India's new relationship with Israel

A Boom in Israel's Exports to India -Neal Sandler

As India's economy grows, exports from Israel to the world's second-most-populous country are soaring.

Netafim, a leading supplier of drip irrigation systems, has expanded its staff in India from fewer than 100 employees just four years ago to more than 700 and opened a second factory in Chennai.

Makers of everything from chemicals to software are seeing similar surges.

In the past two years Israeli real estate developers have committed billions of dollars to projects in India, constructing everything from housing to hotels and shopping malls.
(Business Week)

Kibbutz movement warms to capitalism

Israel's Kibbutzim Finding New Life: as Hotels -Sarah Wildman

The newfound capitalist success of the kibbutz hotel movement is an oxymoron. Across the country, kibbutzim, the socialist collective farms created by early Zionist pioneers, increasingly have encouraged visitors to be paying guests rather than volunteers.

With a few capitalist changes, kibbutzim have become a draw again for Israelis who are weary of city life, for global volunteers and for tourists.
(Dallas Morning News)

Dead Sea Scrolls meet high-tech

Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet -Ethan Bronner

[Scientists] embarked this week on a historic undertaking: digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file — among the most sought-after and examined documents on earth — available to all on the Internet.

The 2,000-year-old scrolls, found in the late 1940s in caves near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, contain the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew Bible...they are among the most important sources of information on Jewish and early Christian life.
[New York Times]

Moving words of Judge Fox as he sentences US terrorist

Sentence for Crashing Car into Crowd

Mohammed Taheri-Azar [pictured above], who pleaded guilty to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder after driving into a crowd of students in 2006 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will spend as long as 33 years in prison, Orange County Superior Judge Carl Fox ruled.

"One of the things our government won't tolerate - and after 9/11 our citizens won't tolerate - is trying to use Americans as punching bags or targets for terrorist acts or mindless acts," Fox said.

[In t]he attack, which resulted in injuries but no deaths, Taheri-Azara alleged that it was a response to targeting of Muslims throughout the world.
(UPI)

Reflections on releasing murderers

Palestinians celebrate release

"Unparalleled Cruelty" -Editorial

Israel released 198 long-serving Palestinian prisoners, including several killers, in a gesture to boost Mahmoud Abbas' standing.

Abbas used a Ramallah ceremony welcoming the men to say: "We will not rest until [all] the prisoners are freed and the jails are empty," specifically citing Marwan Barghouti, serving five consecutive life terms for murder; Ahmed Saadat, imprisoned for the assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi; and Aziz Duaik, a Hamas politician taken into custody in response to Shalit's abduction.

It is sobering to remind ourselves that Abbas reflects the most moderate of Palestinian opinion.
(Jerusalem Post)


Releasing Terrorists: New Victims Pay the Price -Nadav Shragai

According to an informal estimate by Israeli security bodies, about 50 percent of the terrorists freed for any reason whatsoever returned to the path of terror, either as perpetrator, planner, or accomplice.

In the terror acts committed by these freed terrorists, hundreds of Israelis were murdered, and thousands were wounded.
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)


Gestures Are Patronizing -Udi Label

We have seen all sorts of gestures, always made unilaterally, by Israel, to the Palestinians. More than anything, these gestures adopt a patronizing perception vis-a-vis the Palestinians. They must be appeased, trained, and showered with gifts and gestures, as if they are not rational people who can be partners to genuine talks.

The gesture strategy marks capitulation to the narrative that perceives them as hysterical, hot-blooded, and obsessed with honor - the kind of people who must constantly be given gifts so that they don't suddenly leave the negotiations.
(Ynet News)

UPDATE:
Israel Arrests Fatah Man Who Was Pardoned But Returned to Terror -Michael Freund

Security forces arrested a Fatah operative in Nablus who had been given a pardon by Israel as part of agreements between Israel and the PA. The security establishment said Adham Lubada had returned to production of explosive belts following his pardon.
(Jerusalem Post)

Women of the IDF: Photographic Essay

Rachel Papo's photographic essay on

women in the Israel Defense Forces

Click on the photo above to view

Rice & EU harmful to MidEast future

Wake-Up Time for Rice -Editorial

Is Condoleezza Rice the last person who still believes that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is possible by January?

Rice no doubt will find Olmert and Abbas ready to talk, setting off another round of diplomatic and political rhetoric about the importance of negotiations. But none of the leading players in this drama can overcome the reality that they have overplayed the peace hand, at least for now.

They should be putting the process on hold and paving the way for new and creative paradigms to deal with a very old problem: refusal to acknowledge a legitimate Jewish state in the Middle East.
(The Jewish Week)

EU Aid to Palestine Is Funding the Conflict -Daniel Hannan [pictured above]

[I]t is becoming increasingly clear that overseas aid is arresting a political settlement in the region. Palestinians receive more assistance, per capita, than any other people on Earth, and live in one of its most violent spaces. The two facts are connected.

The idea that aggression can be buried under a landslide of euros sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation.

Palestinians are a naturally enterprising people who, in other Arab states, often form the professional and administrative class. A capitalist Palestine would be more stable. Its propertied classes would have a stake in civil order.

None of this will happen, however, as long as Palestinians remain trapped in dependency.
The author is a Member of the European Parliament
(Telegraph -- UK)

Paul McCartney headed for Tel Aviv!

We'll finally get to hold Paul's hand -David Brinn

[T]he former Beatle will perform the biggest pop concert in Israel's history on September 25 in Tel Aviv.

The show is expected to [include] two vegetarian kitchens at the show's location for the anti-carnivore musician.

McCartney, 66, has invited his girlfriend, 47-year-old Long Islander Nancy Shevell, to accompany him on the tour. The couple just finished a monthlong road trip across the famed Route 66 in the United States, where they were spotted by shocked fans at campsites, gas stations and motels.

The concert comes 43 years after The Beatles were booked and then denied the proper permits to perform in Israel. Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor sent a letter to McCartney and the other surviving Beatle, Ringo Starr, earlier this year inviting them to perform in Israel for its 60th birthday.
[Jerusalem Post]

Shocking? Fatah promotes hate

"Peace Partners" Promote Hate -Joel Goldenberg

The Palestinian Authority, usually referred to as Israel's "peace partner," is engaged in the promotion of hate and incitement against Israel and Jews in general, says MP Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister.

"I'm not talking about Hamas. I'm talking about the Palestinian Authority."

He said those guilty of this include academics and the government-controlled broadcasting system. "When I was there, I was shocked to see on their own television references to Israel's conducting of Nazi-like experiments on Palestinian prisoners."

Cotler said the most disturbing and ignored incitement comes from the Palestinian leadership itself, including Mahmoud Abbas. "People don't realize that Abbas signed a law in December 2005, providing monthly stipends for the families of suicide bombers.

[Then, i]n January 2007, Abbas addressed a large crowd that was estimated as being over 100,000, in which he said 'the sons of Israel are mentioned in the Koran as those who are corrupting humanity on Earth.' Abbas has never recognized Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state."
(The Suburban-Canada)

Chicken unites: humor invades the MidEast

Jews, Muslims, Hindus Agree On Chicken

After years of sectarian violence, a coalition of Jews, Muslims, and Hindus signed an international resolution Monday, confirming their mutual appreciation of chicken dishes.

"Whether it is breaded with matzo, served as shwarma, or covered in tikka masala sauce, chicken is the one meat upon which all faiths can agree," said spokesman Jerome Maliszewski, addressing an assembly of rabbis, mullahs, and shamans.

"Let this friendly exchange of recipes be the first tentative step toward everlasting peace." Attendees at the combination summit and potluck dinner labeled it a qualified success, regretting the altercation that broke out between factions with differing views on skewer length.
[The Onion-a news spoof]

MidEast delusions

Lessons from Islamabad -Editorial

When Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf [pictured above] shook hands with prime minister Ariel Sharon at the UN in 2005, Israelis hoped they were witnessing the dawn of a new era in relations between the second most populous Muslim state and the world's only Jewish one.

[Some] Israelis believe Musharraf simply wanted to capitalize on that handshake, along with an unprecedented [speech] to American Jewish leaders, in order to bolster his image in Washington as a Muslim moderate.

He never even came close to establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

Musharraf's departure after nine years in power contributes to an atmosphere of uncertainty. Who will replace him? What of the war on terror? Most critically, who will control Pakistan's nuclear arsenal?

Pakistan is a failed state. It cannot provide for its 165 million people, 32 percent of whom live in abject poverty. The regime does not exercise control over large swaths of its territory. Washington, which has funneled $10 billion in military assistance to Islamabad only to discover that much of it was misdirected, would like to believe that Pakistan will "remain" an ally against the Islamists.

Western leaders should stop deluding themselves about the utility of working with Muslim counterparts who cannot - or will not - deliver on their promises.
[Jerusalem Post]

Released murderer Sultan Ajlouni kisses his mother's hand in Amman, Jordan

Jordan Frees Killers of Israeli Soldiers

Four Jordanian prisoners [one pictured above] handed over by Israel last year to complete their life sentences in the kingdom were released from jail. The four were convicted of killing two Israeli soldiers in 1990.
(AFP)

Canada not immune to jihadi wrath: Toronto beware

Toronto Terror Cell -Colin Freeze

A British terrorism suspect with links to a Canadian terror cell was convicted of being a walking terrorist library.

Aabid Khan [pictured at right] was convicted by a British jury for possessing a plethora of terrorist how-to manuals, such as The Mujahedeen Explosives Handbook. Khan is related by marriage to the ringleader of a terrorist conspiracy, thwarted in 2006, that involved a plot to trigger simultaneous truck bombings in downtown Toronto.
(Globe and Mail-Canada)

Touching personal story: VideoBite

Author Sherri Mandell in a moving 3 minute video, describing her journey following the brutal murder of her son by terrorists

Click on either of the graphics above to view

Do the Saudi's have a sense of humor...apparently not

Check out this priceless ad from Nissan Motors...a two minute video that will have you shaking your head in disbelief.

"The rape of Georgia:" Implications for Israel

Georgia, Israel and the nature of man -Caroline Glick

[N]one of the myriad international forces deployed along our borders has ever protected us. The fact that instead of protecting Israel, they have served as shields behind which our enemies rebuild their forces and then attack us has made no impression. Instead, our leaders have argued that once we figure out the proper form of appeasement everyone will rise to defend us.

[T]he West's [passive] response to the rape of Georgia should end that delusion. Georgia did almost everything right. [F]or its actions, Georgia, like Israel, was celebrated in the West with platitudes of enduring friendship and empty promises of alliances that were discarded the moment Russia invaded.

Georgia only made one mistake, and for that mistake it will pay an enormous price. As it steadily built alliances, it forgot to build an army.

Israel has an army. It has just forgotten why its survival depends on our willingness to use it.

If we are unwilling to use our military to defeat our enemies, we will lose everything. This is the basic, enduring truth of international affairs that we ignore at our peril.

No matter what we do, it will always be the case. For this is the nature of world affairs.

[Jerusalem Post]


The Russian-Georgian War: Implications for the Middle East -Ariel Cohen

U.S. intelligence-gathering and analysis on the Russian threat to Georgia failed.
So did U.S. military assistance to Georgia.

This is something to remember when looking at recent American intelligence assessments of the Iranian nuclear threat or the unsuccessful training of Palestinian Authority security forces against Hamas.
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

Saudis call for Nissan boycott

Car Ad in Israel Drives Saudis to Distraction -Orly Halpern

A recent [humorous] Israeli television ad campaign showed an Arab man, dressed in robes typical of the oil-rich Persian Gulf region, attacking and cursing a Nissan car for being fuel-efficient.

After [a] Saudi-owned satellite channel led the evening news with a story about the ad, several Arab websites and newspapers called on Arab and Muslim car dealers to boycott Nissan for insulting Arabs. Some Arabs wrote on websites that they would sell their Nissan cars in protest.

Nissan International then asked Nissan Israel to remove the ad and not to use it again.
(Globe and Mail-Canada)

View the humorous Ad (YouTube)

Jordan's "security risk:" Jewish prayer

Jordan bars Jews with religious items -Matthew Wagner

Jordanian border officials refused to allow a group of Israeli tourists carrying religious objects such as talitot and tefillin [pictured above] to enter their country, saying it was "a safety measure" to avoid potential terror threats.

Thirty-six Israeli tourists on their way to Amman for a three-day tour were detained and notified of a new regulation that prohibits entry into Jordan with tefillin, talitot, prayer books, Bibles or the Talmud.

A Jordanian security official said the decision was taken for "security reasons."

"The vast majority of the group decided that as proud Israelis, we were either going to be allowed to walk into Jordan holding our religious objects or we would not go in at all."
[Jerusalem Post]
[Bob Dylan pictured with tefillin above/right...he was not among the group turned away...he's on tour]
[Barbie does Jewish below...she was also not detained...her religion is unknown, though the inventor who created her is Jewish...really]

Israel projects weakness

How Israel became the boy who cried wolf -Evelyn Gordon

The Palestinians violated this truce: Hamas declined to stop organizations from firing rockets. Yet Israel never responded militarily, and though it did initially close the border crossings it had opened under the truce, it immediately reopened them at Egypt's request.

The lesson was clear: Terrorist organizations can violate deals with impunity since Israel will honor its commitments anyway.

Hamas achieved through force what Fatah failed to achieve through negotiations: a cessation of IDF operations in its territory. In short, rather than showing that peace pays better than terror, Kadima showed that terror pays better than peace - thereby encouraging it.

In short, rather than Israel deterring Hamas, Hamas is deterring Israel.
[Jerusalem Post]

[Sculpture: Rodin's The Three Shades]

Closing checkpoints: foolishness

Palestinian Caught with Pipe Bombs at Checkpoint -Efrat Weiss

IDF soldiers detained a Palestinian at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus in the West Bank, after he was found to be carrying two pipe bombs.

The bombs were detonated by military sappers. Over the past few years the IDF has thwarted numerous attempts to smuggle explosives and weapons through the Hawara checkpoint.
(Ynet News)

Hamas with suits on: Fatah's maximalist demands

PA Discounts Peace Proposal -Khaled Abu Toameh & Tovah Lazaroff

Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat [pictured above] said the Palestinians would not accept any solution that excludes the "right of return" for Palestinians.
(Jerusalem Post)

Islamists support Darfur murderer

Iran and Hamas Adore Darfur's Genocidal Dictator -Jonathan Schanzer

Hamas' Khalid Mash'al recently telephoned Sudanese President Bashir [pictured above] and denounced the International Criminal Court's accusations against him. Hamas also proclaimed Bashir's innocence on their website.

Mash'al confirmed Hamas' solidarity with Sudan, its leadership and people "in confronting this new conspiracy targeting Sudan."

Iran also defends Bashir. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [has] described Sudan as a second home full of "dear, pious and revolutionary brothers."

Islamist support for the Darfur genocide reveals much about the dangers of Islamism.
The writer, a former Treasury intelligence analyst, is from the Jewish Policy Center.
(Weekly Standard)


UPDATE:

Why Hasn't the Muslim World Lifted a Finger for Darfur? - Martin Peretz

The fact is that other Arabs do not care a fig for Palestine.
Even with their lush surplus of petroleum cash, the oil Arabs do not pay their self-assessed tax for Palestine. The Emirates, perhaps the greatest employment agency for foreign labor anywhere, hire relatively few Palestinians, preferring Malaysians and Pakistanis and, if Arabs, Yemenis and Egyptians.

The sultans are not dumb: They saw how the Palestinians behaved when Iraq invaded Kuwait. The Palestine national movement is a fraud. Internecine killing has taken far more Arab lives than armed encounters with the Israelis.

How can the Arabs feign such great agitation about the Palestinians when they maintain such composure about the truly bitter fate of the Darfuris? It is the blood of their blood who are committing the genocide. It is their diplomats who protect the murderers. Whatever standing the African Muslims of Darfur command as pious supplicants before Allah, they have none before his Arab servants. Apparently, this does not trouble the conscience of Islam.

They are otherwise engaged in the hyper-drama of Palestine.
(New Republic)

Reflections on Gaza

Gazans Yearn for Israeli Presence -Rafael D. Frankel

Three years have passed since Israel withdrew from Gaza, and the economy has gone from bad to worse. "I want the Israelis to come back," says Riyad al-Laham, an unemployed father of eight from Mawassi - a town located in Gush Katif - who worked in the area's Jewish settlements for nearly 20 years.

"All the Mawassi people used to work in the settlements and make good money. Now there is nothing to do. Even our own agricultural land is barren."

Mawassi is now dependent on food handouts from the UN.
(Christian Science Monitor)

Hamas Tightens Its Hold on Gaza -Shlomo Brom

Hamas' nearly complete takeover of Gaza gives Israel better tools to manage the conflict because now Hamas bears full responsibility for everything that happens there.
(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)


Palestinian Rocket Fire Despite Truce -Shmulik Hadad

Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket that landed near a kindergarten in the Israeli town of Sderot. Despite a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, intermittent rocket and mortar fire has been recorded every few days.
(Ynet News)

Sharansky: democracy as prerequisite

There Won't Be "Peace" Without Democracy -Natan Sharansky & Bassem Eid

It is high time that Palestinian civil society be fully recognized by the international community as a prerequisite to peace. If Palestinian civil society is not empowered, the Fatah-controlled West Bank may soon be ruled by Hamas.
(Wall Street Journal)

The price of being a real moderate in the MidEast

Pro-Israel Editor Goes on Trial in Bangladesh -Michael Freund

The trial of Salah Choudhury [pictured above], a Bangladeshi Muslim editor arrested for advocating ties with Israel, began in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Facing charges that include sedition, if convicted, Choudhury could be sentenced to death.

In November 2003, Choudhury was arrested at Dhaka's international airport just prior to boarding a flight on his way to Israel, where he was scheduled to deliver an address on promoting understanding between Muslims and Jews.
(Jerusalem Post)


UPDATE:

To contact the Government of Bangladesh in support of Mr. Choudhury, please consider writing to their Washington, DC Embassy at the following email address: bdootwash@bangladoot.org

To sign a web-based petition in support of Mr. Choudhury, please consider going to:
http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=6&Action=Sign

Evaluating al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda Shifting Its Tactics -Peter Brookes

Nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda is bloodied, but not bowed - leaving it still capable of dealing a devastating blow. Al-Qaeda is a different organization than it was in 2001. Today, bin Laden is more inspirational than operational.

Al-Qaeda has long sought to recruit terrorist operatives already in place in the West and bin Laden has been especially keen to recruit converts to Islam. These new adherents can often easily overcome the challenges of racial profiling.

We've also had terrorism attempts in the U.S., too, by "self-radicalized" people who were inspired by, but had little or no physical contact with, al-Qaeda. Terrorist cells in Ohio, Illinois, California, New York and New Jersey targeted the U.S. government, the military and critical infrastructure.
(Armed Forces Journal)

Hamas' "toll collectors"

Tunnels Keep Hamas in Business -Juliane von Mittelstaedt

175 tons of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza since June 2007, along with 10 million rounds of ammunition, tens of thousands of machine guns, grenades, land mines and precision-guided missiles.

Abu Yakub squats next to a new shaft where his men are in the process of digging a new tunnel. Using satellite images from Google Earth, they install power cables, oxygen lines and intercom systems underground.

Hamas is believed to collect about $10,000 a day from the tunnel owners in the form of "usage fees," as well as "value-added taxes" - all payable in cash to armed money collectors who wait at the tunnel exits.
(Der Spiegel-Germany)

UN enables rejectionism

UN Reforms Needed for Palestinian Refugees -Peter Berkowitz

[C]ontrary to the policy that generally applies to refugees, the United Nations regards Palestinian refugee status as transferable from parents to children without limit.

This enables UNRWA [UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] to fuel the conflict with Israel by cultivating a trans-generational belief among Palestinians that the one-and-only solution to their plight consists in returning to homes and lands vacated more than half a century ago.

(Washington Times)

Freedom of the [Printing] Press

You Still Can't Write About Muhammad -Asra Q. Nomani

Last year Random House signed a $100,000, two-book deal with journalist Sherry Jones for The Jewel of Medina, a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad.

Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage.

In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book, fearing it would [lead] to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator, among other horrors.
(Wall Street Journal)


UPDATE - the author speaks out:

Censoring "The Jewel Of Medina" -Sherry Jones

Is Random House no longer publishing books about Islam? How does this bode for the future of publishing? What will be banned next? Art? Music? Theater? Dance?
[Newsweek-Washington Post]

Evaluating the Palestinian movement

Internalizing Hamastan -Editorial

Israel and the West would do well to internalize that Hamas' rule in Gaza is the best indicator to date of how Palestinians would run their affairs in a fully independent Palestine.
(Jerusalem Post)


Political Suicide, Palestinian Style -Rami G. Khouri

As Fatah and Hamas battle it out like a bunch of armed neighborhood gangs, it will not be surprising to see some friends of Palestine quietly walk away, mumbling that if the Palestinians wish to kill each other and destroy their own society, they are free to do so.

The sight of clan-based political groups in Gaza killing each other is familiar in many parts of the Middle East, sadly. It is a sign that national dysfunctionality expressed in internecine political violence is a regional Arab ailment, not a peculiarly Palestinian one.
(Daily Star-Lebanon)


Palestinians See Israel as a Refuge -Mohammad Salah

The flight by Palestinians to Israel in search of safety away from the bullying and aggression of Hamas affirms that the Palestinian issue is on its way to disappearing, evaporating and being forgotten.
(Al-Hayat-Lebanon)

Treason

Israeli Arab Indicted as Hizbullah Agent -Yaakov Katz

Khaled Kashkush [pictured at left], an Israeli Arab medical student in Frankfurt, Germany, was indicted for enlisting in Hizbullah and performing missions.
(Jerusalem Post)

Israel "looking good"

A Bigger Threat to the Palestinians than Israel -Editorial

Israel coming to the rescue of Palestinians after a bout of Arab fratricide [is] reminiscent of the events of Black September, during which scores of Palestinians sought asylum in Israel to escape King Hussein's crackdown on the Palestine Liberation Organization. This time around Palestinians are fleeing from the murderous hands of their own Palestinian brothers.

We have seen Palestinians making war on other Palestinians while the Jewish state has come to the rescue of those who fear for their lives. Israel has never looked so good.
(Daily Star-Lebanon)

'Giving the wrong impression' of Islam

Israel Blasted for Reading Kindness into the Koran

Arab media in the Middle East reacted hysterically after learning that a Jewish professor at Haifa University is using verses from the Koran to teach Arab Muslim psychology students how to treat their future Muslim patients.

Professor Ofer Grosbard developed the Quranet course using specially chosen verses from the Muslim holy book to help students reinforce in their patients concepts like respect, responsibility, honesty, dignity and kindness.

Despite the fact that the Quranet course was developed together with 15 Muslim students and was reviewed by three Islamic clerical figures, Muslim authorities around the Middle East denounced the project because it was overseen by a Jew.

Speaking to Gulf News, Dr. Abdullah Al Mutlaq of Saudi Arabia insisted that all Jews hate Islam, and that Prof. Grosbard's efforts to emphasize the Koran's few lessons in human dignity and kindness would give Muslims the wrong impression of their religion.

Dr. Manae Abdel-Halim Mahmoud, professor of Koranic sciences in Cairo, told an Egyptian newspaper that the Israeli project "aims to tarnish the image of Islam by giving wrong interpretation of the noble Koran."
(Israel Today)

Reflections on Hamas' ascendancy

Hamas Completes Gaza Revolution -Ali Waked

Fatah closed down its last branch among the Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday with a raid on the Hilles clan compound.

Now that the clan has been removed, there are no longer any military forces in Gaza that can undermine or significantly hurt the Hamas regime. The June 2007 revolution has been completed.

The likelihood of PA forces returning to Gaza is non-existent.
(Ynet News)


Palestinian Refugees from Whom? -Melanie Phillips

Extraordinary developments in Gaza have given a new meaning to the term "Palestinian refugees." 180 Fatah refugees, fleeing from what they called a "war of genocide" by Hamas, fled to Israel, which proceeded to treat 23 of them in Israeli hospitals.

So let’s get our head round this: Palestinians committed to the destruction of Israel fled from other Palestinians committed to the destruction of Israel into Israel, which is providing them with sanctuary and medical treatment, while the president of their putative state who bases his claim against Israel on its alleged refusal to admit Palestinian ‘refugees’ refused to allow actual Palestinian refugees fleeing Palestinian violence access to that same putative state, while Israel agonises over whether to grant them permanent asylum. Surreal, or what?
(Spectator-UK)

Stranger than fiction...more Palestinian idiocy

Palestinians: Save Us from Jewish Rats -Ian O'Doherty

According to two Palestinian newspapers, the Jews have come up with a new plan to dislocate Arabs - through the medium of supernatural rats.

Yup, the Jews have been secretly breeding a new species of giant rodent which can even chase away Arab cats. The rats are apparently being introduced into the area by Jews "who bring them in huge cages and release them onto the streets to make living there a nightmare for Arabs."

Terrifyingly, the rats even know the difference between Jew and Arab and they leave the Jews alone while terrorizing the Arabs.
(Independent-Ireland)

Olmert breeds chaos

Kadima's legacy of nothingness -Caroline Glick

Olmert did not actually resign from office in the normal sense of the term. That is, he's not planning to leave office any time soon. What Olmert did was force Israel into a long period of governmental instability.

[F]ar from leaving office anytime soon, Olmert will remain in power at least three more months, and perhaps for as long as 10 months. [I]t is hard to see how his announcement served the national interest. If Olmert had wanted to do what is best for the country, then he would have announced that his resignation was effective immediately.

Kadima presented rejection of ideology as its chief selling point. By not being committed to either left-wing or right-wing ideals, they assured us that Kadima would always do the right thing for the country. But the opposite occurred.

Without the benefit of ideology to guide them, Kadima's leaders have been led by nothing more than their personal interests. Kadima has tacked to the right and then to the left with no guiding rationale other than the morning's headlines, the weekend's opinion polls, and the threats of its coalition partners.

[A]ll of Israel's elections revolved around contrasting ideologies. For 29 years, voters were required to choose which side of the ideological divide they preferred. And making choices isn't easy. Both sides seem to have something to offer.

Then Kadima entered the political stage and offered voters a way to avoid making a decision. It professed to be all things to all people. [T]heir party has been nothing to all people.

[W]hen a government of nothings is running the show, nothing takes precedent over all things - even the most important things.
[Jerusalem Post]

Mustache warriors: only in the MidEast

Mustache War -Khaled Abu Toameh

Hamas has resumed its policy of shaving mustaches of political opponents to humiliate them, Fatah officials said.

Hamas resorted to this form of punishment in the past after arresting senior Fatah representatives in the Gaza Strip, the officials said.

Hamas, for its part, accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of shaving the beards of detained Hamas officials in the West Bank.

[Jerusalem Post]

Muslims students in UK

1 in 3 Muslim students approve killing for Islam

If ignorance and poverty are responsible for the growth of extremist views in the Islamic world, someone needs ask to Muslim students, privileged enough and bright enough to attend some of the United Kingdom's best universities, why one-in-three of them endorses killing in the name of Islam.

The report of this finding, based on a poll of 600 Muslim and 800 non-Muslim students at 12 universities in the UK, will be released tomorrow as "Islam on Campus."

Among its findings of Muslim beliefs:

*40 per cent support introduction of sharia into British law

*One-third back the idea of a worldwide Islamic caliphate based on sharia law

*53 per cent believe killing in the name of religion is never justified (compared with 94 per cent of non-Muslims), while 32 per cent say it is

In April, MI5 [Military Intelligence] warned that donations of hundreds of millions of pounds from Saudi Arabia had led to a "dangerous increase in the spread of extremism in leading university campuses."

"The finding that a large number of students think it is okay to kill in the name of religion is alarming," said Anthony Glees, professor at Buckingham University. "There is a wide cultural divide between Muslim and non-Muslim students. The solution is to stop talking about celebrating diversity and focus on integration and assimilation."

[WorldNetDaily]

Fun summer camp for Palestinian kids

Gaza Summer Camps Teach Kids to Fire Rockets -Ali Waked

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been holding summer camps proudly displaying rockets and other weaponry.

Hamas alone is conducting 300 summer camps for tens of thousands of children. The focus is on instilling religious fervor in them. At Islamic Jihad summer camps, children learn how to hold a Kassam rocket-launcher.
(Ynet News)