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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and President Barack Obama are set to meet on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, according to a surprise White House announcement on Saturday night.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
7:32PM: Earlier today, palestinians fired on Defense Ministry laborers engaged in infrastructure work. The IDF responded by firing mortar shells at the gunmen.
7:15PM: Back when I lived in Australia, a journalist by the name of Liam Bartlett was the news anchor for one of the local television stations. He seemed like a pretty laid back, affable fellow, and when he made it on to the Australian version of 60 minutes, he showed signs of not following in the footsteps of fellow 60 minuter Richard Carleton. In other words, not displaying an incredible anti-Israel bias.
Well, that was then and this is now. Watch here for Liam Bartlett’s blatantly one-sided treatment of the conflict.
And Bartlett’s blog reveals more of the same.
Bartlett shows no hint of even trying to cover the story fairly. He has made up his mind that the so-called” settlements” are wrong, and their inhabitants “extremists.” He takes the word of his palestinian interviewees as fact, while deriding the statements of the “settlers.” There is not even a mention of the terrorism plaguing Israel, and which is the reason for the checkpoints and security fence he is so quick to deride. In fact, one gets the impression that Bartlett would justify terrorism from palestinians, given their allegedly bad treatment at the hands of Israel and those “extremist settlers.”
Bartlett describes anti-fence demonstrations in which participants throw rocks at soldiers as “peaceful” (I’m guessing he has never been hit in the head with a rock, although if he had been, that would explain a lot). He also makes no mention of the context of the war in which Israel captured the territories in dispute, nor the other wars in which the Arabs made very clear their intentions to destroy the tiny Jewish state. And speaking of which, notice how Bartlett describes how tiny the “West Bank” is. He is simply not interested in the fact that Israel is the tiny place surrounded by hostile neighbors out to destroy her, which is the key to understanding the whole conflict.
(Thanks to both my mum and Gedalia for bringing this to my attention)
3:55PM: Old and busted: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
New hotness: Zionist man slayers of death.TM
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday he was proud he had managed to enrage the West by denying the Holocaust during a speech he made in Tehran in honor of Jerusalem day.
Ahmadinejad was quoted by the Iranian News Agency (IRNA) as saying that the angering of “professional man-slayers is a source of pride for us and will not stand in our way”, apparently in reference to Israel and the West.
“The more these imperialists, enemies of humanity and those whose hearts have no love for the human kind run wild, screaming and throwing accusations, we know our path is correct,” said Ahmadinejad.
1:50PM: How bad is the Goldstone report? Even the former editor in chief of the leftist Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has ripped it.
Excerpt:
Israel intentionally went after civilians in Gaza — and wrapped its intention in lies.
That chilling — and misguided — accusation is the key conclusion of the United Nations investigation, led by Richard Goldstone, into the three-week war last winter.
1:25PM: How bad is the Goldstone report? Hamas is urging the world to embrace it.
De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh urged world powers on Sunday to embrace a recently-released report on alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s recent war on the Gaza Strip.
“We hope the report … will not be doomed to the fate of the dozens of reports that Israel has condemned for decades,” referring to the report of the fact-finding mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone.
Released last week, Goldstone’s 575-page report drew criticism from the US and Israel for its finding that Israel committed war crimes during the attack on Gaza. While the report focuses on Israel, it also calls for further investigations into alleged violations by Palestinian armed groups.
Responding to the alleged Palestinian violations, Haniyeh said he “affirm[s] our right to self-defense under international law.”
Haniyeh specifically asked the Arab League and European countries to use all means to make sure the report is brought to the attention to the UN Security Council and then referred to prosecutors.
11:15AM: Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was the national security advisor of former US President/current fossilized meddler Jimmy Carter, has said in an interview that the US should use force against IAF planes if they fly over Iraq to strike Iran.
Is the fallout as bad if Israel preemptively strikes Iran?
Absolutely. That is the way, more importantly, how the Iranians would view it. They really can’t do much to the Israelis, despite all their bluster. The only thing they can do is unify themselves, especially nationalistically, to rally against us, and the mullahs might even think of it as a blessing.
How aggressive can Obama be in insisting to the Israelis that a military strike might be in America’s worst interest?
We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?
What if they fly over anyway?
Well, we have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.
10:15AM: Roseanne Barr:
I will be atoning for the sins of the state of Israel on behalf of the jewish soul. I may be one of the only jews on earth doing this, and so I feel compelled to do it even more strongly. It is very neccessary that this be done, because without atonement and repentance for the things we have done to offend and abuse our neighbors, we will be erased as a people, according to the teachings of our holy books.
Our very existence is the thing which offends our neighbors. I certainly won’t be atoning for that.
By the way, I am really curious as to where in our Holy books Barr found reference to us being erased as a people for offending our neighbors. Curious, since no such reference exists.
9:00AM: Sweden is giving us another reason to dislike them, besides the organ harvesting blood libel, their refusal to condemn it, and ABBA.
5:50AM: Here is Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren’s response to the Goldstone report, to which I linked a few days ago, but now embedded for your viewing pleasure.
5:40AM: Here’s Russian President Dmitry Medvedev talking about Iran, including the claim Israeli President Shimon Peres assurance to him that Israel would not attack Iran, and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent “secret” trip to Russia.
