I was at the bank this AM when the report came on the radio about the Islamikaze from Bethlehem bombing a bus in Kiryat Menachem, which is a blue-collar neighborhood in the southern part of town. A lot of schoolkids were on the bus. Current word is 11 dead. (report).

Palestinian myth-making Before a crowd of 10s of thousands of worshippers, Jerusalem mufti Ikrima Sabri told a made-up story about the IDF forcing Muslims at a checkpoint to violate their Ramadan fast. (report).

Meanwhile, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu-Ragheb is appearing to take seriously a story that is often repeated in the Arab world - that Israel is planning a massive expulsion of Palestinians into Jordan (report).

My opinion is that these stories are actually a kind of reflection of what the Arabs would be doing to us if the tables were turned.

The Olof Palme Memorial Fund for International Understanding and Common Security (of Sweden) has awarded its annual prize to Hanan Ashrawi (report). Apparently Ashrawi's habit of telling baldfaced lies to the international media doesn't disturb the foundation, who are presumably see her as a Palestinian moderate despite her rejection of Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

In 1995, the Palme award was givento the Israeli group Peace Now together with Fatah Youth. Fatah now launches a lot of bombing and shooting attacks at Israeli civilians. I wonder what Fatah Youth is up to these days....

According to this article, some elements of Arab leadership (notably Sari Nusseibeh and Hosni Mubarak) are trying to encourage expressions of moderation by Palestinians in the belief that this can help Mitzna and the Israeli left in the upcoming election (this would be true if Palestinian moderates had any credibility remaining with the Israeli public).

But, relying on a twisted logic that the sympathetic article doesn't really succeed in understanding, most Palestinians actually prefer a right-wing Israeli gov't. For them, when an Israeli government declares its goal to be suppressing attacks on its civilians, each terror attack is a victory and source of national pride.

Ynet says that a passenger on an El Al flight from Istanbul to Tel Aviv tried to stab a flight attendant, but was overpowered by security personnel. An El Al spokesman says it was likely a hijack attempt (Hebrew report).

I'm still too busy/preoccupied to blog much.

Amusing report in The Onion on Israel's founding. And look at the map...

Apparently the international media often confuses the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the Dome of the Rock - the latter being a distinct structure also on the Temple Mount. These Muslims think that the confusion was perpetrated by a "Zionist conspiracy" that aims to demolish Al-Aqsa.

Mike Shuster of the American NPR network included some outrageous misrepresentations in a documentary on the Yom Kippur war and the Begin-Sadat peace talks (report).

Miguel Angel Moratinos, the EU Middle East Envoy, will attend the funeral of the mother and 2 children murdered by Fatah at Kibbutz Metzer (report)

Kibbutz Metzer is affilliated with the hard-left Hashomer Hatzair movement. The only other occasion that I recall the EU sending an envoy is after the bombing at Hebrew University - itself an enclave of the left.

Were there other occasions when the EU sent representatives? Or are they sympathetic only when its their "friends" who are the ones killed?

I'm now between employers and still not quite back in the blogging state-of-mind. Here's a couple of interesting links:

The disruption of the Palestinian olive harvest by settlers from Itamar caused a stir in many European foreign ministries. IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon personally visited the area and organized the IDF's successful action to stop the harassments. This according to an article from today's Haaretz by Ze'ev Schiff that doesn't seem to be on the Haaretz website.

This rambling article from Friday's Haaretz mentions that the magazine ARTnews - based on a spurious report by UNESCO - falsely reported that an ancient mosque in Nablus had been 80% destroyed during Operation Defensive Shield and imputed malicious intentions to the IDF.

People associated with the settlers who encamped at Havat Gilad have set up a website alleging abuse at the hands of the IDF (I note this because it's interesting, not because I necessarily agree).

From the Weekend Jpost:

Good article on what the now-dominant Turkish AKP is about and how it well affect Turkish-Israeli relations.

Informative piece on the IDF and ambulance emergency services in the West Bank.

Electioneering has begun here with the potential Labor leaders (Mitzna, Ramon, and Ben-Eliezer) claiming that they won't be willing to join a unity government with Likud. Don't place any bets on that if you ask me.

One popular Islamic radical site is accusing another of being a front for the CIA. The latter claims that they are being harassed for selling cut-rate Islamic videos and other things..

Israel will be holding elections in February (report)

The Amnesty International report that accuses the IDF of war crimes in Jenin understates the number of Israeli civilian casualties during March 2002 - the month which preceded Operation Defensive Shield and included daily bombings of Israeli civilians by Palestinians. Amnesty says there were 40, the real number is at least 96 (report)

Update: The report on the Amnesty website currently gives a casualty figure of 80

The IDF has trained American soldiers for urban combat (report). What does that say about Sherard Cowper-Coles and others who suggest that the IDF is reckless and imply that other armies would do a better job at protecting civilians?

The IDF chief of staff relieved from duty an officer who was deemed to have violated rules of engagement in an incident where a Palestinian teen was killed. Additionally the IDF has investigated 35 cases of accused looting by soldiers this year and convicted 11 (report).

The current toll from the bombing at a mall in Kfar Saba is 2 dead and 2 seriously injured (report). The Islamikaze apparently blew himself up prematurely because a security guard was nearby.

Channel 2 said that there are many "specific warnings" right now. Last night there were a lot of soldiers out on Emek Refaim - the main street in my neighborhood.

A car bomb in Ashdod caused no injuries (report).

From Army Radio's Last Word this morning:

Avri: The Amnesty report, I must say, didn't make my morning. Even if I ignor all the regular Amnesty flaws ... like, say: removal from context, and uh, "removal from context" we said already, what else?

Uri: Lies, slander ...

Avri: "Lies, one-sided testimony from the Palestinians only, falsified ?, and a worldview that ... again it's "removal from context", but not looking at ...

Uri: ... Accusations of crimes that they didn't do there ... but beneath the banner of a human rights organization with all the prestige of Amnesty and all of the usual ?? like Zahava Gal-on and Peace Now are already calling not to appoint Mofaz to Defense Minister... Beautiful, hitch a ride - this time on the backs of the IDF and on the back of Mofaz - because the sacred Amnesty put out a report...

Avri: "Amnesty's not sacred, but what you're doing now is exactly the same automatic ritual the leftists do, as you are noting.....you're doing the mirror-image ... because dismissing the report is also ..... As soon as you say "there were no crimes" you give a stamp of approval of the crimes that were in fact.. and it's clear that there were crimes ... here's an example from today - small, not connected, but nonetheless: the charavot from the Mukata ... The commander who judged the soldiers for a charge of looting - he himself divided loot from Mukata to his officers ...

Uri: What are you talking about? You're not making distinctions among crimes ....

Avri: Looting is a war crime ... looting is a serious war crime ... not just a war crime but a serious one ...

Uri: There exist [categories of] misdemeanours, felonies, crimes, war crimes ... I don't think Amnesty is talking about that type of thing [ie. looting from Mukata]... When Amnesty talks about "war crimes" they have other things in mind ..

Avri: They're talking about stories where despite my desire to say "No it can't be.... Our IDF is always ethical... Your testimonies are all false", when I hear about parents who are sitting with a seriously ill child, for example over several days, and in the interim there are negotiations between the Red Cross and the IDF about admitting an ambulance and the IDF doesn't admit the ambulance and the child dies.... then I can say "OK, it's their fault, they brought it on themselves..." on the other hand I say: maybe, among all the other actions that were appropriate, or were unintentional, or in the middle of warfare they brought it on themselves, it's plausible that under that umbrella, problematic people concealed actions that constituted war crimes... And you can't just put it all in a package and say nothing at all happened - you have to investigate each case....

Uri: If Amnesty were to say ".....in the course of IDF operation in Jenin, there also occurred problematic incidents, also crimes, and even on certain occasions actions that enter the definition of 'war crimes' " - then maybe ... But they don't say it that way... they stamp the entire operation in Jenin, and the IDF, and you, and me as war criminals...

Avri: What I say is that when Amnesty comes with their good intentions to correct etc. they do bad. ...As soon as they put us all in the same package and say we're all war criminals, and [describe] the IDF as the biggest ??? ever, they do the reverse, because immediately the opposition .... exactly like Peres yesterday defended Sharon on the BBC, as if he was speaking about some guy from the Mapai... it won't work if they do it that way...

Uri: The other side works that way ... you think that Amnesty is organization of righteous people for whom all that interests them is only human rights, but you have to understand that within these organizations, there's a "recurring spirit", there's people from the European "progressive left" as it's called ....

Avri: .. and there are many good people, for whom human rights is the candle by their feet and the pillow by their heads, morning and evening ... there's both types....

Uri: But when they release a caustic report like this one on what happened in Jenin - for which we have more or less testimony [of our own] ... There are other human rights organizations - that I don't fall to the ground and worship the dust of their feet - that say different things.. so it's possible to be skeptical also if it's Amnesty and not just say "Wow how guilty we are and how much bad are we doing to them". I remind you that 13 soldiers died in Jenin - and several more a few days earlier - just because we didn't do what we maybe needed to do: to say "if you don't come out, then we start shelling" .... and there were armed people there and our soldiers went in and ...

Avri: You're using a single "merit" - if you can call it that of course - in order to say "all of the sins never were". And that's not the situation... You have to look at the details of the situation and not general statements like that. True that in one circumstance we sacrificed 13 soldiers ... it's plausible that in a different circumstance different things happened. I'm just saying that in each instance it's necessary to investigate ..

Uri: Why does this get me so upset? Because I hear these responses - not just from some pro-Palestinian spokesman from the Arab League or something..... I'm talking about MKs [from] Zionist [parties] like Zahava Gal-On, like Peace Now: Important institutions which I value according to their worth - that's the way to say what I think of them ... . how they jump immediately ..automatically... Don't appoint him Defense Minister .. ....

Good article by Zeev Schiff on the ways in which Labor provided "checks and balances" in the unity coalition.

Apparently if there had been a narrow gov't previously, Arafat would have been expelled earlier this year.

Blog entries about Khirbat Yanun are here, here, and here.

Blogging should pick up again by Sunday.

On Army Radio they were joking about potential (though unlikely) "nightmare cabinets" that could arise now that the far-right is taking the place of Labor in the governing coalition: Avigdor Lieberman as Defence Minister, Effi Eitam as Information Minister, Benny Elon as Tourism Minister. Instead of a "separation fence", there could be a promenade from Hebron to Rosh Pina.

Uri Orbach said that it would be worth inviting these people into the cabinet just to show Labor supporters how foolish their party is for leaving the coalition.

Note that the above paragraphs consist of jokes. If people think the above is serious I will delete it.

Sunday's Islamikaze attack in Ariel was carried out by Hamas, not by Fatah as was originally thought.

After Fatah mistakenly announced that Muhammed Shakir had carried out Sunday bombing, the IDF found would-be-bomber Shakir and arrested him (Hebrew report).

The IDF effortlessly cleared out the 20 settlers from the Havot Gilad outpost in the middle of the night. The IDF blocked cellphone communications so that the settlers couldn't call their friends. On the radio this AM they interviewed someone ("Itai Zar"?) who had returned to Havot Gilad after dawn. He said that the settlers were only doing farming there now, but he essentially agreed that they were playing cat and mouse with the IDF.

The whole outpost-clearing thing will become a moot point if Labor leaves the gov't - as currently appears likely. Labor apparently thinks that being the weak second fiddle in the gov't is less desirable than their new direction: asserting their independence, letting the far-right take Labor's place in the gov't, and getting devastated in the next election.

I'm less focused on blogging right now because I'm looking to switch employers. There's a one or two recruiters that have been good to deal with, and some others that have not been.