There's a "high level of warning" abouit terror attacks today in Jerusalem. So my wife T. has asked me not to spend my unemployed day in a cafe.

Weekend Papers I Mathew Gutman in the Jpost print edition describes the day-to-day relationship between Israel/the IDF and UNRWA (which is the UN agency that began supplying education, health, and social services to Palestinian refugees in 1948 and now services their descendents).

While the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has the mandate of solving refugee problems (via local integration, resettlement, or repatriation), UNRWA is only to supply humanitarian services. This is why it does not provide "permanent" housing for residents of refugee camps despites its huge annual budget ($100 million for Gaza alone in 2002). Essentially UNRWA exists to perpetuate the refugee problem and ensure that it causes problems for Israel. In 1952 UNRWA director John Blandford Jr. said that UNRWA should be shut down because "sustained relief operations inevitably contain the germ of human deterioration".

UNRWA schools teach the "Palestinian narrative"/ mythology about how the Jews massacred/expelled them but that they will eventually return home to what is now Israel; it also permits the culture and recruitment of martyrs to flourish in its camps. However no UNRWA employees have ever been known to actually collaborate with a terrorist organization, and the IDF finds UNRWA provision of education and social services to be preferred over the alternatives: the now-barely-functioning PA (which channels as much money as it can into the intifada), or a new Israeli civil administration (as in the pre-Oslo era). On an hourly basis there is a lot of coordination between the IDF and UNRWA on issues like ambulance passage and electrical repair.

Nelson Ascher writes:

Do you all know why Bush isn't more agressive toward the Saudis? Because of the JEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If anybody thinks I'm kidding, here's the link that clarifies it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,849670,00.html
According to Simon Tisdall in today's Guardian:

"Another priority is Israel. Without US protection, military aid and financial backing, Israel's very existence would be in continuing doubt. As it is, with the rulers of Saudi Arabia (and Egypt and Jordan) on America's diplomatic team, the enmity of rejectionist Arabs and hardliners in Iran can be kept at bay and the illusion of a peace process maintained.

This also means that Israel's current government, led by Bush friend and ally Ariel Sharon, can continue its repression of the Palestinians almost with impunity. This is why Bush listened politely to Abdullah's peace plan in Texas (and then held out the prospect of a Palestinian state one distant day). The US needs to keep the Saudis sweet if a lid is to be kept on the intifada, and if Jewish interests, in Israel and the US, are to be maintained. "

Nice, isn't it? According to this idiot the US protects the philosemitic antifundamentalist house of Saud in order not to endanger Israel and (he says it withour blushing) not even Israeli bu JEWISH INTERESTS!!!!!!!!!

Thus, if the Jews weren't directly responsible for the spilling of American blood, they surely are obstructing the punishment of the guilty. But there's no antisemitism here, of course.

Here's an article titled "IDF struggles to avoid civilians casualties in Nablus".

Three terrorists attacked the Likud polling station in Beit Shean with guns and grenades. The one with the explosives belt didn't manage to blow himself up. Many injured and apparently some dead (report).

And this is in addition to the carnage in Kenya.

Frimet Roth is the mother of Malki Roth, who died in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Aug 2001. Here she describes and harshly criticizes (and psychoanalyzes) an apparently small organization of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians who express sympathy and understanding for the killers of their children (or at least the Israelis do).

What outrageous though is the support and favorable publicity that the organization, called Parents Circle Family Forum, received from the European Union. It seems so glib and condescending. It's like they're saying: "Yes, we understand that you are angry and demand action from the PA (and the EU which funds it) - but listen to these people, who are so nuanced and deep".

The Likud primaries are on Thursday; lots of ads around Jerusalem for Netanyahu.

This one says:

Netanyahu will bring back security. He already did in his gov'f of 1996-1999. 4 suicide attacks in 3 years

Not that I support Bibi or accept this claim of his.

When you read that UNRWA official Paul McCann says that "this report of firing from the [UN] compound is totally incredible", recall this exchange from the Weekly Standard.

Eventually more will be known about the IDF's accidental shooting of Iain Hook, but Paul McCann and Peter Hansen of UNRWA have no compunctions about lying outright to damage Israel and protect their own reputations.

Evelyn Gordon argues that the Israeli electorate must overwhelmingly reject Amram Mitzna if it does not want to encourage further killings and extremism.

Nelson Ascher sent me this link about a novel for teenagers published by Flammarion, a major French publishing house. The novel extensively sympathizes with Palestinian suicide bombers.