This article in Ha’aretz, titled “U.S. voices disapproval of PM’s warnings on Hamas,” has absolutely no accreditation to the lead paragraph:

The United States announced Saturday that it disapproves of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s statement that Israel will not allow Palestinian elections to take place in the West Bank if Hamas participates in them.

If anyone can find a cite for this, I’d appreciate it. Because right now, it’s an utterly misleading headline. The article is about Sharon insisting that Israel will not help Hamas get elected.

Watch for the world to say, “How dare you stop the election of an organization that wants to destroy you?”

The palestinians already are:

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said any Israeli interference would only hurt Abbas and strengthen Hamas.

“I urge the Israelis to stay out of our elections and our internal affairs, and not to put their noses in this,” Erekat said. “Our election … will be a turning point toward political pluralism and toward maintaining law and order.”

Mohammed Ghazal, a Hamas leader in the West Bank, accused Israel of acting in an undemocratic fashion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Undemocratic. Not like, say, rousting out “collaborators” and executing them in the streets, right?

Uh-huh.

Meryl Yourish comments on a post by Protein Wisdom’s “Jeff” arguing that, since Ilyka Damen called him a sexist and is now misrepresenting what he really said, she is on the same level as Muslims in Britain who are bullying Burger King into changing its ice cream cone packaging.

Meryl: “Thinnnnnnnnest skin in the blogosphere.”*

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update: “Which reminds me, did I ever tell you that Lair Simon played you like, oh, a cat plays a mouse?”

The border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is under control—for now.

In the heady hours after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last week, thousands of Palestinians bypassed the terminal and stormed the border wall, visiting long lost relatives, buying cases of cheap cigarettes or just enjoying a brief vacation along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. Some smuggled weapons into Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

Egyptian and Palestinian border guards repeatedly failed in their efforts to end the chaos and close the border.

On Sunday, all the gaps in the 10-mile border wall were finally sealed, and 2,000 security personnel fanned out across the border, effectively closing it, said Adnan Barbach, a spokesman for the Palestinian National Security Forces.

The Palestinians were working with Egypt to make sure that the people who had previously scrambled over the border could return home, he said.

“The chaos that existed here is over,” Abbas said after touring the now-quiet border.

Really? Are you sure?

Palestinian police were seen patrolling the border road Sunday. With breaches in the border wall sealed, angry Palestinians were forced to turn back, threatening to return with Hamas militants and homemade rockets.

One can only hope.

Rick Richman is someone who belongs on my blogroll, and, well, I can’t read everything on the web, so folks, help me out here. Tell me when you read sites like this so I can link to them.

Heck, tell me in the comments to this post.

A guy who can write like this should have been on my blogroll ages ago.

Do I need to tell you to go read?

Haveil Havalim #37 is up, and it’s more Jewblogging than you’re going to get here today. Just reading the synopses makes it look excellent; don’t miss it.

This spot is reserved for the Carnival of the Cats, which is being hosted by Watermark this week. (I’m hosting it next week; what was I thinking?)