First the headline read “Hamas charter mentions armed struggle, but not Israel’s destruction.”

Now the headline reads “Hamas’ platform pushes for armed fight.”

The article remains pretty much the same, and incredibly clueless.

Hamas published its official platform for the upcoming Palestinian elections, which proved to be more moderate than either its 1988 charter or public statements made by its leaders throughout the ensuing years.

It’s the biggest case of “LaLaLaIcan’tHEARyou” I’ve seen yet in the Israeli press.

(more…)

There is simply no dignified way to adjust a wedgie.

The president of Iran, known here and at Dave’s as Gorilla Boy, is going to convene a conference explicitly for Holocaust denial. Watch for David Duke and David Irving to show. Oh, wait. Irving can’t show. He’s in an Austrian prison.

Deborah Lipstadt, who won the libel suit Irving brought against her, thinks Irving should be set free. I’m torn on this one, because Holocaust denial is more than a speech issue, as Gorilla Boy is showing us. The entire Arab world is using Irving’s books as proof that the Holocaust never happened, and passing on the lie of “European Jewish colonists” forming the state of Israel.

If more Holocaust deniers were imprisoned, there would be far fewer published lies.

However, I predict a big turnout for Gorilla Boy’s Adventures in Jew-Hatred. Lipstadt is wrong about the effect of the lies fading.

“I am not interested in debating with Holocaust deniers,” she says. “You wouldn’t ask a scientist to debate with someone who thinks the Earth is flat. They are not historians, they are liars. Debating them would be nonsensical.

“But we also should not allow them to become martyrs. Nothing is served by having David Irving in a jail cell, except that he has become an international news issue.

“Let him go home and let him continue talking to six people in a basement.

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If I don’t make it into the finals, I will be very crabby. Okay, not really. But I’d like to be in the finals.

The Prime Minister is breathing nearly entirely on his own.

Things I read somewhere yesterday: He shows signs of recognizing his sons’ voices, and they’re playing his favorite music.

The politics have returned: Likud is fighting to have the Acting PM chosen from their ranks. Things will be back to normal, politically, fairly soon, I think–with Ehud Olmert running the country.

And in a fact reminiscent of post-9/11 America: Crime is down 50% since Sharon’s stroke.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld did not provide figures or give a breakdown of different offenses but said that since Sharon was rushed to Jerusalem crime had halved nationwide.

“It’s hard to explain, but since the prime minister became ill there seems to have been a change in people’s behavior patterns, their way of thinking,” Rosenfeld said.

Hey, even criminals can be patriots.

Y’know, I could have told them this, even without access to all the information that the Israeli intelligence services have.

The security establishment painted a grim picture of the aftermath of the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections, warning that a strong Hamas victory would lead to the total destruction of the Palestinian Authority, the only body Israel has been able to negotiate with. Security officials warned that the new situation will have severe repercussions on future dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.

Describing the “no-win situation” Israel will be forced to reckon with, security officials declared that a significant Hamas win may spur Fatah factions to stir up trouble and resort to violence, perceiving the move as the only way to serve its interests and reach Hamas’s level of popularity. “Everything achieved by Israel and the PA in the past will be lost,” a security official said Tuesday.

The war is coming. I’m now modifying my predictions. If the world decides to take action against Syria or Iran, count on Hezbullah, Al Qaeda, and Hamas to pitch in by attacking Israel. Prior to that, there will be an increase in suicide bombings and other attacks.

Israel will not be building a Christian tourism complex in the Galilee with Pat Robertson’s funding.

Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson has shunned US evangelical leader Pat Robertson shortly before the two were to sign a major funding deal for the Galilee Christian Heritage Center after Robertson suggested that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was a punishment from God for the Gaza Strip withdrawal, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

“The minister has very strong views on this and cannot accept what was said,” Tourism Ministry spokesman Ido Hartuv said. “We reconsidered the deal and realized that we cannot sign with Robertson or anyone who supports his views.”

Hartuv stressed that this was an attack on Robertson and his comments rather than a rejection of the evangelical community as a whole, which has become a target group for Israeli tourism in 2006.

Well, yeah.

The AP picked up this story, too, and put their own spin on it. It’s subtle, and barely there, but this part doesn’t feel quite right:

Israel was considering leasing the land to the Christians for free. Hirschson predicted it would draw up to 1 million pilgrims annually who would spend $1.5 billion in Israel and support about 40,000 jobs.

Hirschson, however, is one of Sharon’s biggest supporters, and a member of the centrist Kadima party recently founded by the prime minister.

What’s with the “however”? If anyone can figure out what it’s doing there, I’d love to know.