I don’t know about you, but I feel that giving back the Sinai really paid dividends.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:40PM: A few months ago, this video from northern Israel of a horse trampling a car was making the rounds.

Now comes this video from southern Israel, in which the horse comes off second best.

11:30PM: Another case of premature explodation.

8:40PM: Terrorists fired a Katyusha-type rocket into Israel earlier this evening, in what the IDF called “a grave incident.” A fire broke out at the rocket’s impact site, near the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, but there were thankfully no casualties.

Channel 2 reported that IAF planes carried out strikes in southern Lebanon within an hour of the rocket being fired.

While there has been no claim of responsibility, Israeli security sources believe the rocket was not fired by Hizbullah, but rather by a small palestinian organization.

8:32PM: Here’s a firsthand account of events from the blogger whom Richard Silverstein attempted to have kicked out of his panel discussion.

“We know that there are people here who disagree with what we believe, but we welcome them to our conference.”  — Jeremy Ben Ami in his opening remarks to the “Driving Change” Conference

This is not the first blog to accuse J Street of duplicity in ballyhooing its”Pro Israel” brand.  But today at its gala conference in Washington, I saw the real face of diversity J Street style.  I registered with my real name and paid the admission price and actually believed what Jeremy Ben Ami declared in his welcoming speech.

At 12:45 on Monday, the “Bloggers’” panel convened at the Grand Hyatt to a packed- to- overflowing room to hear the stars of the ultra-left blogosphere – including the inimitable Richard Silverstein of Tikkun Olam.  Just as his fellow bloggers were finishing up their  vilification of Jeffrey Goldberg, whose less-than-hard-hitting interview of Jeremy Ben Ami apparently enraged the leftosphere,  Silverstein leapt up from his seat, pushed his way frantically past the audience and said to a J Streeter, “Get security.  We’re going to kick this guy out.”  I, like many others in the crowd, were filming the event.  No notification was given to participants that filming or recording was not allowed.  Later, I was told by a security guard that anyone could film any event and that he had received no instructions to bar recording devices.  Much of the conference was live-streamed, as a matter of fact.

The next thing I knew was that two J Street officials were dragging me out of the room demanding that I stop filming.  I complied with their request and asked them why they were singling me out.  Amy Spitalnick, J Street’s chief spokesperson then told me that only authorized persons could film a discussion.  I expressed surprise and suggested that they were singling me out at the behest of one of their bloggers (Richard verified later that he was on a panel for J Street).  I asked for an apology from Amy, but she refused, saying that no one except for authorized persons could photograph the discussions (I witnessed many audience members photographing sessions – no one was dragged from the room and chastised).

As the late, lamented TV pitchman, Billy Mays was wont to say, “But wait, we’re not through yet!”  Later in the day I happened to be seated near Mr. Silverstein at a panel on Iran.  When the session broke I went up to him and said, “Richard, let me buy you a cup of coffee and we’ll sit down and discuss this like adults” whereupon he literally ran over to a security guard who then proceeded to demand identification from me.  It seems that Richard told the guard that I was at the conference under an alias and that I did not pay to attend.  I produced the necessary identification which satisfied the put upon man.  At that point I had had just about enough from the hysterical Mr. Silverstein.  As I mentioned, the guard told Mr. Silverstein that anyone could film the conference as he had received no instructions to the contrary.

The harassment didn’t end there.  I was brought to the J Street desk by the guard with Richard leading us demanding that I be ejected because, “I didn’t belong here.” He continued harassing me by telling the guard that I had registered under a false name, a charge that was quickly proved false.

I recounted the events to Amy Spitalnick of J Street and demanded an apology for J Street’s harassing and embarrassing behavior.  She refused.  I then asked if she would speak to Mr. Silverstein, who was at the conference at J Street’s invitation.  She replied that she would.  Finis.

Yes, I disagree with many of J Street’s  positions and statements.  I also agree with some of them, especially their condemnation of terror as the state policy of Hamas.  Jeremy Ben Ami set a welcoming tone for people who disagree with J Street’s agenda at the outset.  That that tone was betrayed by the uncivil and harassing conduct of his chief spokesperson reveals the darker side of J Street’s view of freedom of speech.

5:50PM: Here is an open letter to Richard Goldstone, written by Israeli doctor David Zangen (hat tip: Richard)

Dear Judge Goldstone,

My name is Dr. David Zangen, I am a consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology and diabetes at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. Over 50% of my patient population is Palestinian from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I speak Arabic and initiated the first training program for Palestinian physicians in the field of Pediatric Endocrinology. The trained physicians were fully respected and were included as first authors on our studies that are published in world leading professional journals.

But, at the same time I happened to be the chief medical officer of my brigade during the Defensive Shield Operation in Jenin 2002. I was responsible for the medical treatment of our soldiers but also for enabling the hospital in Jenin to provide full medical services to the civilian population and I was personally involved in numerous medical treatments that Palestinians (including warriors) received from Israeli physicians.

During and after the operation the director of Jenin hospital was a source to what has been falsely called the “Massacre in Jenin where 5000 people were massacred” this same person Dr. Abu Rali has also claimed that one part of the Jenin hospital was destroyed by Israeli tank missiles “12 tank rockets were shot at the hospital …” etc

You should know, honored Judge that these statements have been proved and documented as straight lies not only by Israeli sources but also by the Human Rights Watch and the UN organizations counting only 52 dead people on the Palestinian side (23 on the Israeli side). These organizations and photographs of Jenin hospital following the operation showed no evidence for any destruction at the hospital buildings etc.

This Dr. Abu Rali a director of a hospital, a physician, lies and incites in the service of the Shahids. It is hard to believe that a director of a hospital can give such an obvious false testimony. I can’t understand it and you can’t understand it but unfortunately this is what has happened. Even persons who would usually be considered reliable sources become advocates of straight lies.

Tragically, moral misbehavior of doctors in the Palestinian Authority is not new. The Pediatrician George Habash sent his terrorists to kill children in Israeli schools and so did the Hamas leader the pediatrician Dr. Rantisi…and so continues to do the Pediatrician encouraging the sending of rockets from Gaza on innocent Israeli schools Dr Mahmud Zaher.

Please judge Goldstone, you should really be careful when such straight liars serve as the basis for your report. I am sure that you mean well but being an eye witness both to the events in Jenin and to the subsequent media and initial false UN reporting I do understand what happened to you. How a person of such stature and integrity could become associated with such a faulted report.
Look Judge Goldstone at your report on the Al Fakhura event on January 5-6th 2009 (paragraphs 651-688). You do report how Israel was accused for directly bombing the UNRWA school. It took 2 weeks to withdraw from this accusation but you, honored Judge, went back to get your testimony only from the same people who spread the blood libel of bombing the school. Moreover when analyzing the scene you claim that you could not verify the numbers of 24 dead and 40 wounded but these numbers are not considered exaggerated. Finally in the Factual findings part you already determine that 24 people were killed and 40 injured!

Did you by any chance try to validate any of these invented and inciting details? Did you look at the Al Jazeera or BBC reports from the same very date of the event? Did you try to validate your “factual findings” conclusions by getting at least Emergency Room charts on the people admitted to their trauma department on this very day? Did you go over the I.D.’s of the “dead” people and the place or cemetery where they were supposedly buried?

Well you didn’t!

In all the scene of “40 dead and 40 wounded” filmed by Al Jazeera and other channels reporters and screened at the same day all over the world you could not see bodies or blood spots in the streets beside two or three casualties and one footage of a single wall damaged by a bomb. As a physician who was at terrible suicide events with smaller number of casualties I can testify how it looks like for hours following the event….The media documentation of the Al Fakhura event does not verify and definitely does not go along with the fantasy and lies of your witnesses.

As a judge I must be sure that you did not mean to hurt Israel, I try to believe that you came to Gaza without prejudice…but a judge is expected to look at least for some evidence and verification (media, ER registration, burial places  etc….) of the testimonies and not accept impossible “facts”. You have let yourself to be misled by fabrications made by either terrorists or even doctors such as Dr. Abu Rali from Jenin.

I and my colleagues in Israel are proud of the medical service that is given equally to every human being regardless of his origin; we are also proud to belong to a nation that has the imprint of having higher moral standards than others.

The price that we pay for this status is very high. The Palestinians and other Muslims around the world, either common people or even respected doctors, use straight lies as part of the war against us. The Western world media criticizes us and tries to find where we were not behaving up to the extremely high moral standards that we made ourselves.

I call on you Judge Goldstone take this Al Fakhura event, look at the media coverage from the very same date…see the events in the context…try to live one day with the responsibility for the existence of this small nation of 6 million Jews threatened constantly by 300 million Muslims. I call on you to try and not draw conclusions from such lies and misleading witnesses even if they come from so-called professionals. In the modern world propaganda and lies are definitely a part of the war and as a judge you should not serve as a tool for augmenting hatred and conflicts.

We look for peace , we love peace and we do try our very best to fight for our right to exist in the highest possible moral standards even at the cost of our lives.

David Zangen M.D.

3:20PM: Regarding the frightened palestinian boy in one of Reuter’s “Pictures of the decade” (see last update), here he is right before he wet his pants:

Funny how this picture did not make the cut.

1:40PM: Reuters seems to be running a Picture of the Decade series. And as usual, they are finding it hard to hide their anti-Israel bias.

Two pictures, two boys. One palestinian and one Israeli. The former portrayed as terrified, the latter as angry and aggressive.

REUTERS PICTURES OF THE DECADE. A young Palestinian protestor is arrested by Israeli border police in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 6, 2001 after clashes broke out following Friday’s Muslim prayers. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein (JERUSALEM)

REUTERS PICTURES OF THE DECADE. An angry Jewish settler boy looks out from inside a synagogue as Israeli policemen and solider storm the Neve Dekalim settlement in the Gush Katif, August 18, 2005. Israeli troops stormed two Gaza Strip synagogues and dragged out screaming settlers and supporters on Thursday in assaults on the last bastions of resistance to a pullout from the occupied territory. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj (GAZA)

I am sure there are many photos of young Israeli boys looking terrified and worried, and I am already aware of the thousands of photos of palestinian boys looking aggressive and angry (especially while shooting guns, or throwing rocks and petrol bombs). Yet somehow the “Pictures of the Decade” series features photos supporting the “Israelis as aggressors, palestinians as victims” narrative.

8:50AM: This should tell you everything you need to know about J Street.

J Street’s university arm has dropped the “pro-Israel” part of the left-wing US lobby’s “pro-Israel, pro-peace” slogan to avoid alienating students.

—-

“We don’t want to isolate people because they don’t feel quite so comfortable with ‘pro-Israel,’ so we say ‘pro-peace,’” said American University junior Lauren Barr of the “J Street U” slogan, “but behind that is ‘pro-Israel.’”

Barr, secretary of the J Street U student board that decided the slogan’s terminology, explained that on campus, “people feel alienated when the conversation revolves around a connection to Israel only, because people feel connected to Palestine, people feel connected to social justice, people feel connected to the Middle East.”

She noted that the individual student chapters would be free to add “pro-Israel,” “pro-Israel, pro-Palestine,” or other wording that they felt would be effective on this issue, since “it’s up to the individuals on campus to know their audience.”

8:40AM: US “”allies”, the Saudis: Saudi University Professor Salman Al-Abdali explains the difference between suicide bombings in Israel and Saudi Arabia.

6:02AM: Solomon has more on the J Street conference and the Silverstein panel blogger ejection, including this gem.

It gets better. Stavis tells me that Mr. Silverstein was sitting in front of him at another (formal) J Street panel. Hillel approached Mr. Silverstein and asked him if he would like to sit down and discuss matters calmly…Whereupon RS motored immediately to a security person and insisted that Mr. Stavis was a fraud, that he wasn’t who he said he was (cuckoo, cuckoo…who exactly does he think Stavis is?)…the guard asked for Stavis’ conference badge and ID. Everything checked out. So of course our Mr. Stavis insisted he do the same for Silverstein.

Solomon also links to this article, which describes how Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was mocked at the conference.

Blumenthal went on to trash Elie Wiesel for speaking this past weekend at the Christians United for Israel conference in San Antonio. After mocking Pastor John Hagee, the founder of CUFI, Blumenthal said “the last time Elie Wiesel trusted someone so much it was Bernie Madoff.” Wiesel admitted earlier this year that he lost “everything” he had in Madoff’s ponzi scheme. The audience erupted with laughter at Blumenthal’s tasteless joke.

Peace lovers, huh?

5:52AM: In their latest report, Amnesty International has accused Israel of “denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies” which “unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing an effective water infrastructure there.”

NGO Monitor has identified some major issues with the report, not least the timing of its release.

NGO Monitor notes that Amnesty International’s 112 page report titled “Troubled Waters – Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water”, is timed to strengthen the Israel boycott campaign, coinciding with a US speaking tour linking the water issue and Israeli ‘apartheid’.  The report itself is a political document which promotes an imaginary and highly distorted version of international law.  In addition, it omits critical context to the conflict in order to promote the Palestinian narrative, thereby continuing the NGO-led political warfare against Israel.

• This report is the latest episode in Amnesty’s campaign against Israel.  Amnesty International headquarters issued over twenty statements overwhelmingly critical of Israel during and in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.
• Amnesty’s report provides legitimacy for a speaking tour beginning November 1 at universities in the US organized by the Palestinian Cultural Academic Boycott of Israel (PCABI) movement entitled, “Israel’s Control of Water as a Tool of Apartheid and means of Ethnic Cleansing.”  The main speaker, Omar Barghouti, is a leader of the boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
• Amnesty’s report ignores evidence that not only does Israel provide West Bank Palestinians with more water than required under the Oslo framework, but that Palestinian water thieves are responsible for stealing up to 50% of supplies in some areas.
• Amnesty claims that levels of Palestinian water consumption (60-70 liters per person per day), are “the lowest in the region.” Amnesty omits easily available evidence that this is a similar level, if not better than major regional cities such as Amman, Tunis and Algiers.
• The report is based on the claim that Israel is violating Palestinian human rights, because the Oslo framework, on which current water arrangements are based, “codified inequality in access to water resources”.  This approach patronizingly assumes that the Palestinian leadership is incapable of negotiating agreements, and creates the spectre of future agreements that will be abrogated on similar ground.
• The report invents standards of international law, by erroneously claiming (including on the front cover) that Israel has an “obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to water” based on the International Covenant of Economic, Cultural & Social Rights (ICESCR).  Amnesty falsely implies that the ICESCR demands a right to water when no such right is even mentioned in the treaty. In fact, the legislative history of the ICESCR indicates that the State parties deliberately omitted water issues.

And by alleged war crimes, I am referring to alleged war crimes by Israel. No-one is interested in discussing Hamas’ actions.

UN officials say 18 of the council’s 47 members signed a motion calling for the debate. The backers are: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Senegal.

Egypt and Jordan, eh? Peace!

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:00PM: Going Gaddafi on Goldstone: Here is Knesset member Danny Danon ripping the Goldstone report.

Literally.

Full story here.

7:46PM: Ha’aretz reports:

1,700-year-old footprints discovered under Lod mosaic

Which begs the question: what the hell was Shimon Peres doing under a mosaic floor?

7:38PM: PA Prime Minister Salam Fayad says he refuses to have a “Mickey Mouse” state.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad on Wednesday called the demilitarized Palestinian state envisioned by Israel “a Mickey Mouse state,” and said the Palestinian people would not accept such a plan.

“By all indications, [Israeli officials] have a Mickey Mouse state in mind” Reuters quoted Fayad as saying in a press conference in Ramallah.

Besides, he’s more of a Farfur kind of guy.

7:32PM:

US actress and human rights activist Mia Farrow leaves a tent erected on the site of a house destroyed during Israel’s January incursion in Gaza, during her visit to Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009. Farrow is on a 4 day visit to Israel, West bank and Gaza as a good will ambassador for UNICEF. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Why do I get the feeling that the chances of Farrow visiting children in Sderot are about as slim as her getting back together with Woody Allen?

(Although her lawyer son seems to recognize some double standards when it comes to Israel).

12:20PM: Here is a copy of the draft resolution the palestinians plan to submit ahead of the UNHRC’s deliberations over the Goldstone report

6:00AM: The US has criticized Turkey for canceling the NATO military drill due to Israel’s participation.

Neither the Turks nor NATO has confirmed that Israel’s participation in the exercises over Turkey was Ankara’s reason for canceling it.

US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday, however, that “as to the question of whether there was a government that was invited to participate and then removed at the last minute, we think it’s inappropriate for any nation to be removed from an exercise like this at the last minute.”

He was asked whether that was what happened, and if Israel was the spurned country. He confirmed both.

So much for being cryptic.

Meanwhile, Syria has commended the decision.

“We held our first joint land military exercise (with Turkey) last spring. And today we have agreed to do a more comprehensive, a bigger one,” said Syrian Defense Minister Ali Habib, speaking at a news conference.

I somehow imagine Ali Habib and his fellow Syrian officials like this after those comments.

“If not now, then when,” Netanyahu reportedly said in the conversations with American officials. “Action must be taken in all areas to increase pressure on Iran and impose crippling sanctions on it.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is remorseful over the whole affair.

Just kidding.

“They can continue to use this case (against Iran) through the media but it was a blow to their arrogance,” said the Iranian leader in reference to the United States and other Western powers.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

2:32PM: Hours before the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, around 150 palestinians have thrown stones at a group of Jews visiting the Temple Mount.

The incident began when a group of tourists entered the Temple Mount compound accompanied by a police force. At a certain stage, some 150 worshippers started gathering around them and calling out towards them.

Some of the worshippers began throwing stones at the group. The police force fired stun grenades in an attempt to gain control of the riot. Nine police officers were lightly injured by stones. Six of them received medical treatment on the site and the rest were evacuated to hospitals.

Fifteen worshippers were injured by stones and two were lightly hurt by the stun grenades and were evacuated to the al-Maqasid Hospital in east Jerusalem. Adult worshippers attempted to calm things down, while the group of tourists was removed from the site.

The palestinian Ma’an News predictably have a different take on events.

At least 26 people were injured and eight arrested as fierce clashes broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday.

Three of the 17 wounded Palestinians sustained serious eye and head injuries, sources said.

Israeli police said nine officers were also hurt.

Clashes erupted after groups of Israelis entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday morning, reportedly under the guard of Israeli police. Palestinians threw stones, chairs, and shoes at the Israelis, while police injured 17 Palestinians during attempts to forcefully disperse them with batons and stun grenades.

On Thursday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation warned that Israeli police were planning to permit settlers entrance to the area. Officials in East Jerusalem predicted that the break-in would occur on Sunday under the pretext of marking Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement.

In other words, Jewish people peacefully visiting the holist site in Judaism = break-in. How’s that for peace and tolerance?

Interestingly enough, some of the wording of the Ma’an News report seems to have been changed. According to Elder of Ziyon, this is what the Ma’an report was saying over an hour ago:

At least 13 Palestinians were injured as fierce clahes broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem on Sunday morning after Israeli police permitted settlers to break into the area, witnesses said.

Two of the injured Palestinians reportedly sustained serious injuries to the eye and head. Israeli police said two officers were also hurt.

On Thursday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation had warned of an impending incursion. Officials in Jerusalem said extremists were preparing to break into the holy Muslim area, and accurately predicted that the break-in would occur on Sunday under the pretext of celebrating a religious holiday.

Confrontations erupted after groups of Israelis broke into the compound, reportedly under the guard of Israeli police. Palestinians hurled stones, chairs, and shoes at the Israelis, while police tried to disperse the Palestinians by force, injuring nine people right away, and four more throughout the morning.

It’s almost as if Ma’an realized they had to tone down the language a bit, since it was even too much of a stretch for them.

12:32PM: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again thumbing his nose at the Obama administration and the West.

10:18AM: Hot on the heels of our peace partner Egypt showing their fond feelings for us comes Turkey doing the same thing.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday his country would push the Security Council to discuss a report by United Nations investigators accusing Israel  and Palestinian gunmen of war crimes in the Gaza war.

“We will definitely take the position to discuss this issue on the Security Council,” Erdogan told reporters.

9:00AM: According to some palestinian “political analysts,” Israel’s pinpoint strike on the three Islamic Jihad “ticking bomb” terrorists was not to prevent rockets from being fired on Israel, but rather for more devious purposes.

An Israeli airstrike that killed three Palestinian fighters on Friday night was targeted at Islamic Jihad in a calculated move intended to disrupt a precarious calm in the Gaza Strip, political analysts told Ma’an on Saturday.

The strike targeted Islamic Jihad in hopes that the group would respond violently, thus embarrassing the Hamas-controlled government in Gaza, which has assiduously enforced a unilateral ceasefire since the end of Israel’s three-week war on Gaza last January.

I’m just surprised they didn’t claim it was to kill the men so we could steal their organs.

7:54AM: Here’s the latest video of Zionist occupation soldiers carpet bombing Gaza city in order to stop three laborers from delivering pipes to a nearby construction site.

Aussie Dave: Err, sorry there. I invited Richard Goldstone to guest post, but I’m guessing that was not a good idea. Here’s what really happened.

IAF Targets Three Terrorists on Their way to Launch Rockets at Israel

Last evening, Friday, September 25th 2009, An Israel Air Force air-craft targeted and identified hitting three terrorists east of Gaza City who were on their way to fire rockets at Israel’s southern communities.

The three terrorists hit were Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives residing in Gaza City, and part of a terrorist cell that has been firing rockets into Israel for the past few weeks, including rockets that hit the city of Sderot during the holiday of Rosh HaShana (the Jewish New Year) a week ago. The names of the three terrorists are Mahmoud Mussah Rammadan Bana, Kamel Hamdan Ibrahim Dakhdukh and Mohamed Salem Barawi Marshoud.

Approximately 50 rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israel during the last three months, totalling more than 250 since the end of Operation Cast Lead and more than 750 in 2009. Throughout 2008, over 3300 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel.

The IDF will respond harshly to any attempt to break the calm in Israel’s southern communities.

7:22AM: Here’s the latest interview with Richard Goldstone (in Hebrew with English subtitles)

US President Barack Obama told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday that he was dissatisfied with their recent foot-dragging on getting Israeli-Palestinian talks restarted.

A senior White House source yesterday told Haaretz that “during the tripartite meeting Obama strongly expressed his impatience.”

The source said the meeting was “businesslike” but not cordial. Netanyahu and Abbas voiced their opinions but did not attack.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, National Security Adviser Uzi Arad and Netanyahu adviser Yitzhak Molcho also attended the 45-minute meeting. The American side included U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, envoy George Mitchell, U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones and Obama adviser Dennis Ross.

Obama scolded Netanyahu and Abbas. “We’ve had enough talks,” Obama said. “We need to end this conflict. There is a window of opportunity but it might shut.”

Obama made it clear during the meeting that he was interested in resuming the negotiations between the sides “about all outstanding issues” based on the talks and signed agreements since the beginning of the Oslo process 16 years ago.

“There’s an historical record of the entire past negotiations and there are principles,” he said.

“We won’t start the negotiations from scratch, we will not take the historical record and toss it aside. Nor will we wait for the perfect formula.”

He also said: “It’s difficult to disentangle ourselves from history but we must do so. The only reason to hold public office is to get things done. We all must take risks for peace.”

“We cannot continue the same pattern of taking tentative steps forward and then stepping back,” Obama told reporters as he sat down for the meeting.

“Success depends on all sides acting with a sense of urgency.”

The U.S. president said both sides must get formal peace negotiations back on track. “Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations,” Obama said. “It is time to move forward… Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:26PM: Here is what US President Barack Obama had to say about Middle East peace in his speech to the UN General Assembly.

For his part, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised the speech:

“I commend this important speech of Obama’s and his call to renew the peace process without preconditions. I commend his unequivocal support of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” he said.

Not so former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton.

11:00PM: Ynetnews reports:

Egypt’s culture minister on Wednesday blamed a conspiracy “cooked up in New York” by the world’s Jews for keeping him from becoming the next head of the UN’s agency for culture and education.

Farouk Hosny was defeated on Tuesday by Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova in a tight race for the position of UNESCO chair.

“It was clear by the end of the competition that there was a conspiracy against me,” Hosny told reporters at the airport upon his return from Paris.

“There are a group of the world’s Jews who had a major influence in the elections who were a serious threat to Egypt taking this position,” he said.

Yep. His defeat sounds like a real loss for culture and education.

7:00PM: David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee, writes of the Goldstone report’s “three strikes.”

Excerpt:

In fact, Mary Robinson, who, as a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wasn’t exactly known for her warm disposition toward Israel, turned down an offer to lead the Council’s investigation.

“Unfortunately, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution seeking a fact-finding mission to only look at what Israel has done, and I don’t think that’s a human rights approach,” Robinson said in March.

3:50PM: Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, CNN interview Sept 22, 2009:

I think what is important is that we’re moving on to talk peace. And I hope to make peace.

Any time we have encountered an Arab leader who wanted to make peace, we made peace. [Egypt's] Anwar Sadat came. Menachem Begin of the Likud made peace.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in a letter to UN Security Council:

“Israel’s nuclear capabilities cannot evade world attention.”

Ain’t peace grand?

2:45PM: Today’s ‘Duh’ moment is brought to us by Israel’s Foreign Minister, courtesy of the Jerusalem Post.

11:45AM: Anti-Israeli blogger Richard Silverstein has been caught lying again.

By yours truly.

6:00AM: Welcome to Gaza, the world’s only “concentration camp” with coffee shops containing flat screen televisions

Palestinian watches US President Barack Obama, left, meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on TV in a coffee shop in Gaza City, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders shook hands at the start of their first face-to-face meeting Tuesday, hosted by Obama, but the small gesture was unlikely to translate into a quick resumption of peace talks. Netanyahu and Abbas remain far apart on key issues, including Israeli settlement expansion and the agenda of future talks. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

5:48AM: Say what you want about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The man can speak.

Gaza gunmen fired at IDF soldiers patrolling the security fence near the Sufa crossing late Monday afternoon, seemingly refuting reports of a 24-hour ceasefire.

I dunno. It sounds exactly like the kind of “ceasefire” we have been experiencing for the last few months.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry flatly denied reports it had asked Hamas to temporarily hold its fire as a condition for transferring aid to the Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing, Army Radio reported on Monday afternoon.

Earlier on Monday, Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu and senior Hamas official Ayman Taha said that Gaza factions had stopped launching rockets at Israel for 24 hours at Egypt’s request so that the aid would be transferred by the Egyptian Red Crescent.

Because the last thing on earth our peace partners want to look like are our peace partners.

It’s a shame there is no returns policy on the Sinai.

Al-Sharq (QATAR): Azhar Sheikh’s Handshake With Peres Sparks Crisis in Egypt Parliament – The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc in Egypt Thursday denounced the handshake between the top cleric of al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, and Israeli President Shimon Peres during a U.N. General Assembly interfaith meeting in New York this month. The Islamist group said the handshake provokes the sentiments of the Egyptian people and harms the image of al-Azhar, the highest Muslim Sunni authority, at a time when Israel is besieging “our people in the Gaza Strip.” The lawmakers demanded an apology from Tantawi.

The MEMRI blog follows up:

In response to photos published in the Egyptian and Arab press showing Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Tantawi stated that he hadn’t known who Peres was and that the handshake was by chance, not intentional.

He added that on this occasion he had shaken the hands of over 20 people all at once, instinctively and with good intentions.

Source: Al-Jarida, Kuwait, December 1, 2008

The shocking photograph is flying through Islamist message boards.

Jew Cooties is of course a horrible disease, and it is communicable, so now Sheikh Tantawi cannot touch anyone else until he goes through a painful decontamination procedure which is a cross between the process used to clean up people exposed to high doses of nuclear radiation, and an exorcism.

Of course, after this scandal, he is now washed up as a leader of Al Azhar. It appears that he might be growing his beard to get a new job as a department store Santa.

In the first, a wife-swapping club was found in Egypt:

Egyptians have reacted with shock at the country’s first known case of wife-swap involving married couples.

Earlier this week, police arrested the couple, using the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira, who had allegedly set up a wife-swapping club via the internet. A total of 44 married couples were alleged to be members of the club, according to security sources.

The two main suspects, confessed in questioning to having organised orgies in their apartment in Giza, south of Cairo, the sources added.

Magdy, 48, told investigators he had suffered sexual impotence after he retired from work six years ago and had to see pornographic films and websites, the semi-official Al Jumhuria newspaper reported yesterday.

“I stumbled on a website on wife swap run by a Jewish Kurd in northern Iraq, who explained the idea to me and encouraged me to promote it in Egypt through my own website. I suggested the idea to my wife, who liked it,” he added. They have two children.

The husband told prosecutors he had convinced his wife, a 37-year-old Arabic teacher, of the idea of “a swinger lifestyle as a form of physical recreating between consenting married couples”.

The couple said they had insisted that partners involved in the alleged orgies be legally married and show their officially registered marriage contracts, the security sources said.

The second story involved that ever-popular topic, impotence drugs:

A television advertisement for erectile dysfunction medication has been pulled from the air in Egypt after viewers protested about its use of popular song Keep the Weapon Awake, media reported.

The song was penned in 1973 by Egyptian poet Ahmed Shafiq Kamel, to rouse Egyptians during the Arab-Israeli 1973 war when the Israeli army reached the Suez Canal, Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yom reported.

One Egyptian satellite television owner, who said his station had stopped airing the advertisement, described it as “annoying and not right”, the newspaper reported.

You gotta give credit to that advertising agency!

I was outside setting on the coach enjoying the great view of Vallekilde when a girl with a long dark curly hair showed up, she looked at me, I saw the sadness in her eyes, and I felt there is something different about her, but couldn’t know what exactly what it was.

She came towards me, “Hello.. I want to talk to you..” she said, I told to her “Sure.. what do you want to talk about?”, I was really shocked when I heard what she had to say after that, because I didn’t expect that she will come to me and the first thing she had to say is “Do you hate me?”

The first thing that I should be clear about here is to understand and explain what she meant by the terms “you” and “me”, I am a Muslim, Arab and Egyptian young man, and she is an Israeli girl, both of us met for the first time.

There was something inside of me that wouldn’t let me go, but all other parts of my mind and soul were pushing me in this direction to meet someone from Israel, the people who have several wars with Egyptians. Actually, visiting Occupied Palestine is a dream for all Arabs and Muslims, but someone like me couldn’t have such a chance without having really big problems before and after returning back home with the security departments in Egypt. This is why they don’t give you an Israeli Visa on your Passport, but it will be given in another temporary Passport, and this meeting could destroy my whole career history and also could give me a bad reputation as a person who came closer to Israeli people, and that’s why I can not publish this under my name.

The good thing is that I didn’t have to travel to Israel because the meeting is at a neutral place in Denmark where the “Media For Dialogue” course was held, I also knew there would be a chance to meet Arabs from Occupied Palestine, which meant I would be able to have a close look at the conflict. It’s not just another documentary movie, but I would meet real people, and have the ability to interact with them all, hoping to bring something good out of it. This is how I was thinking and how I make it easy for my self to accept it.

I was remembering all of this after hearing the question from the Israeli girl I met in Denmark during the course. I told her “Of course I don’t hate you, but I hate occupation, and you know that our countries had a very bad historical wars against each other, I believe that all humans should live together in peace”. She completely agreed with me like she had the same opinion as mine.

Sounds promising.

That is until the Egyptian man drops the pretense of the conflict being about the so-called occupation and lets the Israeli woman know how he really feels.

I continued “I will be honest and tell you about what I really think because you are not the only one who feels the sadness, but I have also my deep sadness feeling, especially when I think about the future of Egyptians in coming generations. I believe we will have another big war with Israel, maybe it will take some time until this happen, but no one can stop that, recording to prophet Mohammed -peace and blessings be upon him- “The Hour will not come to pass until you fight the Jews..” to the end of the Hadith (mentioned by Abu Hurayrah in: Whole true small number -7,414). This war will be totally religious and All Muslims will be part of it, it’s not the same war that we have now in the Middle East against the Israeli occupation. and this me feel bad some how, because the war will never end between Muslims and Jews. Of course no body wants war but what to do?!

Now that’s a conversation killer.

It’s also further proof that the so-called “occupation” is not the root cause of this conflict. The Muslims see themselves as obliged to fight the Jews, wherever we are.

Initial reports indicated that some Israelis were also kidnapped, but thankfully this does not seem to be the case.

Meanwhile, anyone reading the BBC’s report on the incident would get the impression that Israel was behind the attack, but was denying it. At least until reading a couple of sentences towards the end of the article.

Eleven tourists seized in Egypt

Eleven European tourists have been kidnapped along with seven other people while making an off-road tour of southern Egypt.

Five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian were taken along with seven travel guides and drivers.

Local reports said the abduction, which took place near Aswan, was carried out by tribesmen or bandits.

Egypt’s tourism minister said a ransom had been demanded and negotiations were under way.

A ministry statement said: “This is an act of banditry not of terrorism.”

Minister Zoheir Garana told Associated Press news agency that a ransom of up to $6m (£3.24m) had been demanded.

Israeli denial

The chief of police in Aswan told local television the tourists had been seized along with two guides, four drivers and the owner of a travel company who had organised their trip to an area known as Gilf al-Kebir, near the Libyan border.

Local tourist guides inside southern Egypt told news agencies that the tourists were travelling in three or four off-road vehicles.

There were unconfirmed reports that the group may have been taken across the border into Sudan.

The German and Italian foreign ministries confirmed that five nationals from each of their countries were among the group.

Both said they had set up crisis teams to deal with the incident.

The German ministry said its nationals had been missing since Friday.

There were initially reports that the group included Israeli tourists. But Israelis were not mentioned in later reports, and the Israeli foreign ministry denied any of its nationals were involved.

Thanks to Israellycool reader James for the BBC tip.

What really interests me about this story is not the fact this woman is Tony Blair’s sister-in-law. It is what she reveals about her mindset.

Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, who arrived in Gaza with a boatload of activists protesting an Israeli blockade last month, said Tuesday she was stranded because both Israel and Egypt had denied her entry.

Lauren Booth, sister of the former British prime minister’s wife Cherie, revealed her predicament as Blair visited the region to further Western-backed efforts to achieve a limited Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Booth was one of 44 foreign “Free Gaza” activists who set sail from Cyprus, docking in Gaza last month, and was one of 10 who remained when the others sailed back to Cyprus on Friday.

Israel allowed the activists to dock in Gaza on August 23 despite its blockade of the coastal territory since Hamas Islamists, who oppose Israel’s existence, seized control last year.

Booth said she has tried unsuccessfully over the past few days to leave through Gaza’s land crossings with Israel and Egypt.

“I tried through the proper channels, through the United Kingdom’s embassy, but I was told I was not allowed to come through,” she said after trying in vain to enter Israel.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Peter Lerner, confirmed Israel had denied Booth entry, saying there was a policy of refusing entry to anyone from Gaza who did not get there via Israel.

“There is no possibility to let in those people who entered by the sea. They cannot enter Israel,” Lerner said.

Egypt would not let Booth through its Rafah terminal with Gaza on Saturday. She was turned away along with two other activists, Booth said.

“We were all turned back by the Egyptians,” she said, adding that she had received no explanation but had “heard through contacts Egypt was under pressure from Israel to act that way.”

Israel has eased some restrictions on Gaza since an Egyptian-brokered truce in June that has largely stopped rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.

But land crossings have remained largely shut to some 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

Booth said diplomatic efforts were still being made to permit her to leave. “Thanks to Israel for letting us feel a real taste of Gazan life,” she added.

In other words, even though Egypt has also refused her passage, she refuses to apportion any “blame” to them, and will only blame Israel. If Egypt refuses, then they were obviously instructed to do so by Israel. And it is only Israel that has allowed her to “feel a real taste of Gazan life”, even though Egypt also shares a border with Gaza.

I have a strong feeling that Lauren Booth – and many, if not all, of her fellow Free Gaza tools – are more about hating Israel than loving the palestinians.