In Yerushalayim, 02 July 2008.

Courage: from G-d.

Training: from the IDF's Egoz unit

See also:

3 killed as Palestinian bulldozer driver goes on killing spree in Jerusalem

Stills from video at InfoLive.TV

...for whatever it is that you did.

Whoever you are.

Mossad agents awarded Israel Defense Prize

...to get the Iranians to reveal the location of their long-range missiles?

This much:

Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week.

The movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a large-scale exercise earlier this month in which the Israeli air force flew en masse over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel believes Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons.

More like between right now and 20 January 2009.

Report: Israel appears to rehearse Iran attack

Quote:

"They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know," the Pentagon official said, according to the Times. "There's a lot of signaling going on at different levels."

Secretary of State says: "um, sorry about that."

US says it erred in case of Gaza Strip students

The United States said on Monday it had erred by not approaching the Israeli government earlier to help seven Palestinians from the Gaza Strip obtain Israeli exit visas to take up US Fulbright fellowships.

The State Department said it approached the Israeli government on Friday, after The New York Times published a story about their case, to assist the seven, who had been selected for the prestigious US government scholarship.

Israel tightened its cordon of the Gaza Strip after Hamas took over the the coastal territory nearly a year ago and it gives few Palestinians, besides some who are gravely ill, permission to leave.

The US State Department last week told the seven their Fulbright grants had been withdrawn and it took steps to be able to direct the money to other Palestinians in the West Bank because of the trouble getting the exit visas from Gaza.

After the newspaper story was published, William Burns, the third-ranking US diplomat, approached the Israeli government to seek its help in obtaining exit permits for the seven.

"Was there a faulty decision-making process internal to the State Department in this particular case? Yes, there was," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

McCormack sought to put the best face on the matter, saying US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had acted immediately after she learned about the problem to try to fix it.

Meanwhile, in Washington DC:

Condoleezza Rice at an AIPAC conference stressed the urgency of establishing a Palestinian state.

“The expansion of violence in the Middle East makes the establishment of a peaceful Palestinian state more urgent, not less,” the U.S. secretary of state said Tuesday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington.

“The present opportunity is not perfect by any means, but it is better than any other in recent years and we need to seize it. Israelis have waited too long for the security they desire and deserve, and Palestinians have waited too long amidst daily humiliations for the dignity of a Palestinian state.”

Rice’s remarks were greeted with silence.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you...

A bit of background information regarding the presumptive next Prime Minister of Israel, leaked with characteristic Israeli subtlety...

Tzipi Livni: terrorist-hunter secret of woman tipped to lead Israel

Tehran Times

They have opened up multiple routes from the Bekaa Valley, by seizing Druze villages in the Chouf.

www.guardian.co.uk

Despite calls for a ceasefire, Hizbullah fighters defeated militants loyal to Druze leader Waleed Jumblatt in clashes starting on Sunday night, gaining control of Niha, a village in the southern Chouf mountains, 25 miles south-east of Beirut.

Analysts said the village provides the Iranian-backed group, also an ally of Damascus, with a crucial link between its stronghold in the eastern Bekaa Valley and the coastal highway that leads to Hizbullah's bases in Beirut's southern suburbs.

"Hizbullah have shown they are not interested in unseating Jumblatt but rather opening a possible supply route between Bekaa and the southern suburbs," said Ousama Safa, director of Beirut's Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies. "They can now use the area as a second front, behind the Bekaa."

On Sunday Hizbullah fighters took over key positions in Aley, a Druze town north of the Chouf, which abuts the main Beirut-Damascus highway, giving them control of another key artery. Both Druze areas have since been turned over to the army, which has a longstanding agreement on military cooperation with Hizbullah over Israel.

Having largely pacified Beirut, they appear to be engaging the Druze:

Fighting in Mount Lebanon rages between pro and anti-government supporters

Meanwhile Sunday's Israeli Cabinet meeting was a celebration of the obvious:

"Everything that happens there is the responsibility of Hizbullah. The country is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant"

In the north of the country the Lebanese army stretched the meaning of the word "control" to the breaking point:

Army Takes Control of North Lebanon and give in to Hizballah demands in the South

Choice quote from the last link (above):

The opposition announced on Saturday it was ending its takeover of large swathes of west Beirut after the army revoked government measures aimed at curbing the group.

"The opposition welcomes the army's decision and will proceed with the withdrawal of all its armed elements so that control of the capital is handed over to the military," an opposition statement said.

The army earlier said it was overturning a government decision to reassign the head of Beirut airport security and to probe a Hizbullah telecommunications network -- measures that sparked the unrest.

For it's part, Agence France Presse is shocked to see that the Israeli Air Force is conducting reconnaissance over southern Lebanon:

Israeli Jets Violate Lebanese Skies

Yes, that's what is done before:

A. Dropping bombs
B. Firing missiles
C. Invading

(You may pick one or more of the above).

But not to worry:

Defense official: Israel not to get involved in Lebanon

And why would he lie?

OK, party's over: back to work.

To put it another way: the Palestinians need to get their sh*t together. Until they do their situation will not only not improve, it will likely worsen.

The real Nakba, By Shlomo Avineri

Steep Drop in Muslim and Arab Fertility Rates

Yoram Ettinger - Ynet

The UN Population Division says that the drop in Muslim and Arab fertility rates is the highest in the world. Over 25 years, Iranians have gone from an average of 10 children per woman to 1.8. The number of children per woman in Egypt is 2.5 and is 3 in Jordan. In Israel the fertility rate is 2.8. The annual number of Jewish births in Israel has risen 40% since 1995 (112,455 in 2007 compared to 80,400 in 1995), while the number of Israeli Arab births has steadied at 39,000.

Jerusalem Post

The Israel Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau head, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, believes that Israel is not facing a new eruption of war on its northern front.

Gilad said "the overseas publication of the fact that three Syrian divisions were called up is incorrect."

"Syria isn't interested in attacking Israel, and vice versa," he added.

Nothing to worry about.

Ha kol b'seder.

Believe.

Barak postpones German trip over mounting tension in North

Yaakov Katz, Jpost.com staff and Yaniv Berman , THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 2, 2008

Due to the increase in tensions in the north as well as in the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, The Jerusalem Post has learned, has decided to cancel a planned trip to Germany next week.

IDF - 26 March 2008, 18:39

In a joint IDF and ISA arrest operation overnight at the Bal'a village near Tulkarm, Omar Jabar, head of the Hamas terror organization in Tulkarm area, was arrested. Jabar has been sought since 2002 for his direct responsibility in carrying out the suicide attack at the "Park Hotel" in Netanya in Passover, March 27th 2002, in which 30 Israeli civilians were killed and 143 were injured.

"The implementation of this kind of operation during the Purim holiday is not symbolic; it only shows that the IDF and ISA do not rest nor relax for a moment when it comes to the defense of Israel's security," said Lieutenant Colonel Nir Bar-On. "The combat soldiers will continue to carry out operations so that Israeli civilians will be able to celebrate their holidays in peace and security."

Omar Jabar has been sought since 2002 for his direct responsibility in carrying out the suicide attack during the Passover holiday in the "Park Hotel" in Netanya on March of the same year. Jabar was responsible for recruiting the contact that dispatched the suicide bomber, introducing him to the head of the Hamas in Tulkarm at the time, Abed Sayad. Sayad admitted in his investigation that the connection with Jabar had already begun in 1994, when the two were imprisoned together. Since 2002, Jabar was directly involved in recruiting militants to Hamas secrete terror cells and in the past year was involved in their combat training.

In recent years, whilst hiding in the Tulkarm area villages, Jabar used his own family members to transfer encrypted messages to Hamas terror operatives, in order to lead the Hamas terror organization in Tulkarm, finance his and other militants' terrorist activity and purchase weapons.

Following clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip in January 2007, Jabar worked to establish and finance a Hamas operational cell in Tulkarm. He purchased weapons and recruited terror operatives, intended for the establishment of a Hamas cell similar to operational cells active in Gaza.

Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 24, 2008

Moshav Tzipori, in the Lower Galilee, is a microcosm of the history of the Land of Israel. A regional capital under King Herod, Tzipori was the seat of Jewish learning and the preservation of the Torah through some of the most tumultuous periods of Jewish history.

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, refugees from Jerusalem fled to the Galilean town. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who presided over the writing of the Mishna, or oral law, moved to Tzipori from Beit Shearim, and it was there that he codified the six books of the Mishna and died.

The Jews of Tzipori revolted against the Roman Emperor Constantine, refusing to accept Christianity and the city was destroyed. The Jews later returned during the Islamic period. On and off, for the next millennia, Jews settled, were forcibly removed and resettled the city several times under various conquerors of Israel.

During the 1948 War of Independence, the ancient city was the site of a major battle between the new Israel Defense Force and the neighboring Arab villages assisted by invading forces from Syria and Lebanon. The Arabs were routed. In 1949, Moshav Tzipori was founded.

LAST FRIDAY afternoon, the struggle for Jewish control of Tzipori, the Galilee and the Land of Israel as a whole continued on the ancient ground. On that quiet afternoon of Purim, under the blistering sun, three horses stood happily grazing in a field of shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the otherwise pastoral scene was that the horses belong to Arab squatters from the Kablawi clan. In recent years, the Kablawis have built themselves an illegal village of some 20 houses masquerading as storage containers on stolen Jewish National Fund land adjacent to Tzipori's fields. The horses, who entered through a hole cut into the field's fence, pranced about and ate, destroying the field that was painstakingly cultivated for the moshav's cattle herds.

The farmers and ranchers of the Galilee, like their counterparts in the Negev are at wits' end. Fearing Arab riots or political condemnation by the Israeli Left, Arab leaders, the Islamic Movement and their allies abroad, the police and the state prosecutors have simply stopped enforcing the laws against the Galilee and Negev Arabs. Surrounded by increasingly hostile and lawless Arab and Beduin villages, local Jews' livestock and crops are continuously plundered.

They are faced with three equally unacceptable options for contending with this state of affairs. They can do nothing and let their livelihood and lives' work be destroyed. They can pay protection money to Arab criminal gangs, who in exchange agree not to rob them. Or they can try to sell off their lands and abandon agriculture altogether.

The obvious recourse - filing a complaint with the police - is an exercise in futility. Thousands of complaints are filed each year. Almost none of them end in indictments or trials. Most of the files are closed by the police due to "lack of public interest."

IDF - 26 March 2008, 12:45

During a joint IDF and ISA operation that was carried out on January 15, 2008, IDF forces arrested Ibrahim Sayid Ibrahim Salem, age 23, a senior wanted PFLP operative, resident of the Balata R.C. in Nablus.

During his investigation, Ibrahim Salem admitted to being involved in numerous shooting attacks, and to activating explosive devices and a car bomb against IDF forces in the Nablus region in October of 2006.

Ibrahim Salem also confirmed that he was involved in a shooting attack against IDF forces on September 18, 2007 during which an IDF soldier, Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Haneman, was killed. Several additional senior wanted PFLP operatives took part in the attack, amongst them were Jad Hamidan and Majdi Mabruk, the latter was recently arrested. Ibrahim Salim also revealed that he, along with other PFLP operatives, was involved in the ongoing production of explosives at a hidden location in the Ein Beit Ilma R.C.

The investigation of Ibrahim Salem along with the investigation of other PFLP and Hamas operatives confirmed that these explosives were used for making explosive devices for detonation against IDF forces, sometimes with the use of cellular technology.

Ibrahim Salem's investigation revealed that he was also involved in recruiting suicide bombers for the PFLP and the Hamas terrorist organizations in Nablus. In the end, these particular suicide bombings were not carried out.

Ibrahim Salem was also involved in the planning of a terror attack, which was organized by Nihad Shakirat, an operative from the Hamas terrorist organization. Shakirat, who planned to use a suicide bomber recruited by Salem, was killed during an IDF operation on Yom Kippur, 2007. The terrorist attack was prevented due to a joint IDF and ISA operation.

No word on whether he took to banging a table with his shoe, but otherwise the performance was evidently highly reminiscent of the Cold War (when at one point Russian planned on attacking Israel directly).

'Russia set on Mideast parley, whether Israel likes it or not'

Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 26, 2008

Russia is determined to go ahead with an international Middle East conference in Moscow in June whether Israel likes it or not, government sources told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, summing up Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit here last week.

The sources characterized Lavrov's one-day visit last Thursday as "nasty," saying the Russian minister was agitated throughout his meetings with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres. He was, the sources said, in a slightly better mood during his talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

West Bank Palestinians Hooking Up to Israel's Electricity Grid

About 15,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are hooking up to Israel's electricity grid in 27 villages in the northern West Bank near Jenin under a joint Israeli-French program. A ceremony inaugurating the new connection took place Tuesday.

Power from Israel is also running a water reservoir, and connecting to Israel's electricity supply cuts water costs by a third.

...fortunately the haircut is optional.

Fitna is here:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103

jpost.com

The Syrian army has moved some 10,000 soldiers into five cities in the country's northern, Kurdish-dominated region, following violence over the weekend, which left three people dead. The killing occurred during celebration of the Kurdish New Year - Nowruz - in the city Qameshli close to the border with Turkey, according to several local news sources.

The "International Solidarity Movement" specialized in providing cover for Palestinian terrorists, and routinely attempts to disrupt Israeli counter-terrorism operations.

Iraq war protesters disrupt Chicago Mass

CHICAGO - Six Iraq war protesters disrupted an Easter Mass on Sunday, shouting and squirting fake blood on themselves and parishioners in a packed auditorium.

Three men and three women startled the crowd during Cardinal Francis George's homily, yelling "Even the Pope calls for peace" as they were removed from the Mass by security guards and ushers.

One Mass attendee, Mike Wainscott of Chicago, yelled at the anti-war protesters.

"Are you happy with yourselves?" he said. "There were kids in there. You scared little kids with your selfish act. Are you happy now?"

The group, which calls itself Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, said in a statement after the arrests that they targeted the Holy Name Cathedral on Easter to reach a large audience, including Chicago's most prominent Catholic citizens and the press, which usually covers the services.

Kevin Clark of International Solidarity Movement told the Chicago Tribune that he attended the Mass to serve as a witness for the protesters.

"If Cardinal George is a man of peace and is walking the walk and talking the talk, he should have confronted George Bush and demanded an immediate end to the war," Clark said.

Speaking after the service, George said, "We should all work for peace, but not by interrupting the worship of God."

Police charged each of the six protesters with one count of felony criminal damage to property and two counts each of misdemeanor simple battery.

The six were scheduled to appear in bond court on Monday to face the felony charge, police said. They have court date set for March 31 on the misdemeanors.

naharnet.com

Syria has deployed three military divisions along the borders with Lebanon amidst mounting tension in the region, press reports said Sunday.

The leading daily an-Nahar attributed the report to well informed sources, noting that the deployment backs a similar massing of fighters by pro-Syrian Palestinian factions in the Bekaa valley, especially Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in the Qoussayah area.

It's not the conversion, per se.

It's the conversion, on Easter weekend, of a Muslim, at the Vatican, immediately after the release of bin Laden's message condemning the Pope and Crusaders generally.

Pope baptizes prominent Italian Muslim

John C. Drake, Boston Globe - March 17, 2008

Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at the off-campus apartment of an Israeli emissary who works with Jewish students at Brown University early Saturday, an attack the FBI is investigating as a potential hate crime.

No one was hurt in the attack. One of the devices crashed through a window but did not explode, and a second one glanced off the side of the building and ignited a small fire in the yard, police said.

The apparent target of the attack is one of 500 emissaries worldwide of the Jerusalem-based Jewish Agency for Israel, a nonprofit whose goal is to connect Jewish people with Israel, said a spokesman for the organization. The victim is also the Israel fellow on the staff of Hillel, a Jewish student group serving Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Brown University said it was providing support to the employee. In a statement released yesterday, university officials said authorities had no suspects and no motives for the attack.

"This is the first time that a Jewish Agency emissary has been attacked in America, either criminal or political," Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the organization, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"There's no nexus to terrorism," said Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the Boston field office of the FBI.

"We would look at it as a potential hate crime."

When they parade his carcass about the town, wrapped in a Hizballah flag.

Next!