1924.org is a British Islamic site. Interesting thing is that it's more anti-Western than it is anti-Israel. The writers (apparently many of them Pakistani) blame everything on capitalism and colonialism rather than Zionism.

The death toll from today's bus bombing in Haifa is currently 15 (report). Note that 40 attacks were foiled in February. The bombing was in Imshin's old neighborhood. Photos here.

Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli." and the international media apparently didn't ask him when Israelis have ever targeted civilians. And the PA sandwiches its condemnation with incitement: "The leadership announces its condemnation to this operation in which civilians, who are not part of the war of annihilation waged by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, were killed"

At Tel Aviv's Dizengoff square, the bombing that killed 13 people was commemorated yesterday (on the 7th anniversary). I remember the outrage everyone felt back then - "this was supposed to be peace". Nowadays people barely talk about the attacks.

Jpost's Bret Stephens describes a symposium of foreign correspondents that happened here two weeks back.

I was there myself and took a lot of notes that I should try to write up later. Eric Silver of the Independent was a subdued and reasonable moderator, though the questions that he tossed to Nabil Khatib of Saudi MBC television were softballs, and Silver kept making annoying transitions that seemed to equate Israeli settlers with the Hamas, Yigal Amir with Osama Bin Laden etc. Stephens and Khatib were mostly cautious and defensive, so it was France 2's Charles Enderlin and Amira Hass of Haaretz who did most of the talking.

I was quite fascinated by what Hass had to say: she is very sincere and sees her role as giving a voice to the oppressed rather than the pursuit of an ideal of objectivity. Enderlin, in contrast, was pompous and is certain that "the real story" these days is the Palestinian humanitarian crisis, and that if the Israeli media's evaluation is different it's "censorship". Enderlin let it slip that he considers Palestinian threats to murder Israeli journalists a mere tactical error. Enderlin also mentioned that he advised Italian photographer Raffaele Ciriello that it was dangerous to enter the square in Ramallah where he was shot by the IDF a short time later.

If Israel had it's own 24-hr news channel, the population would go raving bonkers. That's probably why we don't have one.

I set up my home 802.11b network with equipment that I picked up in the US. 802.11 gear is not available in shops here. Does using WEP impact performance?

Out-of-work Israelis are modifying their CVs to appear less experienced (report). That this makes sense is confirmed by my own experience: a headhunter that I worked with changed the summary section at the top of my CV and removed the company names. This got me a bunch of interviews.

Here's a blog maintained by a Jihadi-type Muslim college student in the UK.

I'm in the US once again. At a luncheon yesterday I neglected my "business networking" to have an extended conversation with 2 officials from the local Israeli consulate. I told them about weblogs (hello to you guys if you are reading this), and that there seems to be wide consensus that the Israeli PR effort is pathetic (particularly in Europe).

To begin working with the Israeli foreign service, you typically get a degree in International Relations or Economics. Then you enroll in a "cadet's course" where you learn a smattering of different practical topics. It sounds like how to hold a wine glass or go to the Opera gets about the same amount of treatment as how to address a large audience or speak on camera.

The consulate fellows who I spoke to are nice and dedicated, but I have to say that the heavily-accented marketing fellow who was pitching his company to some potential American partners had an infinitely better perception of how his audience was receiving his message.

I appreciate the email from American bloggers and hope that on a future trip I'll have a chance to get together with some of you.

Zeev Schiff writes that the US is going to seek another Security Council resolution to authorize war on Iraq, and will advance severe economic measures to bully France not to veto. Powell shared secret intelligence info with France and Germany, but France refuses to be impressed. Schiff also says that there is implicit US-Iran cooperation against Iraq, and notes that Jordan is supporting the US this time around.

Jpost print edition continues the Belgium backlash: a long article describes King Leopold II's exploitation of the Congo around the (previous) turn of the century - including the massive use of slave labor, cruelties like amputations and a "human zoo" of Congolese at the 1897 World Exhibition in Brussels. In 1961 Belgians kidnapped Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumemba and two others, killed them, and dissolved their remains with acid.

Belgians were largely unaware of their colonial record, according to the article by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, until the publication of a book by American Adam Hochschild in 1997. But ...

While Hochschild's book, and the Lumumba parliamentary commission, undoubtedly led to an unprecedented amount of soul-searching, there are no signs of self-flagellation. The strongest language Gryseels will use is this: "There is absolutely no question that, seen with the moral standards of today, the period of the Congo Free state saw practices that are completely unacceptable."

Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman is quoted from Le Monde Diplomatique as saying that the "ethical impetus" of the Belgian court trial against Ariel Sharon "undoubtedly has its source in the heavy colonial past which confronts Belgium". It's more likely an extension of the domineering colonial impulse.

Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch writes that the virtuous Belgians are "increasingly aware of their own abusive history in Africa" and consequently "embraced the opportunity to play a role in the fight against the worst crimes" by invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute Ariel Sharon for not preventing the Sabra and Shatila massacres 21 years ago.

It's nice that Brody thinks that the Belgian legislature/judiciary are angels and idealists - but in 1990, citing a 20-year statute of limitations, they declined to prosecute accused Nazi war criminals (living in Belgium) (report).

Brody notes that many countries, including Israel, have made use of universal jurisdiction. Disingenously, Brody ignors that Belgium's move is unique in that they are now trying cases that do not directly involve Belgian plaintiffs (more from Haaretz).

What's worse is Brody's characterization of Sharon's role in the massacres and the subsequent Israeli inquiry. Brody quotes only from the recommendations of the Kahan commission which says that Sharon "bears direct responsibility"; Brody then accuses Israel of not launching a prosecution of what a gov't commission seems to imply is a criminal offense (thus leaving the prosecution to the selfless Belgians). In actual fact, the commission terms Sharon's responsibility was "indirect", and recommends that he dismissed from his position of Defence Minister. What Brody calls "three-day rampage of killing and mutilation while Israeli forces failed to intervene" is more accurately described as 36 hrs. of progressively less murky reports of atrocities and repeated rounds of buck passing.

In a letter to Jpost (scroll down), someone personally familiar with the court proceedings in Belgium says that the prosecutors' motivations are political, but that the Belgian court system is not (but see here)

Here's an entry that I wrote a while back about Elie Hobeika (who personally directed the massacres and then spent many years as a Lebanese cabinet minister) and how Sharon has managed to rehabilitate his reputation in Israel since 1982.

Zeev Schiff offers an analysis of the IDF operations in Nablus and Gaza.

ABC News says "Israel to split Christ's birthplace with barrier". Actually, the security wall will project into Bethlehem around 500 meters (map here).

The reports on this in Jpost/Haaretz have already disappeared - which is an indication of how in Israel this was not regarded as a major event..

I'm fairly certain that I was once in the area that will be on the Israeli side of the fence. Two friends and I were on our way driving to the Herodian palace. One moment we were in Jerusalem; the next moment we were clearly in an Arab village. After driving about 100 meters or so we reached the IDF checkpoint at the edge of then-autonomous Bethlehem, where a soldier asked us if we were on our way to Rachel's tomb.

The rest of that (Oslo-era) day was also fairly unique: after we u-turned and eventually visited the Herodian palace, we began speaking to a couple who invited the 3 of us to come with them to the Haritun cave adjacent to Tekoa (and later on the site of a terrorist murder). Our new friends had maps as well as a handgun with them and spoke Arabic. The maps were outdated, so we soon were walking into the edge of Arab Tekoa. In a scene reminiscent of intifada footage, a group of 6-7 young men began to approach us. But our friend asked them (in Arabic) for directions to the cave and on we went down a hill. Then we passed a tent made from flour bags at the edge of the village, where an old woman insisted that we come in for tea. So we did.

Together with the flashlights and plastic sheeting, Home Center in Talpiot is selling chemical warfare suits for about $100 each.

Expat Egghead surveys the list of UN resolutions against Israel here.

Meanwhile, the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle and others still think that Resolution 242 requires unconditional Israeli withdrawal from West Bank/Gaza.

Evelyn Gordon notes that after the initial Belgian court ruling that PM Sharon could not be prosecuted, the upper parliament (with the backing of PM Verhofstadt) passed an amendment that would have explicitly permitted the prosecution. Thus the higher court ruling merely promoted the view of the political echelon, and that view is specifically directed at Israelis: the suits against Arafat, Castro etc. have been delayed because they have not enjoyed similiar enthusiasm from Belgian prosecutors.

The Israeli media (print and radio) has made it sound like Bush has put the Iraq war on hold. The outrage that I expected from the blogosphere is not to be found, so I wonder if the media elsewhere has a different spin (though Google news leads with this). Or maybe it's that only here that the move was so unexpected.

A few points on the Belgian Sharon decision: the Belgian press glowingly approves of the decision, claims it is non-political, and is outraged at Israeli outrage; Likud MK Avraham Hirshson claims that the Belgian courts are dragging their feet on charges against Arafat but rushed through the proceedings against Sharon and other Israelis. (report). Also a hotel in Eilat has said it is refusing Belgian visitors (report).

There was an anti-Iraq war demonstration in Tel Aviv. From this report it sounds like here (as elsewhere) the protesters were a motley group of idiots.

Israeli support for the Iraq war derives foremost, I think, from the belief that preemptive attacks against mad Arab dictators are periodically necessary and usually justified.

Support for the war seems to be shared by a couple of the better writers in Haaretz who offer some muted criticism of the US: Zeev Schiff (not so convincingly) suggests that the Americans have not considered many important aspects of the war; and Yossi Melman, who writes well-informed pieces about intelligence issues, says that Saddam's connection to terrorist groups are less direct than the American portrayal.

This AM IDF radio interviewed international law professor Robi Sabel, who said that many states, including Israel, grant themselves the right to prosecute people outside their borders. But nations other than Belgium pursue such prosecutions only when the accusations are less political in nature and have direct bearing on themselves or their citizens.

Still waiting for a convincing explanation of what's actually been going on with these renewed "ceasefire" talks and redeployment plans.

Some indications of the economic mess here are that Expat Egghead had his salary cut, Imshin's job might be in jeopardy, and yours truly is working hard at zero salary. Worse off are people who I know that have been unemployed for months. A few people blame the government's budget priorities and monetary policy, but the simple explanation is that the tourism and high-tech industries are in the tank - and that it doesn't make much sense to try to refocus the economy elsewhere.

I'm inclined to agree with people who think that the "new new economy" will be about decentralization, but money folk are still thinking in tune with the "old new economy". In one respect the technology industry currently resembles the early 90s: companies - even competing companies - are required to cooperate with each other rather than attempt to force customers into proprietary solutions.

Nick Denton hears that Israelis are buying fancy pajamas for the communal bomb shelter. That's cute, but I don't think it's true (haven't heard about his hotel thing either).