I should really get on top of what's happening with the "Gaza-Bethlehem first" progress. I know the international media is talking about it; it might be that here we're a bit bored with whether the IDF is leaving or going back in to Area A.

The media here is focused on the Israeli Arabs who have been involved in terror attacks recently, statements attributed to British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Saks in the UK Guardian (report), and a "Jenin inquiry" which determined that the IDF soldiers who were sent there in Operation Defensive Shield were inadequately equipped and briefed.

According to Yediot, the 7 Israeli Arabs who of the Bakri clan who assisted in the Meron bus bombing were middle-class and secular.

The British Chief Rabbi reportedly said that Israel has been forced into postures incompatible with "our deepest ideals". Jacky Levy on Army Radio's "Last Word" said cynically that he's sure that in a few hours some spokesman will announce that Rabbi Saks' words were taken out of context. Reading the Guardian's summary of the interview it's easy to imagine how they might have done that. We'll see.

RibbityBlog (aka. the amphibian MEMRI) has a summary of an article in the official Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam which outlines an imagined Jewish conspiracy against the al-Aqsa Mosque.