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With Fatah preparing its upcoming leadership election, senior official Rafik al-Natsheh has confirmed that they are many things, true peace partners not being one of them.
As the Fatah movement prepares for its upcoming leadership convention, a senior group member says the event will be used to display Fatah’s commitment to the armed struggle against Israel.
Preparations for the convention, scheduled for August 4, are in full force at this time. During a series of preliminary meetings ahead of the event, senior Fatah official Rafik al-Natsheh said that the group will not be recognizing Israel.
‘We will maintain the resistance option in all its forms and we will not recognize Israel,” he said. “Not only don’t we demand that anyone recognize Israel; we don’t recognize Israel ourselves. However, the Palestinian Authority government is required to do it, or else it will not be able to serve the Palestinian people.”
“I am certain that we will hinder all the traitors who wish to remove the resistance option from the movement’s charter,” Natsheh added.
It’s enough to make you want to hand over your hard-earned tax dollars to supply them with weapons and training, isn’t it?
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
9:06PM: Free Gaza has released this cynical video containing an “interview” with one of their useful Jew-tools, Hedy Epstein.
In the video, Epstein insinuates than an act of violence perpetrated against her was the act of an opponent of her anti-Israel activities, even though there is no evidence that this was the case.
Notice how she is reading her responses to the interviewer.
8:18PM: The indespensible Palestinian Media Watch has an important report on the Arab responsibility for their own refugees.
In recent years known Palestinian leaders, writers and refugees themselves, are speaking out and candidly blaming the Arab leadership for the creation of the refugee problem. According to these Palestinian accounts the massive departure of Arabs from Israel was willful, the result of orders by the Arab leadership. This contradicts the Palestinian charge that the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who ran in 1948 were expelled by Israel.
In this interview, an elderly Arab resident of a refugee camp, recounts the reason his family left Israel during the war and became refugees:
Click here for more examples.
8:05PM: It’s the end of the Maccabiah Games, which means the newscast presenters have 4 years to become less wooden.
7:58PM: What’s French for kiss my hiney?
6:06PM: Lebanon’s Naharnet reports that soccer player Ronaldo (the Brazilian one with the buck teeth, not the Portugese one) is set to appear in an Iranian movie about a palestinian girl.
Which I guess is a step up from appearing in a car with three transvestite prostitutes. But only just.
Brazil’s three-time world player of the year Ronaldo is set to play himself in an Iranian movie about a Palestinian girl who was killed before realizing her dream of meeting him.
Ronaldo has reached a deal to be part of the movie and will start filming as early as September in Lebanon, according to officials at the Brazil-Iran chamber of commerce, which is helping produce the movie.
Still without a title, the movie is based on the true story of Alneyrab, a 13-year-old girl who dreamed of meeting the football star when he visited the Middle East in a humanitarian mission in 2005. She was only able to watch her idol pass through along with his entourage, and later was killed in a refugee camp during a conflict in the region.
Ronaldo’s agent, Fabiano Farah, confirmed to Globo’s Web site that the 32-year-old two-time World Cup winner has signed a pre-contract for the movie.
Ronaldo, who is thriving with Corinthians in his comeback from the third serious knee injury of his career, will appear in some scenes that take place in the girl’s dreams, said Farrokh Faradji Chadan, president of the Brazil-Iran chamber of commerce.
He is expected to spend only a few days in Lebanon shooting the movie. Chadan would not disclose how much Ronaldo will be paid for taking part in what he called a “humanitarian” production.
Chadan said the deal to have Ronaldo participating in the movie — which is expected to be finalized in 2010 — was reached in June. One of the movie producers will be Mansur Sohrabpour.
5:22PM: Meow!
Likud Faction Chair Eliza Barashi on Thursday apologized for referring to MK Orly Levy-Abekasis as a ‘bimbo’ on Wednesday.
In a written statement, Barashi said her remarks came during a moment of anger, and she promised to personally apologize to the MK face-to-face.
Barashi’s remarks came as she was trying to urge Levy-Abekasis to vote in favor of a reform in the management of the Israel Land Administration even thought the Yisrael Beitenu MK intended to abstain from voting on the matter.
Barashi told Levy-Abekasis, a former model and TV presenter, “Bimbo, you need to return to modeling”. After the remark was made, Levy-Abekasis burst into tears and closed herself in a Knesset bathroom for several minutes, a source close to the MK said Thursday.
Levy-Abekasis on Wednesday called Barashi’s statement “very serious” and vowed to issue a personal complaint in the near future.
Meanwhile, if you think that is bad….
(hat tip: Shy Guy).
1:00PM: Spot the optimists:
6:10AM: And on the subject of peace partners – current or potential – here is Syrian Minister of Religious Endowment Muhammad Abd Al-Sattar demonstrating that peace with Syria is close at hand.*
* Actually, that was me demonstrating I am capable of great feats of sarcasm
