Welcome to visitors from Spanish CNN and Stuttgarter Zeitung.

A year ago yesteday my blog was #5 on Blogdex. Daily life in Israel have changed a lot since then (thanks to the IDF), though the general situation is depressingly similar.

Barry Rubin notes the obvious parallels between the criticisms aimed at the American forces in Iraq and those levelled at the IDF. He thinks that this means the difficulty in getting Israeli viewpoints across are endemic to the situation and shouldn't be blamed Raanan Gissin et al.

Some perversely amusing things at the site of the University of Birmingham Palestinian Society...

They list Robert Fisk as one of "four pillars of wisdom" and chose a photo of him in his post-Afghan-mob-beating bandages. They have photos of a meeting they held with British Hasidim from the theologically anti-Israel Neturei Karta movement (more on Neturei Karta here). They apparently refused to play a soccer match with a student team identifying itself with Israel (and defend the decision with a link to this bizarre article from the Jordanian Star about how the brutal "revenge of Israel" extends even to Palestinian athletes - eg. cyclist Mohamed Abu Jamous who was killed after infiltrating a military base where he killed 4 soldiers).

They make the unlikely claim that the Union of Jewish Students has provided them with "profound moral support", and they say that the University Executive "hacked their site" - meaning that they were forced to remove some material.

This article describes the antics at the meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights now taking place in Geneva . And of course the Palestinian spokesman used the occasion to call for the elimination of Israel (report).

Starbucks is closing its Israeli operations (article). It didn't seem to catch on even in yuppified Herzliya Pituah. There's plenty of overpriced coffee in this country, so maybe the problem is that our jumpy pace of life doesn't lend itself to the lolling-around atmosphere that Starbucks has in the US (which I happen to like a lot in airports).

Of the 40 wounded in today's Islamikaze attack in Netanya, 2 are in critical condition - including the soldier who prevented the Islamic Jihad bomber from entering the cafe (report).

Zeev Schiff offers an evaluation of the situation on the ground near Baghdad. There's lots of that floating around, but Schiff sounds knowledgable and circumspect.

A jilbab is not a burka.