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While Israel and Egypt marked the 30-year anniversary of Israel’s peace agreement with Egypt at an official ceremony in Jerusalem, Egypt has not planned any such commemorations in Egypt. In other words, it is indicative of the state of the so-called peace between the two countries.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
11:02PM: Camera have an important article dealing with the supposed eyewitness accounts by IDF soldiers of atrocities in Gaza.
10:48PM: The IDF has completed an investigation and determined that a total of 1,166 palestinians were killed in Operation Cast Lead – 709 Hamasholes, 295 civilians, and 162 men not yet attributed to any organization.
9:40PM: That’s what I’m talking about: Defense Ministry officials have reported a number of successful Iron Dome missile defense system trials.
8:25PM: Here is a clip from Israeli television on the Sudan convoy hit, which may or may not have been executed by the IAF.
The non-Hebrew speakers can focus on 00:15 onwards, where former IAF Chief of Staff Avihu Ben Nun explains in English what is involved with such a strike.
Theoretically speaking, of course.
6:02PM: The Sudan convoy hit plot thickens:
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted on Thursday at Israel’s suspected role in an air-strike that reportedly hit a convoy of arms smugglers as it drove through Sudan toward Egypt in January.
“Israel hits every place it can in order to stop terror, near and far,” said Olmert, speaking at a conference in Herzliya.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post has reported this taking the veiled-threat-against-Iran approach.
4:48PM: You may recall a few days ago, some bombs were found in Haifa.
Today it was bongs. 15,000 to be exact.
A lot of Leftists are going to be very unhappy.
3:26PM: Sudanese State Minister for Highways Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem has contradicted the earlier report that Israel struck a convoy of trucks carrying weapons bound for Gaza, saying American aircraft carried out the bombing. He also put the death toll at 800 people, and claimed that the trucks were filled with people and not weapons.
1:25PM: Typical Ynet fare:
The bold and the beautiful: Four Israeli politicians placed among the 54 most beautiful women in public office in the world in an online reader poll taken by British newspaper, The Daily Mail.
Newly elected Member of Knesset Orli Levy (Yisrael Beiteinu) was ranked in 14th place. Four slots after her comes former Knesset member and business woman Pnina Rosenblum. In 23rd place is Tourism Minister Ruhama Avraham Balila. Yisrael Beiteinu is represented again on the list of the most beautiful in 32nd place with MK Anastassia Michaeli.
I had already alerted you to Orly Levi and Anastasia Michaeli a few months ago (don’t thank me. I’m a giver). But here’s a reminder, since those never hurt.
(Orly looks a little like Fran Drescher but in a good way).
I think Tzipi Hotovely would also be pushing for a place on the list.
Meanwhile, I just love this part of the report:
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik did not make the list.
Touche!
12:13PM: A palestinian factory in Nablus has been closed after producing counterfeit shampoo (which can apparently “contain bacteria and cause hair loss”).
It is not known what the “shampoo” contained, but eyewitnesses in Nablus have reported seeing a lot of happy looking goats.
5:55AM: The Simpsons are coming to Israel.
The Simpsons have been to Australia, Britain, France and Japan, but now they could be taking on their greatest challenge – bringing peace to Israel and the Palestinians.
Multiple media sources have quoted the show’s executive producer, Al Jean, as saying that America’s number one animated family will head to the Holy Land next year.
“I think we’re going to do one next year where they go to the Holy Land as we haven’t been there yet. The premise will be that the Christians, the Jews and Muslims are united in that they all get mad at Homer. It’s the only thing they can agree on,” Jean is quoted as saying
5:50AM: American network CBS has reported that the IAF carried out an attack in January against a convoy of trucks in Sudan carrying arms for Hamas, killing 39 people riding in 17 trucks.
A government minister in Sudan is accusing the United States Air Force of killing dozens of people in that north African country this past January – but the semi-official American version of the story is very different.
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin has been told that Israeli aircraft carried out the attack. Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza.
In January, the U.S. signed an agreement with Israel that calls for an international effort to stop arms smuggling into Gaza. Hamas was showering rockets on Israeli towns, and Israel had responded by invading Gaza. More than 1,000 Palestinians were reportedly killed in the December-January war, and 13 Israelis lost their lives.
In the airstrike in Sudan – said to have been “in a desert area northwest of Port Sudan city, near Mount al-Sha’anoon,” according to SudanTribune.com – 39 people riding in 17 trucks were reportedly killed.
The first government official in Sudan to talk about it was the state minister for highways, Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem, who said: “A major power bombed small trucks carrying arms – burning all of them. It killed Sudanese, Eritreans, and Ethiopians and injured others.”
According to SudanTribune.com, the airstrike was an “embarrassment” to Sudan’s government, and it discussed the matter with Egypt’s government – allied with the U.S. on most issues – “to gather more information to formulate a response.”
The Web site added: “American and Israeli diplomats said the [January] agreement includes intelligence coordination to prevent arms from Iran from entering Gaza, maritime efforts to identify ships carrying weaponry, and the sharing of U.S. and European technologies to discover and prevent the use of weapons-smuggling tunnels.”
If Israeli airplanes carried out the attack in Sudan, it would suggest that there is a shadow war against Hamas and its weapons sources that is wider than the Israeli or U.S. government has revealed.
Israel has neither confirmed or denied the reports.
Meanwhile, here is an interesting comment from a reader of the Sudan Tribune.
The Sudanese Government think, they’ll treat Israelis like Darfurians or Southerners, be informed they’re Israelis, they don’t play, when it comes to security of their people.
(comment from Pisa: Obviously, he doesn’t live in Sderot.)
5:35AM: Here is Nassour The Hamas Bear using the Hamas equivalent of “The dog ate my homework.”
Slacker.
