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Seemingly emboldened by Barack Obama’s Cairo speech, Chief Hamashole Khaled Meshal said:
“There is a new language from President Obama, but we expect real pressure on Israelis,” Meshal said. “There are demands Israel stop the settlements but this is not the price we are after … although it’s an essential step.”
If anyone is not familar with the price they are after, I recommend you read their Charter.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
10:20PM: Story of the day most likely to be a steaming pile of horse cr*p is this:
Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President Obama talking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “insult” to Israel.
They saw the incident as somewhat akin to an incident last year, when the Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad.
It is considered an insult in the Arab world to show the sole of your shoe to someone. It is not a Jewish custom necessarily, but Israel feels enough a part of the Middle East after 60 years to be insulted too.
Was there a subliminal message intended from the White House to Netanyahu in Jerusalem, who is publicly resisting attempts by Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to force Israel to stop any kind of settlement activity in occupied territories once and forever?
I did not see or read anything about this in the Israeli media but assuming it was said, I cannot imagine any Israelis being offended by this. There is absolutely nothing in Judaism reflecting this view, and the contention that being part of the Middle East for 60 years has somehow made us more likely to be offended by shoes is ridiculous.
7:52PM: According to Egyptian President Hozni Mubarak, he got the vibe from a conversation he had with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Israel will agree to the two-state solution.
6:10PM: A 19-year-old palestinian man has been transferred by an Israeli ambulance service from Ramallah to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem after being injured in an apparent hit-and-run accident.
Even Ma’an could not find an anti-Israel spin on this (for example: the man was hit by an evil Zionist Death Pig TM released by mad Zionist settlers right after they set fire to olive groves)
5:52PM: Following a cabinet meeting this morning to discuss international pressure to open border crossings into Gaza, as well to debate other defense issues, the Prime Minister’s Office issued the following statement:
The Security-Diplomatic Cabinet met today, in order to discuss matters related to the situation in Gaza, including the issue of Gilad Shalit.
It was agreed that Israel views Hamas as responsible for all aggressive actions against Israel from the Gaza Strip. The Cabinet instructed the IDF to respond to all aggressive activity against Israel from Gaza.
The Cabinet is considering additional ways to ease restrictions on the life of the Palestinian population in Gaza, while maintaining Israel’s security interests.
The Cabinet instructed those involved in the issue of Gilad Shalit to make every effort to secure his release.
4:00PM: Bones get’s it right again.
Make sure to read his entire post here.
2:27PM: Palestinian Women For Blow Jobs.
It’s nice to see that it’s not always the man who wears the pants suicide belt in the family
1:56PM: Oy to the vey.
An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress with $1 million stuffed inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites, media sources reported Wednesday.
The woman told Army Radio that she bought her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise on Monday and threw out the old one, only to discover that her mother had hidden her life savings inside. She was identified only as Anat, a resident of Tel Aviv.
When she went to look for the mattress it had already been taken by garbage men, she said. Subsequent searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing.
Yitzhak Borba, the dump manager, told the radio station that his staff was helping the woman, saying she appeared totally desperate. He said the mattress was hard to find among the 2,500 tons of garbage arriving at the site every day.
He said he increased security at the site to keep would-be treasure hunters at bay.
For her part, Anat said it could be worse. “People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad,” she said.
11:56AM: In response to yesterday’s robot snake story, comes the comment of the day (yes, the day is still young, but I think it will be hard to surpass this):
What a waste of R&D! Anyone who sees a snake with whack it to death the moment it is spotted.
What they should’ve developed is a robot donkey for field surveilence and a robot goat for terrorist DNA collection and analysis. 🙂
Thanks to Shy Guy for making me spit up my coffee.
11:42AM: You knew this was coming.
Lebanese Telecommunication Minister Gibran Bassil accused Israel on Tuesday of causing massive disruptions in cellular communication in the country ahead and on Election Day on Sunday.
At a press conference at his office Bassil claimed that inquiries conducted by his ministry revealed Israel was responsible for jamming cellular signals and interrupting communication among private users, defense officials, political activists and embassies.
Bassil said he asked Lebanon’s foreign minister to issue a formal complaint with the UN regarding the alleged disruption.
“There are known sources of disruption from the sea and air,” said Bassil, who claimed that he was the first to warn about the possibility of such attempts two months ago.
The problems, noted throughout the country and not just in the south, were registered mainly on the cellular networks, although landlines also suffered some disturbances, he added.
These accusations come in the heels of the recent exposure of an alleged “Israeli spy ring” in Lebanon.
This is not the first time that such allegations are being heard in the country. In the past Lebanese officials accused Israel of sending phone messages to Lebanese citizens as part of psychological warfare against them.
6:18AM: Israel yesterday told US envoy George Mitchell that we would allow for “natural growth” and not bring settlement construction to a complete halt.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin will stay clear of the term “natural growth” because this had become a term now associated with conflict with the US.
Besides, the term has Hamas connotations.
6:07AM: Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:
“These assumptions [underlying the peace process, including the two-state vision ostensibly being the only viable solution, and the perception that Israel’s “occupation’ and settlement activity constitute major obstacles for peace] stood behind the Oslo process, and its failure indicates that they deserve to be reexamined..Such examination will reveal that, whereas the Israelis were really ready for this kind of a solution, including myself, the Palestinians do not accept that ‘the two state solution’ refers to two states for two peoples.”
“In their view, one state should be the Palestinian state and the national identity of the other state should remain undefined, so that in the future it can become a Palestinian state as well.”
