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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Want to learn how to shoot with top Israeli anti-terror experts? Click here for more details.

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The Serious and Organized Crime Agency (who I guess are serious and organized -ed.) or SOCA is investigating how the identities of British citizens were stolen.

“He made clear that we were concerned about the implications of the killing of Mr. al-Mabhouh on stability in the region, and he stressed that we require full cooperation from the Israeli authorities with the SOCA investigation,” Bryant told lawmakers.

The minister said Miliband told Lieberman that Britain and Israel can only cooperate on “the basis of trust and mutual transparency.”

Miliband said Lieberman “had no information to give me.”

The Israeli FM, for his part, said in a statement there was no proof Israel was involved in the killing, and later told reporters: “I think you have all seen too many James Bond movies.”

He said while petting his white cat…

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:00PM: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman introduces Prime Minister Avatar! (hat tip: Joe)

9:50PM: It looks as though the Prime Minister has developed somewhat of a backbone.

At least when it comes to the following issue.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel is obligated to ensure the freedom of religion for all faiths at all holy sites, in a response to allegations from Palestinian leaders that Israel’s heritage sites could spark a religious war.

“We are talking about a campaign of lies and hypocrisy,” read a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, issued after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Israel’s addition of two West Bank sites to its national heritage list a dangerous provocation, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a new uprising against Israel.

“Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs are burial sites dating from more than 3,500 years ago of Israel’s forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the nation’s foremothers, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel – and are worthy of preservation and renovation,” said the statement from Netanyahu’s office.

8:16PM: Quote of the day:

“The entire world must support those fighting terrorism: an American, British or Israeli soldier regardless if he is in Gaza or Dubai. The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn’t matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism.”

- Israeli Opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni

4:10PM: In case you thought the Knesset was a boring place..

A heated debated arose in the Knesset House Committee on Tuesday, following a request to hold a plenum session on the “forged passports affair”. Member of Knesset Talab El-Sana (United Arab List – Ta’al) asked if the Knesset was run by the Mossad, while MK Carmel Shama (Likud) called the assassination  of Hamas  commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh a “mitzvah”.

The Knesset House Committee session was held following a decision by the Knesset presidency not to authorize the matter for discussion on the Knesset plenum’s agenda. El-Sana filed an appeal to the committee, which was also rejected.

“Why isn’t the Israeli Knesset holding a discussion?” El-Sana asked the committee. “Anyone trying not to hold a discussion has a reason not to hold a discussion… Does (Mossad chief) Meir Dagan decide which matters are discussed in the Knesset?”

El-Sana added, “There is no doubt that this is a matter of public concern and that the Knesset should discuss the issue.”

Regarding the alleged forged passports reportedly used by the Hamas commander’s killers in Dubai, he asked: “Is assassinating in another country using mafia methods a victory? It was an act of terror. As in the attempt on (Hamas politburo chief) Khaled Mashaal, they were caught red-handed in Dubai, every movement, including the glasses, was captured. Whoever is behind this should be prosecuted. Don’t be surprised when arrest warrants are issued against Meir Dagan.”

In response MK Shama said, “If my passport could help in the assassination of Mabhouh, I would be willing to give it to you. I would be willing to give you my regular passport as well as my diplomatic passport.”

MK Yariv Levin (Likud) sarcastically added, “Firing rockets at kindergartens – that’s heroism. Don’t threaten us. Don’t sit here and threaten us.” Shama then said, “I would be very sorry if the State of Israel did not carry out this mitzvah.”

MK Ahen asked, “Why do the MKs feel threatened by having the matter discussed? A matter that has been spread over pages, down to the smallest detail. The media had a field day, almost like Carmel Shama’s euphoric spirit.”

Tibi and Shama then exchanged words, and a number of MKs chimed in. Shama said: “Meir Dagan did good work quietly. He is dear to Israel.” Tibi said he does not agree with Shama and named a different hero: “The real hero in this story is the Dubai police commander, who exposed the assassins.”

Shama asked: “That clown?” In response, Tibi said, “That clown caught you with your pants down.” At this point MK Levin intervened and told Shama: “Let Dubai’s ambassador in Israel speak.”

MK Meir Sheetrit of Kadima tried to calm his comrades and said the debate was unnecessary. Tibi had the last work and said, “I fear for Shama, he has an Arab name, he could also be assassinated tomorrow.”

1:08PM: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi reportedly avoided meeting PA President Mahmoud Abbas while the latter was visiting Tripoli despite his explicit requests.

9:35AM: Spot the grave of the airline hijacker:

Palestinians recite Koranic verses over the grave of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a former Hamas commander, at the tombs of Palestinians who were killed during conflicts Israel, at al-Yarmouk camp near Damascus February 22, 2010. Dubai has accused Israel of involvement in the killing of Al-Mabhouh in a hotel in Dubai last month. Israel has declined to confirm or deny it had any role. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA – Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS)

6:20AM: More on our latest Zionist Death Drone^TM (reported by someone who sounds a bit like a drone herself).

6:15AM: Yet another Israeli ethnic cleansing fail of large proportions.

Ibrahim, a 20-year-old Galilee Muslim whose failed circumcision two years earlier left him with too little penile skin to perform his matrimonial duties, was abandoned by his fiancee prior to their wedding. But plastic surgeon Prof. Yaron Har-Shai eventually enabled Ibrahim to get engaged to another woman by adapting – for the first time in the world – a technique used on hand and facial burns to rehabilitate his penis, restoring normal function.

Har-Shai and colleagues at Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine have just published their report on the highly unusual case in the British Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, which presents not only the details of the procedure but also ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. The doctors’ careful search of the Medline database showed that the technique had not been used previously to correct such a problem.

The man, now 21, is due to wed a different woman who accepted his marriage proposal after hearing about the normal appearance and functioning of his penis.

That’s some grape vine.

Upon hearing the news, the Carmel staff who treated him sent the couple a huge bouquet of flowers and wishes for good luck and many children.

Instead of undergoing a ritual circumcision at the conventional age for Muslims – 13 years – the man waited until 18, apparently because he comes from a secular family and didn’t think it was important, Har-Shai told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The procedure was performed by an overzealous traditional practitioner, who botched the job. Instead of removing just the foreskin, he also cut off ventral penile skin, a complication that occurs in 0.2 percent of circumcisions.

Although able to have erections before the accident, the unfortunate man found that the error shortened his organ by causing the development of scar tissue that prevented the skin from expanding with increased blood supply. Skin webbing developed from the sub-coronal groove to the anterior scrotal base. Intercourse was impossible, and when his first fiancee learned about his condition, the wedding was off.

An anesthesiologist who knew the family turned to Har-Shai, a Technion graduate who worked at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center until he was invited to head the plastic surgery department at Carmel.

Surgeons abroad trying to treat similar injuries in the past took skin from other parts of the patient’s body and transplanted it onto the penis; the result, however, was not only of a different color but the penis also sometimes developed a web texture and became too small to allow for intercourse.

First, Har-Shai performed a known procedure called Z-plasty, a technique used to improve the functional and cosmetic appearance of scars. It can elongate a contracted scar or rotate the scar tension line. The procedure, however, was unsuccessful.

Har-Shai’s father, Prof. Bernard Hirshowitz, was a pioneer in plastic surgery at Rambam before his retirement and years ago developed the “flap technique-5” procedure to enable webbed skin between fingers to become flexible after suffering a burn and shrinking, as well as for treating facial skin injuries. But it had never been used to rehabilitate a shrunken penis.

Har-Shai decided to adapt his father’s innovation – for the first time in the world – to the young man’s problem. He created five flaps from small bits of skin left on the man’s penis itself so they were not rejected and did not turn into webbing.

“Although previous surgery had been executed at the surgical site, uneventful healing of the skin flaps and complete relaxation and elongation of the skin web [was] achieved,” the team wrote.

The man’s penile length measured 11 centimeters after the procedure – eight centimeters longer than it was after the complications from the circumcision set in. Two months after the operation, the patient had functional erections, Har-Shai told The Post.

“It also looks great, very aesthetic,” he enthused. He added that his father’s flap technique-5 could also be used on baby boys if they have a shortage of skin.

There have been no previous reports of such a complication in circumcisions in Israel, even though some 50,000 ritual procedures are performed here each year. Har-Shai said he saw references to the complication occurring in Iran.

“I would have no problem treating Iranians who need it,” he said, though there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

6:08AM: The latest Turkey-Jerkey:

Israel is turning a blind eye to a huge poster showing President Shimon Peres seemingly bowing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was unfurled from a crane in an Ankara suburb on Sunday.

Neither the President’s Residence nor the Foreign Minister would comment on the poster, which superimposed an image of a bowing Peres in front of Erdogan, over the caption “Erdogan, a leader whom the world bows down to.”

While at first glance this seemed to be Turkish retribution for the public hazing of Turkey’s ambassador to Israel in January, when Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sat him on a lower chair and reprimanded him over an anti-Semitic television show broadcast in Turkey, the Turkish press reported that Erdogan’s office had the poster taken down before Erdogan appeared at the site to inaugurate a new road network.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the poster, with some diplomatic officials in Jerusalem saying it obviously came from the top, while others said it was quite possible that this was an independent act of protest that was not choreographed by the government.

A leader bowing down to another leader? As if that really happens.

“There is a signed contract [for the S-300 missiles] which we must follow through on, but deliveries have not started yet,” Vladimir Nazarov, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council secretary, told Interfax news agency in an interview. “This deal is not restricted by any international sanctions, because we are talking about deliveries of an exclusively defensive weapon.”

Nazarov added that a military strike on Iran would be a big mistake and that the problems linked to Tehran’s nuclear program must be resolved by diplomatic means only.

“Any military action against Iran will make the situation explode and will have extremely negative consequences for the entire world, including for Russia, which is a neighbor of Iran,” he noted.

Israel has expressed concern in the past over Russian plans to sell Iran the S-300 system, which will be used to defend its nuclear installations against a possible attack. During the past two years, both Israel and the United States have pressured Russia not to implement the agreement with Iran, and there may be other opposition, according to sources in the premier’s entourage.

Netanyahu is expected to raise the subject of the arms sales to Iran in meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putting (Putin! ed). In recent months Russia had promised not to go through with the deal. However, the economic crisis and pressure from the military establishment have resulted in major disagreements within the country’s leadership on the issue.

Medvedev recently told President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Russia needs the revenue from the deal and suggested that a different buyer be found.

Where’s Jack Bauer when you need him?

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:36PM: Photo of the day:

Paris Hilton was chosen to be the face of the new Israeli TV Ad that was filmed in New York. The Ad shows Paris walking the streets of NY surrounded by paparazzi and then walking in to shops and spending big. The Ad finishes with Paris in the streets of NY with lots of bags after a busy day. I’m pretty sure that his Ad wasn’t too difficult for Paris as she is known around the world for her luxury life style.

9:15PM: Hollywood Squares?

Not quite.

A team of 11 “mercenaries” was behind the assassination of senior Hamas man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last month, the Dubai Police said Monday.

Two Palestinians were detained in connection with al-Mabhouh killing, police officials added.

According to an al-Arabiya report, the two suspects were turned over to Dubai by Jordan. One of them was said to have met with the team’s commander, a Frenchman known as “Peter,” while the second suspect served as a security officer in the Palestinian Authority.

The police said the assassins dressed up as tennis players while moving from one hotel to another and charged that the killers left medicine by al-Mabhouh’s body in order to mislead investigators.

According to information released by police officials, team members carried the passports of various nationalities, including Irish, British, French, and German. The team included one female, carrying an Irish passport, police said.

The assassins were said to have ambushed al-Mabhouh in his hotel room after compromising the room’s entry code and killed him in complete silence. Police also presented photographs of the suspected assassins.

Doesn’t sound like it was the Mossad after all. But try telling that to Dubai, who seem hellbent on somehow blaming Israel.

“We do not rule out Mossad, but when we arrest those suspects we will know who masterminded it. [We have not] issued arrest warrants yet, but will do soon,” police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim told reporters.

6:36PM: Added insight into a terror enabling numbskull.

5:36PM:  According to the Times, the amending of current British law in order to ensure Israeli officials visiting the UK are not arrested on charges of war crimes may be in jeopardy, prompting Kadima head and opposition leader Tzipi Livni to suggest she “take the bullet” and face arrest in the UK on a future trip in order to force Britain’s hand.

She’s willing to do this, yet she’s not willing to make coffee.

5:28PM: It’s good to see this kind of statement coming out of the Arab world.

Arabs have no choice but to engage in negotiations with Israel in order to promote peace, Qatari Prime Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir al-Thani said Monday in a conference of Muslim states in Doha.

“In order to advance the peace process, there is no choice but to sit at the negotiating table with Israel,” the Qatari leader said. “We may agree or disagree with Israel, yet sitting at the negotiating table is the only way to achieve a satisfactory result,” the Qatari leader said.

In other positive Arab news, Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer is playing in this year’s Dubai Tennis Championships, a year after being denied a visa to the UAE for the same event. And in further good news, she won her opening match.

2:10PM: Caption of the day:

Palestinian militants stand guard in Gaza City, 2008. The government said it was very concerned about the bizarre arrest of a Briton by the Hamas masters of Gaza as its representatives met the detainee in the enclave. (AFP/File/Mohammed Abed)

1:05PM: A Muslim student who shouted “slaughter the Jews” in Arabic at Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon during his talk at Oxford university last week has invoked the tried and tested “I was misunderstood” defense.

The Oxford Student newspaper named the student as sophomore Noor Rashid and said that Rashid claimed he used a classical Arabic chant “Khaybar ya Yahod” which commemorates a seventh-century battle between Arabs and Jews.

The battle of Khaybar was an attack launched by the prophet Muhammad in 629. It led to the defeat of the Jewish community in the Arabian peninsula, forcing the Jews to pay half their income to the Muslim victors.

“My version went: ‘Khaybar, O Jews, we will win.’ This is in classical, Koranic Arabic and I doubt that apart from picking up on the word ‘Jew,’ that even the Arabic speakers in the room would have understood the phrase,” Rashid told The Oxford Student.

“As you can see, I made no reference to killing Jews,” he said, adding that the remark had “absolutely no derogatory or secondary meanings.”

Rashid – who on his Facebook page is a “fan” of Abdul Rahman al-Sudais – the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca – and veteran anti-Israel activist British MP George Galloway – claimed in the article that “Jew” and “Israel” were interchangeable terms and that he had been misunderstood.

Sudais has publicly prayed to God to “terminate” the Jews, and as a result has been barred from conferences in America, and been refused entry to Canada. In 2002, in a sermon, Sudais called the Jews “monkeys and pigs.” He was listed as an example of theological anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League, when he called curses down upon Jews and labeled them the “scum of the earth” in his sermons.

Rashid said, “There was a great deal of confusion and several people were shouting at the same time so I do acknowledge that people may have misheard me and assume that I uttered something else – namely to “slaughter the Jews,” which is something that I do not believe.

“I express the deepest regret if my remarks were misunderstood or misheard to mean anything that even comes close to encouraging the slaughter of innocents. I will be writing letters to all my Jewish friends to express my sincere apologies, and also to clarify my remarks,” Rashid added.

Assuming Rashid actually has Jewish friends. And if he does, you can bet they are of the schmekky/self-hating variety.

Regarding the remarks themselves, it is hard to glean from footage of the protest the words actually shouted.

But as this blogger posits, the distinction is not entirely relevant.

Khaybar was an Oasis not far from medina that was inhabited by Jews before being conquered by Muhammed in the 7th Century. It’s Jewish inhabitants were later expelled by the Caliph Umar. According to its Wikipedia entry, the phrase ‘Khybar khaybar ya yahod’, that the protestor allegedly said, is the start of a chant that translates as:

“Khaybar, Khaybar o Jews, the army of Muhammad will return”

Well that still sounds like incitement to me – especially when shouted aggressively in a room with many Jews.

Or perhaps even better put:

So, let’s get this straight.

Noor Rashid was heard to shout “Kill the Jews”

No no no, responds Noor Rashid. He merely wished to remind Jews of the way that Muslims, led by Mohammed, used to conquer, kill and dominate Jews.

Whether the word was “Khaybar” or “Itbah”, the meaning was essentially the same. Except the “Khaybar” version brings in Mohammed to endorse the killing and enslavement of Jews by Muslims.

In other words, Noor Rashid has admitted to shouting something even worse than “Kill the Jews”.

Here’s hoping the next time Rashid shouts out loud, it involves a prison shower and soap.

5:55AM: Saeb Erekat does Blue Steel.

Which is interesting, considering it was yesterday reported that he said:

“The PA will restart peace negotiations once Israel halts all settlement construction and recognizes the 1967 borders as the official borders of the future Palestinian state”

Sounds like preconditions to me.

Meanwhile, Abbas’ response to a question as to why all of a sudden the palestinians are demanding a “settlement” freeze is also..ehhh…interesting:

They tell me I had not previously demanded a construction freeze in the settlements. True, in 1993 we didn’t do so, but then there were no agreements about a freeze. Now, there is the road map,” Abbas said.

“The road map made demands of all parties. We were required to stop terror attacks, recognize Israel and even stop incitement. So come and see what we did. Although the joint committee against incitement is no longer active, we did act and are acting against incitement. They said there is a problem with incitement in speeches in mosques during Friday prayers. Today there is no more incitement at any mosque,” he said.

Notice how he mentions three palestinian obligations – stopping terror attacks, recognizing Israel and stopping incitement – and then talks only of the stopping of incitement. And even that is a blatant lie.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:55PM: A palestinian town known for its watermelons? Sounds like the Hamas virtue police have their work cut out for them.

Or not.

Palestinians install a statue of a watermelon in front of a police station in the West Bank town of Jenin, Wednesday Dec. 16, 2009. The northern part of the West Bank area is known for its watermelons, which farmers have been growing for decades. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

10:50PM: Two more Qassams to add to the tally.

5:40PM: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called opposition leader Tzipi Livni to voice his opposition to the arrest warrant issued in Britain against her earlier this week, saying that she was welcome in his country any time, and that he intended to take action to change the current legal situation that allowed this abuse to arise.

12:22PM: Quote of the day:

“I disagree with many policies of the Obama administration, but I know that President Barack Obama and [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm Emanuel believe that what they are doing is good for Israel.”

- Rabbi Asher Lopatin, Rahm Emanuel’s ex-rabbi

Now discuss amongst yourselves in the comments!

Possible answers:

a) Yes

Senior officials in Israel confirmed reports on Monday that a British court issued an arrest warrant against opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni for her role in orchestrating Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago.

The request for the warrant was submitted by a pro-Palestinian organization.

—-

Earlier Monday, Arab-language media reported that Livni canceled her participation in a Jewish function in London after a warrant for her arrest was issued over part in last winter’s Israel’s Gaza offensive.

Israel’s ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, conferred with officials in the British Ministry of Justice who told him that they were unaware of any criminal complaint or arrest warrant against the former foreign minister.

Yet, further inquiries by Israeli officials revealed that a warrant had indeed been issued.

b) Yes, but it was later rescinded

The Guardian reported Monday that a warrant for the arrest of Opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni had been issued by a British court, but was rescinded once it was discovered that she was not in the country.

Livni was scheduled to travel to the UK on Sunday but canceled her trip at the last minute. The Guardian reported that the Westminster magistrates court issued the warrant at the request of pro-Palestinian activists, but it was later withdrawn.

The attorneys who appealed for the warrant had apparently not been informed of Livni’s cancellation. Their clients wanted the former foreign minister arrested for her implication in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

The British Foreign Office immediately issued an apologetic statement. “The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel. To do this, Israel’s leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case,” it said.

b) No

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni declined a request to lecture in Britain due to her inability to obtain a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and not due to fears of being arrested, sources close to Livni said Monday night.

Livni was invited a month ago to address the Jewish National Fund UK’s annual conference in London, but two weeks ago she turned down the invitation because Brown would be abroad at the time. Instead, she addressed the conference by video.

Al-Jazeera had reported on Monday that Livni did not go to London because a British court had issued an arrest warrant against her for alleged “war crimes” committed during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip last winter, when she was foreign minister.

—-

The Guardian confirmed later in the day that the Westminster Magistrate’s Court had issued the warrant on behalf of Palestinian victims of the three-week offensive.

Both Livni’s office and the Foreign Ministry refuted the report.

“The opposition leader is proud of all her decisions connected to Operation Cast Lead,” Livni’s office said in a statement. “The operation achieved its goal of defending the people of Israel and restoring Israel’s deterrence. Livni will continue presenting her view everywhere around the world.”

—-

Israeli ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor met with officials in the British Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry, who denied that there had been any warrant issued or requested for Livni’s arrest.

Foreign Ministry officials speculated that once it was known that Livni had planned on visiting Britain, one of the pro-Palestinian groups there likely spread the word that they had requested an arrest warrant. Legal officials in the Foreign Ministry said Livni lacked diplomatic immunity that could protect her from arrest.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:45PM: Great blog post on the recent Yasuf mosque attack, purportedly committed by Jewish “settlers.” (hat tip: Daled Amos)

“Rush to Judgment”

Last Friday, in the Arab village of Yasuf, in Samaria, near the Jewish community of Tapuach, a mosque was vandalized.

News reports spoke of the fact of “mosque arson,” but in point of fact the mosque wasn’t torched.  Korans and prayer rugs were burned, while the mosque was left in tact — this fact visible from photos.  Graffiti was written in Hebrew on the wall of the mosque: “Price tag — Greetings from Effi.” This is presumed to represent a radical group of “settlers” who have vowed to extract a price from the Arab population every time the Israeli government restricts development by Jews in Judea and Samaria.  It is thus being assumed in many quarters that Jews did this in “revenge” for Netanyahu’s building freeze.

Across Israel there have been condemnations of this act — including by law enforcement officials and rabbis.  The fact that they felt the need to condemn this passionately seems to indicate that they were assuming that it was likely Jews who did it. There were statements by law enforcement officials about how it’s time to get tougher with the “extremists” in Judea and Samaria.

~~~~~~~~~~

I believe that the assumption that “extremist” Jews did this IS a rush to judgment. There is a mind-set that tends to paint the “settlers” as bad, a danger to peace.  This perception has been shaped by Arab and leftist PR and been assimilated to a large degree.  And the assumption that Jews who live in Samaria set fire to a mosque fits right in with that.

If it turns out that Jews did do this, I will roundly condemn them. But I am not prepared to do so yet, for a host of reasons:

The law enforcement officials have come out full force in investigating this. But as I write, there is not only no suspect, but no lead.  Clearly, they keep close tab on those Jews considered to be radical.  That there is not even a “lead” after four days gives pause. The fact that there was an ostensible graffiti “signature” from a radical group does not, of course, mean that this group really did the vandalizing.  As the Regional Council of Samaria pointed out, “Who would be stupid enough to leave a name?”

~~~~~~~~~~

And there is more:

Reports I received today indicate that the mosque has already been cleaned up, so that a police investigation of the “scene of the crime” is impossible.  (News reports did say that the PA was going to be doing the clean-up.)  As it was, the damage was relatively minimal.  Not destruction of a mosque, but of the accessories of prayer — just enough destruction to make press and to make a fuss over.

~~~~~~~~~~

Over a period of years, there have been accusations of Jewish “radicals” cutting down Arab olive trees, but on several occasions it turned out that Arabs themselves had cut down the trees to make Jews in the area look bad.  Seems strange from our perspective, that they would damage their own property. But that’s because we don’t think as these Arabs do. The same thinking takes place in Gaza. Terrorists target the crossings from Israel into Gaza, making it necessary for Israel to close the crossings for a period. This means that the supplies don’t get to the people. But that’s OK, for it’s more important to make Israel look bad for closing crossings.

Ponder this carefully.

The working assumption is that the mosque was vandalized by a radical Jewish group in “retaliation” for the government freeze. But the freeze wasn’t just announced. It’s a good couple of weeks old. So why now?

What is new is the priority map, which was just announced last week by Netanyahu. It indicates which communities will receive special attention. And guess what? A number of communities in Judea and Samaria were included (more follows on this below). How threatening to the Arabs who want to see us move back to the Green Line. Is it coincidence that the “arson” took place last Friday, just two days after the announcement?

When a contingent of rabbis from the Shomron (Samaria) tried to visit Yasuf, they were rebuffed. The residents there said these rabbis were radicals, or associated with radicals. I though this a little strange, as one of the rabbis was Rabbi Froman of Tekoa, who has a reputation of sustaining warm relationships with Arabs, and he had brought his Arabic-speaking son with him.

What did the Yasuf villagers say? That they need the land to be rid of “settlers.” No peaceful co-existence. No acceptance of peaceful gestures. Get out.

I noted this carefully when it was said, and everyone else needs to note it, as well. The vandalized mosque potentially provides “evidence” for the world to see of why Jews should not live in Judea and Samaria.

~~~~~~~~~~

As to that priority map:  It has caused considerable dissension within the government. To me what has been taking place is schizoid, with one arm of the government unclear as to what the other is doing.  As I noted last week after the priority map was announced (announced just as there was a demonstration against the freeze taking place), it seemed to give a very mixed message with regard to that freeze.  And, sure enough, it made the Obama administration uneasy, so that reassurances had to be provided.  The communities in Judea and Samaria which were on the map would receive other kinds of assistance, our government said, but not housing assistance.  Not clear is whether this set of parameters was for the ten months of the freeze only, or would continue thereafter.

The map was approved by the Cabinet on Sunday, after announcements that the decision might be delayed because of objections.

Shas objected, and with good reason, because communities where those who were expelled from Gush Katif are settling were not given priority.

But the major source of tension with regard to the priorities set by the map emanates from the Labor party.  Four party “rebels” have been discontented for some time with Barak’s participation in Netanyahu’s coalition. (It is likely that the ferocity with which Barak administered the freeze on the ground, adding strictures that weren’t in the original announcement, was an attempt by him to show these rebels how tough he is with “settlers.”)

Now the rebels — Eitan Cabel, Shelly Yacimovich, Yuli Tamir, and Ophir Paz-Pines — say that clearly Barak knew what the priority map would include, and that this is the proverbial straw. According to a spokesman for the rebels, “The chances of us making peace with Barak are the same that this government will make peace with the Palestinians.”

What is being demanded is that within two to three months Labor leave the government if progress has not been made in the “peace process.”

The insistence of the left wing in blaming Israel for a failure of the “peace process” drives me to distraction.  How, precisely, do they think “progress” is supposed to be achieved when Abbas won’t come to the table? (See below on this.)

At any rate, this is one of those situations that will bear close watching, as the political implications are real.

~~~~~~~~~~

There are other issues with regard to communities in Judea and Samaria that I will return to as soon as possible.  It seems today that there is more to write about than time to do the writing.  It is almost time for candle-lighting and then celebration with friends.

Here I will simply report that Abbas has announced that he is abandoning the format of the Road Map and refusing to come to the negotiating table until we agree to return to the ‘67 lines.  There is much to say about this, in due course, although we’ve been watching this unfold; it’s not exactly unexpected. (The PLO, by the way, will be formally extending Abbas’s term as PA president, until there are elections.)

Today in the village of Yasuf, Arabs demonstrated with the demand that Jews get out of the West Bank.  And, while I might be mistaken, it seems to me all of a piece.  How convenient that they have the “evidence” of the Jews having vandalized their mosque, to show the world why we cannot remain.

I am incensed, by the way, that the president of the EU has made a statement about this mosque. How many times, pray tell, has the president of the EU made statements when Arabs killed innocent Jews in Judea and Samaria?

7:48PM: As if the driving here wasn’t bad enough, now we have to worry about passenger jets.

A Russian commercial airplane narrowly avoided disaster on Tuesday afternoon after missing the landing strip at Ben Gurion International Airport.

According to Channel 10, the passenger jet arrived at the airport from the South, and was preparing to descend when the air traffic controllers realized the pilot was planning to land on the wrong landing strip and instructed him to turn back.

Several minutes later, the control tower noted that again the airplane had come from the wrong angle, and alerted the pilot about his error to avoid the jet crashing into Route 1, the highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

On the third try, the jet finally landed on its designated landing strip at the Ben Gurion Airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority opened an investigation into the incident.

6:20PM: On yesterday’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio, the Guardian’s Associate Editor Michael White managed to turn a discussion on Silvio Berlusconi’s encounter with a nutter into an anti-Israel diatribe. (via Media Backspin)

In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don’t like their political style and what they’ve got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place.

Doesn’t really sound like the guy who over three years ago wrote:

As I get older my own sympathies are shifting back to where they started – with Israel as the regional underdog, however short-sighted and self-defeating some of its actions are.

4:12PM: PA President Mahmoud Abbas continues trying to take advantage of the international community’s insistence (especially the US) that Israel take unilateral steps towards peace, by insisting on the borders of a palestinian state as a precondition to negotiations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas  demanded Tuesday that the international community recognize the 1967 borders as the borders of a new Palestinian state, and stated that this was a condition for the resumption of peace talks with Israel.

“We will renew negotiations if the settlements are completely halted and the 1967 borders recognized as the borders of the Palestinian state,” he said in Ramallah.

Speaking before the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Abbas commended the European Union on a proposal to declare east Jerusalem the future capital of a Palestinian state.

He also condemned settlements. “Netanyahu’s announcement of a 10-month freeze in settlements is not considered a halt of all settlement activity,” he said, referring to a cabinet decision backed by the prime minister.

12:30PM: The Israeli Foreign Ministry has released the following statement in response to attempts to have Tzipi Livni arrested in Britain.

Israel rejects attempts to exploit British courts against MK Tzipi Livni

15 Dec 2009

Britain should fulfill its promises to stop anti-Israel exploitation of the British courts.

(Communicated by the MFA Spokesperson)

Israel rejects the cynical legal move made in the British court against the Head of the Opposition, MK Tzipi Livni, at the behest of radical elements, and wishes to point out that Israel and Britain are both engaged in a common struggle against the forces of international terror. In many parts of the world, British soldiers are fighting to eradicate terrorism.

Israel calls on the British government to fulfill its promises, once and for all, to act in preventing the exploitation of the British legal system by anti-Israel elements against the State of Israel and its citizens.

The absence of immediate, determined action to correct this abuse harms relations between Britain and Israel.

If Israeli leaders cannot visit Britain in proper, dignified fashion, this will, quite naturally, seriously compromise Britain’s ability to play the active role in the Middle East peace process that it desires.

10:40AM: Welcome to Israel’s first Sudanese restaurant.

10:00AM: Comedian Butch Bradley, who was just here in Israel for the first time performing as part of the Comedy for Koby tour, was really affected by the experience.

Which brings us to Israel – a country which, even on this brief acquaintance, Bradley says “touches your heart.” He sees us simply as “real people, just trying to live. And you’ve got all this banging on your front door late at night.”

He also describes us as a kind of “huge family,” which may hold a further secret of his empathy, since he comes from one himself. “I have a fiancé and millions of Irish cousins,” he says. “I’m going to bring them all, tell them all to come.”

America, he declares, with a conviction that defies dissent, “would go to war for Israel without a second thought. Even if not officially, the airports would be full… We do respect and love family.

“I was raised by a single mom,” he flows on. “We hug a lot. We say I love you. We pray. We go watch our cousins play high school football. We’re an Irish-Italian family, and we respect time. We know it’s not there forever. We’re postal workers, police officers, waiters and waitresses, concrete workers – real people. If my brother calls me at 3 a.m. I’m there.”

9:05AM: Here is an insight into the bullying tactics of the anti-Israel crowd.

The caller is apparently associated with a mob called Stop Funding Israel, whose website proclaims:

This website aims to deliver to you a comprehensive list of companies you can avoid to cut off the flow of money to the Ashkenazi run terrorist state of ISRAEL.

(for more on what Ashkenazi means, see here)

..while stating:

This website does not, will not, can ever endorse discrimination upon anyone for their opinions of religion, creed or nationailty or culture.

What is also telling is how the caller seems to think true knowledge is gained via Google. I somehow doubt he has read any historical books of note on the conflict, or has made any real effort to better understand what is truly going on in this part of the world.

“The threat that Iran poses is very grave for the state of Israel, for peace in the Middle East and the whole world. Without any doubt, we are the first target, but not the last.”

- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:12PM: Opposition leader Tzipi Livni today blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but not before experiencing “technical difficulties.”

Here’s hoping she had better luck with the coffee machine.

8:32PM: Hamas is using a photo of yesterday’s “Netanyahu slip” to ridicule the Israeli Prime Minister.

Two can play this game, you know.

7:35PM: Sarah Palin criticizing the Obama administration and expressing her support for Jewish settlements.

8:38AM: The moving story of an Indian doctor and his wife, who converted to Judaism thanks in large part to murdered Mumbai Chabad Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg HY”D and his wife Rebecca Holtzberg HY”D, and who married in Hebron on the first anniversary of their murders.

‘Our whole life centered around the Chabad House, “he said in a trembling voice.” It’s the only place where we could get kosher food. Gabi and Rivki were our guides, we did not move without them. They gave us Judaism and we gave them medical care for their sick child. We began a process of true conversion and found the extraordinary beauty of the Torah commandments. Then came that terrible night, and took away my Master …”. He sobs a few moments and says: “But what we learned from Gabi and Rivki will accompany us and our children forever.”

Read the whole thing.

8:27AM: So much for quitting.

8:26AM: Palestinian terrorists have fired a Qassam into Israel.

5:52AM: Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him on the backside.

And even then, he’d accuse it of Israeli aggression.

In his latest episode of lying, he now claims the PA are not seeking a unilateral declaration of statehood.

“I want to make sure the Israeli people understand that we are not speaking of a unilateral declaration,” Erekat said. “This is not an option.”

He blamed Israeli leaders for reports that the PA was seeking a unilateral declaration of statehood, saying they were “always trying to twist our words.”

Compare that to some of his other statements.

This is the right time” to seek Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state, Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said in response to comments made by EU officials calling the move “premature.”

—-

Erekat responded almost immediately through an interview with Agence France Presse (AFP) from Cairo, saying “it is time to recognize a Palestinian state on the borders of 4 June 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital.” Arguing the case, Erekat argued that the EU recognized the State of Kosovo before other official channels supported its claim for independence.

Sweden is not alone in determining EU policy, Erekat then quipped, noting other EU countries support the Palestinian decision and adding that as of yet, the EU does not have a common foreign policy.

On Sunday, Erekat announced that members of the Palestinian Authority would seek recognition as a state from the UN Security Council.

Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has made the “it’s not unilateral because we have Arab state backing” argument.

Abbas said the move was not unilateral and enjoyed the backing of Arab countries.

“The decision emanates from an Arab follow-up committee (of the Arab League) that was convened recently … and which agreed to go the Security Council for it to say that it supports an independent Palestinian state,” he said.

12:15AM: A former Islamic terrorist tells his story, and in the process dispels a few myths about the root causes of Islamic terrorism.

He’s also got a message for Israel.

12:10AM: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner tries to outdo Binyamin Netanyahu.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, left, slips during a press conference with Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, right, in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009. Kouchner is in Amman on his two-day visit to the region as part of France’s efforts to revive the peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Kouchner will also visit Israel.

The Arab League and Hamas both said that Arabs should not normalize ties with Israel as long as we don’t implement a ” settlement freeze.”

“It is impossible to speak of normalization when Israel rejects any significant measure,” Arab League chief Amr Moussa said at a joint news conference in Cairo with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

“Israel persists in its intransigent position and rejects every significant measure” concerning a freeze in settlement constructions, he said.

In case you hadn’t noticed, this is the first time the Arabs have spoken about a “settlement freeze,” and it certainly wasn’t included in any of the no’s of the the Khartoum Resolution. I also didn’t quite catch it in the Hamas charter.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:50PM: Biased caption of the day:

Israelis soldiers stand in formation in front of a torch during a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1929 riots in the West bank city of Hebron, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. Jews lived and worshipped in Hebron for centuries but fled in 1929 after the city’s Arabs, angered by the increased Zionist presence in British-controlled Palestine, killed 67 Jews. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Well done AP, on trying to explain away the massacre of 67 Jews at the hands of Arab mobs, by portraying the Jews as occupiers. Reading this caption, it seems one is supposed to almost feel the Arab frustration.

If you want to know what really happened that fateful day 80 years ago, see here and here.

9:10PM: NGO Monitor has released “the first systematic study” on Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) activities in the Middle East over the past several years.

Publication coincides with the anticipated publication of the Goldstone committee’s Gaza report, and UN Human Rights Commissioner Pillay’s threat of  International Criminal Court (ICC) action. The Goldstone process closely echoes HRW’s agenda and faulty methodology, which are examined in NGO Monitor’s report.

NGO Monitor’s report of HRW’s Middle East activities from 2001 to 2009, with over 80 pages of case studies and analyses of HRW’s publications related to Israel, includes:

• Profiles of HRW’s Middle East division staff, led by ideologues with a history of pro-Palestinian activism, rather than human rights experts.  The division is headed by Sarah Leah Whitson (who actively supported the “Caterpillar” Israel boycott campaign, and led the HRW fundraising trip to Saudi Arabia). Similarly, deputy director Joe Stork, spent 20 years as a founder and editor of the radical anti-Zionist Middle East Report (MERIP), including participation in a “Zionism and Racism” conference in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, before joining HRW. Other in-depth profiles analyze the professional qualifications and biases of Executive Director Kenneth Roth, Reed Brody, Darryl Li, Nadia Barhoum and Lucy Mair.
• Methodological failures: HRW’s publications related to Israel, including the 2002 Jenin reports, the 2006 Lebanon war, and the flood of publications on Gaza, rely largely on claims from unreliable eyewitnesses, and local NGOs with limited or no credibility.  These reports consistently confuse speculation with fact, distort international law and omit evidence that does not support the predetermined conclusions. (In many cases, HRW ignored videos showing Hamas and Hezbollah use of human shields.) These practices systematically violate the NGO fact-finding guidelines of the International Bar Association.
• Comparative data showing the disproportionate emphasis on Israel:  This highlights HRW bias, and also diverts resources that should be focused on the oppressive regimes and absence of basic freedoms in other Middle East countries. Analysis of 2008 publications using a weighted quantitative methodology again shows HRW focused more attention on Israel than on Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and others.
• HRW reports on Israel are focused on very narrow and artificial issues that strip the context of the conflict, and indict Israel from the beginning. This is demonstrated in HRW post-Gaza reports on white phosphorous, drones, and white flags, all based on unsupported Palestinian claims and speculation, while using terms like “war crimes” repeatedly.

These major flaws in HRW’s focus on Israel are also reflected in the activities of the Goldstone fact-finding mission on Gaza. Although Goldstone resigned as a Human Rights Watch board member after NGO Monitor noted a conflict of interest, his statements have strongly echoed and defended HRW’s bias, particularly in relation to the 2006 Lebanon War and over Gaza.

In parallel, HRW officials such as Kenneth Roth, have staunchly supported Goldstone, attacked the investigation’s critics, called for broad support of the investigation and reproached President Obama for neglecting to mention the commission in his Cairo address.

NGO Monitor’s President Prof Gerald Steinberg said “As shown by NGO Monitor’s unique in-depth analysis, HRW repeatedly applies unprofessional methodology in support of an anti-Israel bias.  Human rights values and research standards have been replaced by ideology. The evidence shows that the Middle East division of this powerful organization needs a full and systemic overhaul, to recover its moral foundation and relevance in promoting human rights, particularly in repressive regimes.

Furthermore, the UN human rights structure and the NGO community work in close coordination, and are mutually reinforcing.  Goldstone’s strong identification with Human Rights Watch forms the political foundation for his biased inquiry, while Pillay’s statement pushes the process further towards implementing HRW’s agenda”.

The study is available here.

Meanwhile, one-time Israellycool contributor Elder of Ziyon analyzes the pattern of bias in HRW’s “Precisely Wrong” report.

8:12PM: Palestine Today reports (auto-translated):

Gaza: Palestinian doctor out a pencil from the top baby rare, marathon surgery

Enable the surgeon nerves in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, a doctor determined Kahil and his team of its doctors, anesthesia technicians, and nurses from a rare surgery in the infant Bakr Ghazal year-old son.

The baby deer was severely injured due to head into a pencil in the head, resulting in a deterioration in the degree of awareness and expand in the right eye pupil admitted to the intensive care unit and underwent the process successful.

This is disturbing all round: the idea of having a pencil lodged in your head, the quality of the auto-translation, and the picture accompanying the report:

That’s some one-year old.

7:20PM: Roseanne Barr continues to demonstrate the unfunny side of mental illness:

Did someone neglect to tell Madonna

that Netanyahu is a fascist and a war criminal, and that lighting shabbat candles with him would turn the stomachs of all jews who are interested in peace in israel and palestine??!!!!

Did someone neglect to tell Barr that she doesn’t know the first thing about what turns people stomachs, because if she did she wouldn’t be subjecting people to her offensiveness?

5:08PM: Separated at Birth? IAEA (potato) head Mohamed ElBaradei = fail

3:50PM: Quote of the day:

“Netanyahu’s policies are the policies of a small-time politician…The decision isn’t on the question of [settlement] construction. The decision is whether or not there will be two states here for two peoples, things that Kadima has already declared its support for..It’s not just that he doesn’t make fateful decisions, he doesn’t want to make them. He makes do with speeches and photo-ops.”

Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who clearly hates photo-ops.

12:06PM: Jane Fonda responds to claims she supports the destruction of Israel.

So– I wake up this morning to a barrage of emails giving me a link to a web posting that has been widely picked up. It says that Rabbi Hier at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (he and I were friends—I thought) claims I support the destruction of Israel because I signed (along with many other artists, historians, including eight Israelis, mostly filmmakers) a petition protesting the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to feature a celebratory “spotlight” on Tel Aviv. We understand that by doing this the festival has become, whether knowingly or not,  a participant in a cynical PR campaign to improve Israel’s image, make her appear less war-like. The Israeli Consul General said a year ago that Toronto would be the launch site of an extensive “Brand Israel” campaign. Artists and others of us who love Israel do not want art to be used to whitewash the tragedies committed against Palestinians, most recently in last winter’s terrible war in Gaza (1400 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, many more wounded, and there are documented human rights violations) and the ongoing blockade of Gaza that is deepening a serious humanitarian crisis, wreaking havoc on the lives of innocent people, and preventing reconstruction in the aftermath of the attack.
The letter we signed did not —repeat: DID NOT–call for a boycott of any part of the Toronto Film Festival. In fact, many of the people who signed the letter are showing films there and many of the Israeli filmmakers that go to the festival show films critical of Israel. We protest the use of Tel Aviv to rebrand Israel. We are standing up for integrity of art, not censoring anyone. The letter certainly did not call for the destruction of Israel or call into question the legitimacy of Tel Aviv as a city. But In the year when Gaza happened there shouldn’t be a celebratory spotlight on Tel Aviv.

I have been to Israel many times. The first was in the early 1980s and it was love at first sight…for the country and for its people. I stayed in a Kibbutz with the great Israeli novelist, Amos Oz, and his family. I raised money for a senior center in Haifa, for a girl’s shelter in Jerusalem. I have spoken at the Hebrew University. I traveled into Lebanon with the Israeli army in 1981. I went deep into Russia in the  80s to secretly meet with Soviet Refusenik, Ida Nudel, after which I a national speaking tour in the U. S. to build support for letting Ida go to Israel where she now lives. In other words, I have been intimately involved with Israel over 3 decades. On almost every visit I also went into the West Bank, met with Palestinian artists, visited Palestinian refugee camps, drove through the Israeli settlements that encroach increasingly into Palestinian territory. I have seen suffering on both sides. It is out of love for Israel and all that it promised to be that I protest the use of art (which is meant to search for truth) in this branding campaign. The greatest “re-branding” of Israel would be to celebrate that country’s robust peace movement by allowing aid to be delivered to Gaza and stopping expansion of the settlements. That’s the way to show Israel’s commitment to peace, not a PR campaign. There will be no two-state solution unless this happens.

My response to Ms Fonda.

1. If Israel appears “war-like”, it is because she has constantly been defending herself since her inception in 1948. You are old enough to remember what happened in 1967, including the Arab statements threatening Israel with annihilation. But in case you were too busy protesting the Vietnam War at the time, I suggest you pick up any reputable history book and read for yourself. You may also learn that the Arabs attacked Israel on the eve of her independence, after having rejected the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which would have seen the two-state solution you claim to support.
2. You stated as fact that 1400 Palestinians were killed in Operation Cast Lead, and these were “mostly civilians.” Where did you get this information? According to an IDF investigation, 1,166 palestinians were killed, with 709 belonging to terrorist organizations. And even if you are not willing to accept these figures, do you not accept the fact that Hamas terrorists were deliberately operating out of civilian areas?
3. You mention visiting palestinian refugee camps. Have you even questioned why these camps still exist? Why is it that Israel has absorbed Jewish people from all around the world,  yet the Arab world does not take in the palestinians for which they claim to care so much?
4. If “expansion of the settlements” is really the big issue, why did the Arab states attack Israel prior to the 1967 war, in which Israel captured these lands? Why was the PLO formed in 1964, three years earlier? Have you ever read the Hamas charter? The issue is, and has always been, the Arab refusal to accept Israel’s very existence.
5. Why is it that you question Israel’s commitment to peace, and not the palestinians, despite the fact the latter have met Israeli peace overtures with terrorism? Why do you question Israel’s commitment to peace and not the palestinians after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was met by palestinian rocket fire into Israeli population centers?

10:06AM: Over 73 aid trucks and 440,000 liters of fuel and gas are scheduled to cross into Gaza today.

We still haven’t quite mastered that whole genocide thing.

6:08AM: The leader of Gaza’s al Qaeda-inspired palestinian terrorist group Jaljalat revealed his men recently tried to assassinate former Jimmy Carter and Tony Blair.

Outgoing IAEA (potato) head Mohamed ElBaradei called the Iranian threat “hyped,” saying there is no proof the Islamic republic will soon have nuclear weapons.

“In many ways, I think the threat has been hyped,” ElBaradei told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in an interview released Tuesday.

“Yes, there’s concern about Iran’s future intentions and Iran needs to be more transparent with the IAEA and international community,” he told the Chicago-based magazine. “But the idea that we’ll wake up tomorrow and Iran will have a nuclear weapon is an idea that isn’t supported by the facts as we have seen them so far.”

“About Iran, I’ve been told, ‘Mind your own business; you’re a technician.’ And yet, at other times, on other matters, I have been told that I’m the custodian of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – sometimes by the very people who tell me to mind my own business when it comes to Iran,” he continued.

“I don’t put much stock in either designation.

I have another designation for him, but since I try to keep this a relatively family friendly site, I won’t mention it here.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

11:08PM: More on today’s meeting between Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Cooperation Silvan Shalom and PA Economics Minister Bassim Khoury (bonus: Seth Green lookalike news anchor).

10:22PM: The Jerusalem Post displaying more of the patented brilliance that sees them head the list of popular Jewish news sites in the US.

In other words, we don’t actually have a photo of an Iranian nuclear site, so here’s a photo of some other site instead. But we’ll still refer to it as an Iranian nuclear site.

8:24PM: Sky News reports that palestinians are not happy that Madonna said all those nice things about Israel and draped herself with the Israeli flag at the end of her concert last night (see video). Like, d’uh.

8:12PM: From the Department of Apparently Superfluous Adjectives:

‘Shi’ite Bernard Madoff’ held in custody in Lebanon

Actually, it’s not referring to the..err..real deal (if I can call him that).

6:28PM: Here’s footage taken of Madonna saying those nice things about Israel at last night’s concert.

6:18PM: Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Cooperation Silvan Shalom and PA Economics Minister Bassim Khoury have met to discuss how to improve the lives of palestinians.

This is all well and good, but I would also like to hear of Israel and PA officials meeting to discuss how to improve the lives of Israelis, like those in Sderot and other communities in the firing line.

1:58PM: The Jerusalem Post is reportedly the most popular Jewish news website in the US.

A recent study – not commissioned by The Jerusalem Post – has revealed that of all Jewish news Web sites, Jpost.com is the clear leader in the United States, garnering more than twice as many readers as its closest competitor, and almost twice as many readers as all American Jewish news Web sites combined.

Although the Post was unaware of the study until after it was published, the newspaper welcomed the data as a sign that it was maintaining a critical lead in the cutthroat world of Internet news.

In mid-August, 4Wall, which operates the JInsider site, conducted what it called “the Jewish Internet Metric Study,” borrowing from the practices of McKinsey & Company to analyze Internet use and its business implications and applications.

The study found that Jpost.com hosted 1,454,649 unique visitors per month, while competitor Haaretz.com lagged far behind, with 691,467.

All of the American Jewish news sources combined – including the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Jewish Journal, New York’s The Jewish Week, the Forward, Philadelphia’s The Jewish Exponent and The Jewish Press – received barely half of Jpost.com’s traffic figures, with 808,516 unique visitors.

Not only did Jpost.com leave other sites far behind, but the study also found visitors spent “significantly more time per visit” on the two Israel-based sites, and that “many more of those visitors are ‘regulars’ [people who visit more than once per month] and addicts [people who visit more than 30 times per month.]”

“I think that our success can be attributed to a combination of great original content, a never-ending pace of news flow, the power of the brand name and the fact that every day at 3:30 p.m. Jerusalem time, as far as we’re concerned, we enter US time,” explained Jpost.com Managing Editor Shani Rosenfelder. “We look at our North American audience in terms of what stories should be highlighted and what issues take center stage in those readers’ eyes.”

Color me surprised. Of the three main English news sites in Israel, I consider the Post to be the worst. It frequently borrows from other sites, and is often slow on stories. And regular Israellycool readers would already be aware of their buggy picture caption generator thing-a-me-bob, which provides constant grist for my mill.

Aussie Dave’s guilty confession: I prefer the Ha’aretz site. Sure, the op-eds annoy the daylights out of me, but the site is way more up-to-date than the others, and I find the site layout to be easier to follow.

I’m hoping Israellycool is on the list next year. Help me get there by telling your family and friends about it, and sending them posts of mine that you like.

10:50AM: The EU’s rapporteur on piracy (apparently a real job title), Admiral Tarmo Kouts (apparently his real name), has told TIME that Israel was likely behind the July hijacking of a Russian-manned ship en route to Algeria.

“There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can’t explain this situation in any other way,” he told the magazine, becoming the highest-ranking official to date to support the theory. “As a sailor with years of experience, I can tell you that the official versions are not realistic.”

Meanwhile, it looks like everyone is a comedian, whether it be the Jerusalem Post..

Until today, no government official of any kind has gone on the record to accuse Israel as being behind the hijacking, but many have admitted that the story – or at least the official version – does not appear to hold water

..or former Israeli deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh:

“There is something fishy about this whole story, no doubt about it,” former Israeli deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh told The Media Line. “But I can’t comment further on this.”

6:04AM: Pop star and FoTz (Friend of Tzipi) Madonna played in front of 50,000 fans last night, showing her love for Israel in the procees.

“I shouldn’t have stayed so long away,” she told the adoring crowd midway through the show, as she broke away from the script to express her affection for the country.

“Every time I come here, I get so supercharged with energy,” she said. “I truly believe that Israel is the energy center of the world. And I also believe that if we can all live together in harmony in this place, then we can live in peace all over the world.”

Meanwhile, judging by the pictures, I would say she also showed a whole lot more. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu was not available for comment.

5:54AM: Guess who’s coming to dinner? Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren yesterday attended a White House Ramadan dinner.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister denied a Haaretz report that he and the Italian Foreign Minister would work to pass a resolution saying that the EU, under the Swedish Presidency, strongly condemned anti-Semitism and would work against its manifestations in Europe.

Wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:46PM: Regarding the last update, it seems as though the article was even more biased than I suggested.

Reuters relied on palestinians, who lied about the incident.

Two Hamas gunmen were killed in what appears to be a malfunction of an explosive device they were attempting to place near an area of Gaza’s border fence regularly patrolled by soldiers, Palestinian sources reported Tuesday.

Preliminary reports said the two were killed an Air Force strike, but the reports turned out to be false.

Meanwhile, Reuters has not updated its report with this latest information.

8:50PM: The IAF has reportedly vaporized two Hamasholes, according to Hamas and palestinian medical officials.

Reuters is there with the story. Or at least their biased take on it.

Israel had no immediate comment on the incident, which would constitute a breach of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that ended its December-January war with in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

There have been sporadic Palestinian short-range rocket attacks on the Jewish state since, often carried out by non-Hamas factions. Israel has generally responded with air strikes against infrastructure, causing few casualties.

Hamas shuns Israel but has signaled interest in a long-term truce.

Which brings me to the following questions:

• The palestinians have been firing rockets and mortar shells into Israel way after Operation Cast lead, including during the past few weeks, yet this incident would constitute a breach of the so-called ceasefire?
• Hamas is only shunning (i.e. avoiding or staying away from) Israel? They won’t recognize us.

I should point out that the reporter is someone by the name of Nidal al-Mughrabi. Just saying.

6:45PM: An excellent video on the Swedish blood libel.

6:42PM: Commissioner-general of UNRWA, Karen Abu Zayd, has responded to claims that the UN school curriculum includes the Holocaust by proudly confirming it since it would provide palestinians with some more understanding and empathy towards Jews and increase the chance of coexistence adamantly denying this is the case.

During a news conference at the Gaza harbor Abu Zayd said, “I can refute allegations that UN school curriculum includes anything about the Holocaust. Anyone can have a look at the school books. Really we focus on human rights in curriculum.”

Because what the heck does the Holocaust have to do with human rights?

6:27PM: We haven’t seen Hairstyle Man in quite a while. Does this picture provide a reason for this, or do my eyes deceive me?

A Palestinian woman shows small portraits of relatives jailed in Israel while demonstrating with others outside in the West Bank side of the Israeli controlled Ofer jail on August 31, 2009 in the West Bank village of Betunia, near Ramallah. Some 11,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails.

6:18PM: An Iranian newspaper has jumped on the chance to help spread the organ harvesting blood libel begun by Swedish journalist Donald Boström.

“New details exposed on trafficking of Palestinian organs,” read Tuesday’s headline of Iranian newspaper Kayhan, which is considered Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s mouthpiece.

The newspaper, which appears to be attempting to inflame Iranian public opinion in the wake of the controversy surrounding the Swedish article accusing IDF soldiers of harvesting organs from Palestinians, quotes Arab reporter Kusar Aslam as saying that, “Since the early 1970s the Israelis have snatched thousands of Palestinian bodies from hospitals in the territories and transferred them to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.”

Aslam, who claims she was stationed in Gaza and the West Bank for 22 years said, “My personal experience verifies the report published by (Donald) Boström,” referring to the Aftonbladet reporter who published the original article.

According to Aslam, some of the Palestinians were still alive when they were “kidnapped” by IDF soldiers.

“I personally witnessed Israeli soldiers and army vehicles snatching Palestinian bodies from emergency rooms,” the Iranian reporter said. “In other instances I saw soldiers follow Palestinians to cemeteries with the intent of stealing bodies before they were buried.

“This became so widespread that many people began to bury those murdered by IDF forces near their homes – in the yard or under a tree,” she said.

Which begs the question: if this is true, why didn’t Aslam break the story all those years ago, instead preferring to wait until some Swedish tabloid journalist did so? After all, she claims to have witnessed way more than Bostrom.

I think we all know the answer.

4:30PM: Contrived photo of the day…

An elderly Palestinian woman reacts shortly before the arrival of the body of Mohammed Nayef, 14, at the family house during his funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, near Ramallah, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009. Palestinian police on Tuesday said he was shot while throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military said the boy was one of three Palestinians who on Monday night hurled Molotov cocktails at a guard post near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

..unless you believe the photographer, Muhammed Muheisen, just happened to catch this grieving palestinian woman standing in front of a painting of a pierced heart.

1:00PM: Here is the Fox News interview with Israeli President Shimon Peres mentioned in yesterday’s post.

8:40AM: Photo of the day:

Tzipi Livni: I hope she doesn’t try to go all Britney on me..

Full story here.

She may have missed out on being Prime Minister, but I’m sure Tzipi is pretty happy she got to dine with Madonna and Jesus.

(Come to think of it, I wonder what the restaurant thought when they took a booking for “Madonna and Jesus.”)