Every Friday, “peace activists” demonstrate against the separation fence in Bi”lin. And every Friday, soldiers or police officers are hurt by “peace activists” throwing stones at them. This Friday, right on schedule:

Earlier Friday, three Border Guard officers and another policeman were wounded after being stoned in Bil’in, West of Ramallah. The army said about 150 Palestinian and left-wing activists violated a military order and demonstrated against the construction of the West Bank security fence. The protesters began stoning the troops when asked to leave the site, the army said.

Forces at the scene responded with crowd dispersal means in order to push the rioters away. The army said several masked youths continued hurling stones at troops. The protesters said seven of them were wounded by rubber-coated bullets and blows delivered by policemen.

Friday, I would point out, is the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, a day on which Jews the world over pray for peace.

This is the sound of a shark jumping, although I think the shark had already begun the leap in this season of the Gilmore Girls:

NEW YORK - The popular WB series “Gilmore Girls” will have to continue without the husband-and-wife team that has been its creative force since the beginning.

Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino said Thursday they will leave as executive producers following the end of this season, its sixth. The show’s production company said “Gilmore Girls” will continue next season with Dave Rosenthal, who has been a writer-producer there, running things.

The WB is closing up shop this fall, but “Gilmore Girls” is expected to move to the new CW network, which is a combination of the current WB and UPN networks.

“Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of `Gilmore Girls’ for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of the season,” the Palladinos said in a statement.

They wanted a two-year extension, and the CW said no.

But I have been unhappy with the show for the past month or two. Oh, well. All good things come to an end.

Interestingly, in a town without a single Christian, palestinian Muslims have found a way to persecute Christians. Of course, this is a phenomenon that Jews have seen throughout the ages. But it’s a new twist to see it in a Muslim town. And, oh yeah — so much for that much-vaunted Muslim tolerance of other faiths. They want the YMCA in a town that is now all-Muslim shut down.

Islamic religious leaders in this city have signed a petition calling on the new Hamas cabinet to shut down the local YMCA under the pretext that it is involved in “missionary activities.” The Hamas-controlled municipality has expressed its support for the call.

The campaign against the YMCA began earlier this week when arsonists set fire to some of its offices.

[...] The petition against the YMCA was signed by Sheikh Salah Eddin Sabri, the mufti of Kalkilya, more than 40 mosque imams, representatives of the municipality and clan leaders and officials from various Islamic institutions.

“The presence of such an organization in Kalkilya will create many problems and spread dissension,” they wrote. “How can there be such an organization in a city which does not even have one Christian living in it?”

Residents of the city told The Jerusalem Post the campaign against the YMCA had been initiated by local Hamas leaders. “We want the YMCA here,” said Ahmed Nazzal, a high school teacher. “The presence of such organizations in the city will only benefit the young people. Not everyone here agrees with Hamas’s drive to kick out the YMCA.”

Hey. You elected them. You knew they stood for Islamic law over civil law. Now it’s time to pay the piper, and don’t be surprised if the pipe is included in the bill.

I simply cannot describe AbbaGav’s version of the Dating Game, except to tell you that it features Condi Rice, Moammar Gaddafi, Baby Assad, and the president of Iran known in these pages as Monkey Boy.

Omri has some more thoughts on the rumored Gaza invasion.

Aaron’s site was hacked by Muslims who don’t like what he has to say about them. First Amendment, dudes. It rulez!11!

That being said, Aaron’s got guts. And hopefully, he’s armed.

Elder of Zion points out that for a people in crisis, the pals sure know how to spend money on some things.

Judeosphere on yet another analysis, this time in Salon, of the Walt-Mearsheimer paper. NPR covered it this morning, thus forcing me to lose ten more minutes of sleep by not turning on the snooze alarm when I heard the name “Elliot Cohen.”

So what does SnoopyTheGoon do when he’s not cross-posting here? A lot. For instance, in this post, he’s trying to give women a reason to put him on our hate mail list. (No, I really don’t have one. I swear I don’t. And any email titled U R A PIG!!! did not come from me.)

Okay, so I laughed. But that’s beside the point.

Soccer Dad resumes his “If… you must” linkfest.

And Vital Perspective’s got, well, tons of perspectives. Go scroll down.

I suppose I should offer up Nardo and the yellow mousey as a substitute.

Nardo absconded with a bunch of toys yesterday, and I’ve been posting sequences here and there among the sites I contribute to. This site will be no different:

Okay, Meryl. As the wise man once said: “I’ve shown mine. Time to show yours.”

You can find more examples of Friday catblogging by searching a blog search engine such as Technorati for “catblogging.”

You can also find a roundup of catblogging posts at The Friday Ark, located at The Modulator blog. Then, when the weekend is nearly over, head over to The Carnival of the Cats for more kitty goodness. There’s also a Flikr Group called Furry Friday.

Add to that Weekend Catblogging at Eatstuff.

Anybody I miss?

Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying that Hamas must condemn suicide bombings (shyeah, that’ll happen). I read through it with great interest, finding all the right words, and thinking that finally, finally, HRW had gotten it right.

Human Rights Watch called on the Palestinian government led by the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, to state unambiguously that attacks targeting civilians constitute grave crimes no matter what the circumstances. The Palestinian Authority must take concrete steps to prevent such attacks and bring those responsible for them to justice.

“In forming a government, Hamas took on the responsibility to prevent unlawful attacks against civilians by its own forces and other Palestinian armed groups as well,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division.

Great stuff! Unequivocally telling Hamas what to do! Yes, HRW, you’ve finally got it!

Well, no, they don’t. The news release ends with this:

Under international law, neither self-defense nor violations by an adversary can ever justify attacks that target civilians. Even in the face of Israeli violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, Palestinian armed groups have a duty to refrain from reprisals against civilians, and the Palestinian government has a responsibility to try to prevent such reprisals and punish those who engage in them.

Because of course, HRW couldn’t possibly condemn palestinian atrocities without also blaming Israel for something.

The news services are all a-quiver with a quote from an Israeli general that says Israel is preparing to re-occupy the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM - In a growing barrage of Israeli pressure against Hamas, a senior military commander said Israel is actively preparing to reoccupy the Gaza Strip and a powerful lawmaker said the entire Palestinian Cabinet could be targeted for assassination after the appointment of a wanted militant to head a new security force.

Officials said there were no immediate plans to strike at the Hamas-led government. But the comments reflected rising Israeli impatience with the Islamic militant group, which has refused to renounce violence, defended a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv this week and failed to halt militant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

“If the price we have to pay becomes unreasonable as a result of increased attacks, then we shall have to take all steps, including occupying the Gaza Strip,” Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, head of Israel’s southern command, told the Maariv daily.

Right now, it’s a war of words. I’m of the opinion that a full re-occupation of Gaza is not going to happen. I wouldn’t lay odds, however, against a major incursion to take out various terrorist areas.