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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear last week that a palestinian unity government that does not recognize Israel, renounce terrorism or accept previous Israeli-palestinian agreements is one the US will not be able to accept. And they can forget about the $900 million.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
10:50PM: Introducing what has been called the “most atrocious defense video of all time.”
Noah Shachtman of Wired:
Let’s say you’re a defense-company marketing executive. And you want to make a splash at the Indian defense ministry’s annual air show. Do you: (a) buy expensive gifts for New Delhi’s generals; (b) treat the press to Kingfishers and samosas; (c) produce a Bollywood-esque video featuring bare-midriff girls, flower-draped missiles, and the catch phrase “dinga dinga dee?”
Unfortunately for us, Israeli arms-maker Rafael chose C. Which means we may have just found the most atrocious defense video of all time, just days into the Iron Eagles — our celebration of the awesomely bad videos of the military-industrial complex. Trust me, Slumdog Millionaire it ain’t. Thanks to Stephen Trimble for dredging this up. You bastard.
Every element of the promotional film is just plain wrong. The sari-clad, “Indian” dancers look all too ashkenaz and zaftig. The unshaven, hawk-nosed, leather-clad leading man appears to be a refugee from You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Then of course, there’s the implication that the Indian military is somehow like a helpless woman who “need(s) to feel safe and sheltered.”
But for my rupees, the worst thing about the video is the damn theme song they’ve concocted for the thing. To pimp its weapons, Rafael produced a sitar-heavy twist on Rick Astley’s love letter to Satan, “Together Forever,” complete with a new chorus: “Dinga dinga, dinga dinga, dinga dinga, dinga dinga dee.” The rest of us now have to suffer for that bad, bad choice.
The whole thing is bizarre to me. After all, I did not even know there was such a thing as a “defense video.”
9:55PM: Palestinian terrorists who claimed they participated in Gilad Schalit’s capture have told Channel 2 that they want to free him, and the whole issue could be resolved in “one swap deal.”
You can see them here, but it probably won’t interest you too much unless you speak Arabic or Hebrew.
4:50PM: Ha’aretz reports:
Gaza’s Hamas rulers issued rare criticism Thursday of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the strip, saying now is the wrong time for such attacks.
The Islamic militant group has fired thousands of rockets at southern Israel in recent years. But Hamas said Thursday that it was not behind recent attacks and that it was investigating who was responsible.
2:55PM: Here’s a great video on the vilification of Israel.
2:50PM: A palestinian has been stabbed to death in Jerusalem.
Before you get the wrong idea, not only was the perpetrator not a Jew, it was the Jewish ambulance service that rushed to the scene.
A Palestinian student was stabbed to death during a fight on the campus of Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, on Wednesday afternoon.
Witnesses reported that Muhammad Hussein Ja’afrah was stabbed in a fight with several other young men.
Ja’afrah was a third-year student in the faculty of commerce at the university. He was from the nearby village of Sawahra Ash-Sharqiya.
According to medical sources, the Israeli Megan David ambulance service rushed to the scene. Ja’afrah died immediately from knife wounds.
In a statement the administration of Al-Quds University said that Ja’afra was the victim of a family vendetta. The administration said the school will be closed for three days for mourning.
The statement added that the University and all its employees are sorry for this loss especially in a time of internal political turmoil “when people need to stand by each other.”
But not to worry. Ma’an still found a way to mention the evil deeds of the Zionists in the report.
Al-Quds (Jerusalem) University is located just on the eastern side of the Israeli wall that cuts Abu Dis off from Jerusalem. It is not far from the major Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
1:22PM: Get involved with the forum fun if you haven’t already.
1:15PM: Nuclear Armageddon watch: Iran’s national car company is reportedly making plans to purchase large quantities of carbon fiber, which is under UN embargo because it could be used in the country’s nuclear program.
1:13PM: Here’s our “friend” George Galloway going all big bad wolf on Egyptian President Hozni Mubarak, by threatening to blow his house down.
11:00AM: Australia is threatening to quit Durban 2.
“If we form the view that the text is going to lead to nothing more than an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic harangue, an anti-Jewish propaganda exercise, Australia will not be in attendance,” Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament.
5:58AM: [Barf alert]: Here is footage of George Galloway climbing so far up head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh, that he needs a miner’s lamp to see where he is going.
Keep in mind the number of innocent people Hamas have deliberately maimed and killed, be they Israeli or palestinian.
5:50AM: Here is some unbelievable footage of yesterday’s tragic accident in which a man injured by a mine was killed after cables that secured him to the rescue helicopter unwound and he fell to the ground.
