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Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has made it clear that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is not welcome in Egypt.
Apparently, the Egyptians did not appreciate Lieberman’s comment that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “could go to hell” if he doesn’t want to come to Israel. Go figure.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
11:00PM: The Australian reports:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state during a meeting with US special envoy George Mitchell, the premier’s office says.
“Israel expects the Palestinians to recognise the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people,” the prime minister told Mr Mitchell at their meeting in Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian Authority has rejected such a demand in the past, saying it recognises Israel within the country’s borders before the 1967 Middle East war when the Israelis seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Recognition of a Jewish state would amount for the Palestinians to abandoning the right to return of Palestinian refugees.
I just love that. The Israeli government’s reasonable request to have Israel recognized as a Jewish state is portrayed at best as unreasonable and at worst as a cynical attempt to repel the palestinian “right of return.” Meanwhile, the mainstream media never questions the palestinians demand that they be given an Judenrhein “palestinian” state and the opportunity to flood Israel with palestinian “refugees.”
8:20PM: Earlier this evening, the IAF struck a booby trapped house used as a base by terrorists carrying out attacks.
8:12PM: Bravo, Mr Prime Minister. Bravo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting U.S. envoy George Mitchell on Thursday that his government would condition talks over Palestinian statehood on the Palestinians first recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
“Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for two peoples,” a senior official in Netanyahu’s office quoted the new prime minister as telling Mitchell, U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East.
6:10PM: US Special Envoy George Mitchell’s and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman talk after their meeting together
5:03PM:Here’s the news I missed the last 8 or so hours I have been slaving away at work:
- The Hizbullah terrorists caught in Egypt had planned to carry out massive terror attacks in Tel Aviv
- A group of Egyptian jurists have reportedly begun drafting a legal document that may lead to the indictment of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It is good to see that Eyptian jurists are finally devoting their efforts to something worthwhile.
- Israeli President Shimon Peres told visiting US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell that Israel is not planning to attack Iran after the latter said such a move would only “cement [Iran’s] determination to have a nuclear program, and also build into the whole country an undying hatred of whoever hits them.”
- Meanwhile, Mitchell met with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who told him that “thus far, the traditional approach [to peacemaking] has not brought any results or solutions.”
9:08AM: Here’s chief palestinian negotiator/propaganda minister Saeb Erekat in an interview with Al Jazeera. Amongst other things, he:
- Claims Arafat was killed (presumably by Israel)
- Says Mahmoud Abbas rejected a proposal from Israel to give the palestinians Jerusalem and almost 100% of the “West Bank”
- Proudly recollects how Arafat defiantly refused to recognize Israel’s historical ties to Jerusalem in front of Bill Clinton
5:58AM: Iranian scientists have cloned a goat to produce medicine to be used to treat people who have had strokes.
At least that’s what they’re telling people.
