in time, lead to better trade and investment between the countries.

“Israel is already our largest tourist market in the Middle East, and it is an affluent economy that will present opportunities for New Zealand,” Mr McCully said.

6:08AM: Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank, who worked for Israel’s Shin Bet, talking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Arab states should actively support Islamic resistance, as Iran and Syria do, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said in an aggressive speech Monday.

Speaking on the occasion of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Nasrallah accused Israel of annexing territory and desecrating Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, but directed most of his criticism at Arab states.

“Netanyahu convenes his government and annexes everything – the Golan, the Cave of the Patriarchs, everything. And what did the Arab world do? Nothing,” the Hezbollah leader said, while praising young Arab rioters in east Jerusalem for their sacrifices.

“The Muslim nation must assume its responsibility and not leave the resistance movements alone on the ground,” Nasrallah said. “When Syria and Iran stand by us clearly they assume their responsibility and should be thanked for that. Assist the Palestinians as Iran does and this will resolve the problem; assume your responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Mr Big Talker Tough Guy and his terror organization are getting nervous.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

7:52PM: Yesterday, I also posted about Israeli Apartheid Week, a week (i.e. 14 days) of campus moonbattery in cities across the world.

Fellow Aussie David Guy – who last year released a spoof Israeli Apartheid Week poster – has expanded on the idea this year, instead preparing a graphic tool “to parody the Destroy Israel Lobby’s efforts and a competition to showcase your hard work.”

Like this, for example:

Join in on the fun.

5:38PM: Yesterday, I posted about the Dubai Police Chief’s remarks regarding the intention to ban Israelis from entering the UAE in future. In particular, I highlighted these remarks.

We will not allow those who hold Israeli passports into the UAE no matter what other passport they have,” Tamim said.

He did not explain what procedures would be used to identify the Israeli visitors, except that the police will “develop skills” to recognize Israelis by “physical features and the way they speak.”

Elder of Ziyon, who spends a great deal of time auto-translating, has noticed a discrepancy between his remarks as portrayed in the mainstream media, and his remarks in Arabic.

Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said today that the UAE will “deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship.”

But his Arabic remarks went way beyond any English-language news agency that quoted him into naked Jew-hatred. From an Arabic interview in the Khaleej Times:

Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, said Israel is a rogue state, and that goes beyond international legitimacy and laws. Its leaders have sick mentalities, and they need psychologists, saying that its use of passports shows great arrogance and contempt for the world.

(Tamim said hat) the leaders of “Israel” have blood on their hands the blood of others throughout history, pointing out that the “Israeli” people are human beings like any other people who want to be loved and open to others but that the successive governments, the Governments of bloodshed and assassinations, and wars and the Governments of the occupation and aggression, are not interested in peace in the world at all.

He added that the vanity which haunts the “Israeli” mentality stems from the time of Pharaoh, and their hate comes up to this day and age.

He said that the entire world should study the mentality of the “Israeli” leaders throughout history. Their sick psyches needs to be analyzed by psychology professors, who need to examine why they launch crises, and why they brought on themselves hate from others, since the time of Moses, peace be upon him.

He said we will train our personnel in the passport of the forms and features of the Jewish people and their names, noting that no one can hide their features of Jewishness. He asked the appropriate departments to prepare nationality and residency sessions to familiarize the staff with [Jewish] forms and names, especially since most Jews hold dual passports [with Israel.]

He pointed out that the number of Jews, compared with the Europeans, is nothing, and even within Palestine itself.

No anti-Semitism here. Move along.

4:54PM: While the Dubai police chief continues to point the finger at Israel and the Mossad, Hamas reportedly has other ideas regarding who killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Hamas suspects the security forces of an Arab state were behind the assassination of a senior group operative in Dubai earlier this year, the Al-Quds Al-Araby daily reported on Tuesday.

Mahmoud Nasser, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told the newspaper that slain commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was likely being tracked by agents from Jordan and Egypt prior to the January 19 killing.

Nasser said he had been given information regarding such efforts to kill Mabhouh, adding that the evidence indicated that the assassination was carried out earlier than the alleged agents had planned.

According to Nasser, Mabhouh was in possession of “dangerous” information seen as dangerous to particular Arab elements seeking to topple Islamist resistance.

Nasser oversees Hamas’ ties with Iran and worked closely with Mabhouh, sometimes referred to as his deputy. Hamas raised these accusations after a prelimary investigation immediately following the murder, and match early suspicions raised by Dubai as well.

1:26PM: Turkey want to have their kike and eat it:

Rani Rahav, public-relations agent to the stars, has a new client – Turkey.

Specifically, the man famous for representing some of Israel’s best-known names has been hired by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism after winning a tender to reinstate Turkey to favor in Israeli eyes.

Here’s a free tip from me: Lose the anti-Semitism.

12:08PM: Last Wednesday:

Hamas on Wednesday attempted to refute the exclusive published in Haaretz about  Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank, who also worked for Israel’s Shin Bet security service for 10 years.

—-

Hamas parliament member Mushir a-Masri said that the article was not worthy of a response and called it Zionist propaganda against the Palestinian people.

Today:

A senior Hamas leader publicly disowned his son Monday, days after Haaretz revealed that the young man had secretly spied for Israel and helped authorities hunt down members of the Islamic militant group.

Hamas Web sites published a letter Monday by Sheikh Hassan that the militant group said was smuggled out of the Israeli prison where he is serving a six-year sentence.

In the letter, he said his family announced its “complete renunciation of the one who was once our eldest son, who is called Mosab.” The father said though he was sorry to take such, he had no choice after his son “disbelieved in God…and collaborated with our enemies.”

Just something to think about next time you hear the palestinians complain something is “Zionist propaganda.”

6:15AM: ABC News (Australia) Middle East correspondent Anne Barker talks to Lateline about the Australians caught up in the passport scandal.

Besides being stuck in the Sixties with her hairstyle, Barker is also stuck in an anti-Israel mindset. See here for example (make sure you read to the Editor’s note at the bottom).

Three months ago, Australia voted against a similar resolution which sought to endorse the Goldstone report – a UN-sponsored paper which accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, said yesterday that the change was not related to the passport scandal and that Australia abstained because the latest resolution did not specifically endorse the Goldstone report.

”Our vote on the resolution was neither determined nor influenced by recent events,” he said. ”The Australian government always considers UN resolutions on a case-by-case basis and on their merits. Australia abstained on this resolution because, unlike previous resolutions, it did not endorse the Goldstone report.”

Six other countries also changed their votes, including Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Some countries, such as Britain, France and New Zealand, shifted from abstention to support. Others, such as the United States and Canada, voted against both resolutions.

Britain, France and Germany have all recently expressed anger at Israel after their passports were caught up in the Dubai plot.

One Department of Foreign Affairs source told the Herald there was no doubt the decision to abstain was intended as a sign to Israel not to take Australian support for granted.

”A number of things made it easier for us to switch our vote,” the source said.

”Firstly, the Americans helped the Palestinians to soften the wording of this resolution compared to the last one. Secondly, a number of other countries had indicated that they were toughening their own positions on Goldstone. But there is no question that the debacle surrounding our passports being used in Dubai helped to make up the government’s mind to abstain. The final decision was taken late on Friday, Australian time, just a few hours before the vote.

”Our pattern in the past has been to vote with the US when it comes to Israel, to show as much support for Israel as possible.

”We were also aware that the UK’s decision to vote in favour of the resolution was influenced by the fact that so many of their citizens had been caught up in the Dubai assassination.”

The opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop, yesterday accused the government of downgrading its support for Israel as part of its campaign to win a UN Security Council seat.

”I don’t understand the government’s change of heart,” she told the Herald.

”The Coalition’s position has been consistent. Having voted against the Goldstone report, we would continue to vote against it … Since coming to office the government has weakened Australia’s long-held position of supporting Israel at the UN.”

Mr Smith last week publicly summoned the Israeli ambassador, Yuval Rotem, over the suspected use of three forged passports by Israeli spies in the Dubai killing. Mr Smith warned that if Israel was behind the forgeries ”Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend”.

Israel has refused to confirm or deny involvement in the assassination. Its embassy in Canberra would not comment yesterday on the passport scandal or on Australia’s UN vote.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who has described himself as a lifelong supporter of Israel, indicated on Saturday he did not believe Israel’s public response to the incident was acceptable.

Mr Smith has been fiercely critical of the Goldstone report, saying it was excessively focused on Israeli actions and paid insufficient attention to Hamas’s rocket attacks against Israel.

Privately, Israeli officials expressed little concern at the vote, saying the new UN resolution simply expanded a plan for internal Israeli investigations of the allegations raised by the Goldstone report.

Meanwhile, contrary to the last statement, the Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli diplomatic officials are concerned by the fact Dubai “is slowly dripping out information” about al-Mabhouh’s killing to keep the issue alive and make Israel squirm.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:55PM: Earlier today, I posted the Dubai police chief’s comments regarding Israelis not being allowed into the UAE (see 5:46PM update).

Well, there’s more.

We will not allow those who hold Israeli passports into the UAE no matter what other passport they have,” Tamim said.

He did not explain what procedures would be used to identify the Israeli visitors, except that the police will “develop skills” to recognize Israelis by “physical features and the way they speak.”

Why do I get the feeling the following picture – or something similar – will feature in the Dubai police training?

9:45PM: In case you thought palestinian stone throwers were harmless..

A Palestinian youth lifts a rock during confrontations with Israeli police in Jerusalem’s Old City February 28, 2010.  Israeli police raided a plaza near the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Sunday in response to stone-throwing protests by Palestinians, an Israeli police spokesman said. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

I’m sure being hit in the head by one of those would cause a fair bit of damage.

Heck, I know it for a fact, since it happened to a friend of my wife’s.

By the way, I find it curious that the caption writer admits the palestinian is lifting a rock, but refers to stone-throwing protests. In my mind, a stone is smaller than a rock.

6:00PM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak speak to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

5:46PM: Travelers suspected of being Israeli will no longer be allowed into the United Arab Emirates even if they arrive with alternative passports.

But if you are an Islamic terrorist, enjoy all the UAE has to offer.

4:48PM: There’s an elephant in the room.

And it’s mother is a rabbit.

19-year-old rabbit raiser in Jenin said he was “shocked and terrified” when his newest animal gave birth to what he described as a tiny baby elephant on Sunday.

“I was concerned when I saw a black baby elephant next to nine white baby rabbits,” Alawna told Ma’an, adding that the creature died only five hours after it was born. He said he was baffled as to how the elephant was produced.

The mother rabbit, Alawna explained, is a Dutch breed which he bought six months ago from a farmer in the northern West Bank village of Jaba in Jenin district.

Muhammad Alawna raises rabbits as a hobby on his small farm north of Jenin, and works construction in Israel during the week.

I’m just wondering when the palestinians will claim it is a mutation brought about by exposure to a Zionist Death Ray.^TM

4:32PM: Dubai’s police chief has said the Mossad has insulted Dubai and countries whose forged passports were used by its agents in the killing of Hamashole Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

“Mossad shouldn’t come to us. We haven’t done anything to Israel. This is an insult to us, to Britain, to Australia, to Germany and to New Zealand and it’s shameful,” Tamim told reporters in Dubai, a member of the United Arab Emirates.

Apparently, Dubai was not too insulted about hosting a known terrorist working to bring deadly weapons to other terrorists, and who himself was traveling under a variety of identities.

1:14PM: The palestinian cabinet has held its weekly meeting in Hebron “to strengthen the connection between the PA and the city, and demonstrate its importance to the palestinians.”

Of course, the palestinian connection to Hebron is over 80 years old.

11:52AM: The Jerusalem Post reports on the impending Israeli Apartheid Week, a week of campus moonbattery in cities across the world.

The sixth international Israeli Apartheid Week kicks off on Monday, with the “week-long” festivities taking place over 14 days in over 40 cities across the globe.

Organizers say this year’s events are meant to “educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.”

The IAW’s Web site says 2010’s apartheid week “takes place following a year of incredible successes for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the global level.”

Organizers say the event will not only push for an end to “colonization of all Arab lands” and the “full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel,” but also the dismantling of the West Bank security fence and the right of return for Palestinian refugees

IAW released a trailer on YouTube earlier in February, showing a series of pastoral and urban West Bank and Gaza scenes as concrete sections of the wall plummet from the sky and mar the landscape. Halfway through the video, the words “Boycott, Divest, Sanction” appear and obliterate the wall.

IAW began in 2005 only in Toronto but by 2006 had spread to Montreal and Oxford, adding five more locations in 2007, including New York. In 2008, 19 additional locations were added, and by 2009, IAW was held in 27 cities. This year, over 40 cities are part of the proceedings, from Cape Town to Beirut to Melbourne.

The first IAW was organized by the University of Toronto’s Arab Students’ Collective in order to show  “solidarity with the people of Palestine and other oppressed nations. The first IAW was a five day event that featured lectures on the Nakba, as Palestinians refer to the dispersal of their population in the pre-state Israel following the 1948 war, as well as Palestinian prisoners, labor apartheid, and the Apartheid Wall. It also featured a lecture on ‘Resisting Apartheid’ that featured Haifa University professor Dr. Ilan Pappe,” according to IAW.

Noah Kochman, chair of the political affairs and advocacy department of the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students at McGill University in Montreal, said that activists at McGill and other universities in Canada will seek to counter IAW by reaching out to what according to him is the 80 percent of students “who don’t know about Israel and haven’t made their mind up about Israel yet.”

Kochman said that in addition to “combating the harassment and intimidation of Israel supporters on campuses and the demonization of Israel,” groups like his are moving to “harder-hitting, countering campaigns.” These include the “don’t play with the truth campaign,” in which the CFJS will hand out “truth cards” on campus to dispel what Kochman says are misconceptions about Israel, in addition to hosting a series of pro-Israel speakers on Canadian campuses.

Kochman says his group won’t seek to avoid politics or change the subject, saying they will directly address issues such as the Goldstone Report, Operation Cast Lead, and the Gaza Blockade. Kochman also said that IAW, for its part, does not address the peace process rather, “is devoted to the demonization of Israel.”

Dax D’Orazio, media coordinator for Students Against Israeli Apartheid at Carleton University, told The Jerusalem Post Sunday that his organization and others that are taking part in IAW are working “with the university community to launch a socially responsible investment policy that will work against investment in groups that violate labor rights and international law.”

D’Orazio discounted criticism that IAW is devoted to delegitimizing Israel or is anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic in nature, saying that such criticism “is part of an ongoing campaign to blur the line between the advocacy of Palestinian rights and anti-Semitism.”

Yep. Nothing anti-Semitic about it.

Meanwhile, here’s the official trailer for Israeli Apartheid Week 2010.

Seems to be missing some important elements, such as even a clue to the terrorist attacks that gave rise to the security fence to begin with.

6:05AM: King Abdullah of Jordan yesterday stated the international community must take immediate measures to protect the holy sites in east Jerusalem from unilateral moves on Israel’s part.

Thank G-d for Jordan, the epitome of Holy site protector.