No, it’s not going to be an episode summary, but gee, Lost was good tonight. Just when you think they’ve gotten predictable, they go and get unpredictable on you.

Of course, if Drew wants to put up an episode summary for us, that’d be cool. I really liked Kate’s “Shall I go get a ruler?” bit, but it wasn’t nearly as good as Lorelai on the Gilmore Girls saying, ” Just wanted to make sure you two were finished swinging those things around. Someone’s bound to lose an eye.”

And by the way, I know it’s called “Television Without Pity,” but man, doesn’t anybody who actually likes the shows do the summaries? Because I checked out one of my all-time favorite Gilmore Girl episodes there, and now I want to beat up the summary writer. But I digress.

So, I’m guessing my buds with the HDTV and the DVD-R did a lot of frame-by-frame dissecting of the blast doors in the black light scenes. Like, wow, man. Black light. Dude! Pass the joint, you’ve had it long enough!

Meryl has already reported here and here on the Katyusha appearance in the arsenal of at least one gang from the “alphabet soup” of the various similar gangs in the Gaza strip.

Now Jihad Islami - the gang mentioned above - is boasting that they have more of these toys.

The Islamic Jihad, who on Tuesday morning fired for the first time a Katyusha rocket into Israel from the Gaza Strip, announced Wednesday that it has many more of those rockets, Army Radio reported.

The Katyusha rocket has twice the range of the primitive Kassam rocket, is more accurate and can carry more explosives.

An IDF officer called the use of Katyushas, “an escalation on the Gaza battlefield.”

Clearly the escalation the IDF officer mentions is what JI desire so much. Clearly, the Katyusha launches are not intended to win the war against IDF, just to get the escalation going.

Then JI and its friends will get the reason for a outcry in the media about the cruel and murderous IDF killing innocent citizens blah blah blah…

And the extreme right in Israel will get the reason for an outcry in the media about cruel and murderous terrorists blah blah blah…

And so on and so on…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

While reading this post, keep in mind this question: What do the following positions have in common? (There will be a quiz at the end.)

The leaders of Hamas and the Arab world were quick to jump in and acknowledge their willingness to work towards peace with Israel.

“I believe, regardless of who had won in the elections, the Zionist position altogether, particularly that of the three parties (Kadima, Labor and Likud), is hostile toward Palestinian rights and insists on liquidating it and wiping it out,” Khaled Mashaal told The Associated Press in Damascus, Syria.

Mashaal said all the top Israeli parties refuse the following Palestinian demands: to give up Arab parts of Jerusalem, to withdraw to the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, to grant Palestinian refugees the right of return, and to dismantle main Jewish settlements.

“Consequently, the Zionist position, be it that of Kadima or others, is one that buries the peace process, negates its existence and does not give it a chance. That position is a declaration of war against the Palestinian people,” he added.

The Arab League showed its complete willingness to work with the Jewish State:

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters at the annual Arab summit in Khartoum, Sudan, that it was doubtful the elections would bring anything new.

“The Arab world must study all its options. Because it is absolutely out of the question to accept … unilateral withdrawals according to Israeli whims. This just doesn’t work, and it can only worsen the situation,” Moussa said.

Mahmoud Abbas, who has managed to become even more irrelevant now than when Yasser Arafat lay dying of AIDS in a French hospital, agrees:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also at the summit, said the results would have little effect on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unless Olmert changes his policies. “We want negotiations and not to dictate unilateral solutions,” he said.

Syria chimes in with its willingness to negotiate with Israel:

“We were expecting (the election results),” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said in Sudan. “But it’s important to have a comprehensive withdrawal from the lands occupied in 1967.”

Not to be outdone, the Egyptians (is their ambassador back in Israel yet? The one they withdrew in 2002 over the lie of the Jenin “massacre”?) discuss their position on how valuable it is to negotiate with the nations you need to make peace:

“The coming Israeli government must stay away from unilateral measures and move toward peace according to the Arab initiative,” he said.

And of course, Hamas, the newly-elected leaders of the palestinian people, get the last word:

Hamas opposes peace talks and has rejected international calls to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told Al-Jazeera television that he also opposed Olmert’s withdrawal plan. “Such a plan definitely won’t be accepted by the Palestinian people or the Palestinian government,” he said.

Do we all see the commonality? That’s right, kiddies. All of the Arabs insist that by “negotiations,” they mean, “Israel does what we say, period,” and by “unilateral,” they mean, “Anything that Israel does is unilateral, anything that we do is negotiation.”

What time is it? Yes, it’s Israeli Double Standard Time, that unique phenomenon that exists, well, anytime Israel does just about anything.

They caught the kid with a bomb belt on.

The haredi Nahal unit of the IDF captured an 18-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt at the Beka’ot roadblock in the Jordan Valley on Wednesday afternoon.

The belt held approximately 10kg of explosives, Jordan Valley Battalion Commander Col. Moti Elmoz told Israel Radio.

Sappers were defusing the bomb.

It was still unclear which organization was responsible for the bombing attempt, Elmoz added.

Elmoz also mentioned that in an initial interrogation, the terrorist, who came from Nablus, had said that he just wanted to kill himself.

Wonderful. They picked another kid and brainwashed him.

Say, that’s the second terror attack a haredi unit has prevented in the last few days. You know, what with all the demonization of the haredi, I was starting to think they were all monsters or something.

No, not really. But I’ll leave that for the post I’m writing about religion and Jews.

Yes, really. For the most part, this BBC analysis of the current Israeli situation is — dare I say it — fair and balanced. Oh, there are the usual slaps against Israel, but they are minor, and the author even points out that the pals have elected a terrorist group to lead them.

There is little expectation of any progress towards a negotiated two-state solution - especially since Palestinians voted for a Hamas government in January, and the militant organisation does not even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

There is also the acknowledgement that the cessation of terror is an obligation that the pals have not fulfilled.

Palestinian officials, who oppose any withdrawal that entails consolidating Jewish settlements, may find there is little they can do to stop it - especially if their obligations under the international peace plan known as the roadmap, such as disarming militant groups, remain unfulfilled.

Look at this: It’s practically balanced!

Kadima says the ball is now in the Palestinians’ court to implement its obligations - otherwise the border-drawing will start without them.

The Palestinians’ only hope is that the rest of the world will baulk at forcing them to make - as they see it - further territorial compromises, beyond an acceptance of the West Bank and Gaza as their future state.

Wow. What’s happening to the BBC?