Anne has a wonderful post about Shavuot. So I’ll send you there.

For my non-Jewish readers, Shavuot is when we celebrate receiving the Torah.

I went to Shavuot services last night, which coincided with the graduation of our tenth graders from religious school. I saw a lot of people I don’t see very often. It was nice. Ice cream cake for the oneg sufficed nicely for the dairy tradition. I was glad, because sorry, David, I don’t like cheesecake.

Chag sameach!

I’ve had a craving for them all day. Since last night, in fact.

I have no idea what I’m having for dinner, but I can tell you that fresh-made fried potatoes are going to be on the menu. I suspect I’m building up to another batch of potato-chip making. That won’t happen ’til tomorrow, though. The best chips are made after soaking in cold water in the fridge overnight. My potato chip recipe, for those of you who are curious.

Diet? What diet? No, that must be some other Meryl on a diet.

Yum.

“So, Prince Abdul, will you choose Bachelorette Number One, Bachelorette Number Two, or Bachelorette Number Three?”

“I take all three!”

Two Egyptians are dead after a gunfight with IDF soldiers on the border. The facts are not yet in, but there are two versions of the story circulating. One is that it was terrorists dressed as Egyptian officers. The other is that it really was Egyptian officers. The press, of course, is headlining nearly every story as “Egyptians killed by Israeli soldiers” with zero context whatsoever.

Ynet appears to have the most accurate and up-to-date news:

Two Egyptian policemen were killed Friday morning in a fire incident with the Israel Defense on the Israel-Egypt border, near Mount Sagi.

At first, IDF officials believed that the two were terrorists dressed as Egyptian security personnel, but Israeli security forces later confirmed that the two were Egyptian police officers.

Armor Corps spotted three men wearing Egyptian uniforms infiltrating Israel from Egypt on the central part of the border. The gunmen opened fire and attacked the soldiers. The troops fired back, killing two of the terrorists, while the third one fled back to Egypt.

Army officials estimated the policemen had planned to hurt the soldiers and then continue toward one of the roads and carry out a shooting attack at Israeli vehicles.

An IDF soldier was lightly wounded in the incident. Two Kalashnikov rifles, nine matching magazines and a communicator were found near the terrorists’ bodies.

Major Assaf Shatskin of the Armors Corps told Ynet: “A force from the battalion stood at the observation post not far from the border. At around 6.00 a.m. the soldiers spotted three terrorists crossing the border. They opened fire at the force. The force quickly responded, took cover, shot at them, hit two of them while the third one escaped. The soldiers later patrolled the area in order to make sure that there are no other terrorists.”

So it seems that this was a terrorist attack by Egyptians. And of course, the AP spins it as negatively as possible for Israel. Take this AP lead:

JERUSALEM Jun 2, 2006 (AP)— Two Egyptian security officers were killed Friday in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops after crossing the border into Israel, Israeli and Egyptian security officials said.

Israeli military officials said three Egyptian security officers fired at soldiers after crossing several yards into Israel. The Israeli troops returned fire, killing two of the Egyptians, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss such matters with reporters.

Although technically correct, the lead would reflect the situation more fairly if the first paragraph were completely eliminated. Notice how the AP can’t bring itself to admit that the Egyptian officers crossed the border into Israel and fired weapons at the IDF soldiers in a clear attempt to kill them. The “exchange of fire” occurred because the Egyptians were violating the border. While carrying guns. And shooting.

Astonishingly, Reuters is almost even-handed in its report, waiting until mid-story to give the official Egyptian view:

Egyptian security sources identified the two dead men as Egyptian policemen, who had been shot after wandering into Israeli territory by mistake while on patrol. The sources had no details of a third man, but added that the dead men were armed.

These, of course, are the same Egyptian sources who regularly say that the terrorists who blow up Egyptian tourist spots are lone, crazy people, and not part of an organized terrorist movement.

My take on it: Go with the Ynews version. They’re usually pretty accurate.

Bilin, the town of a zillion spellings, has again been invaded by “anti-fence protesters.” Once again, the ISM has violated its claim to be a peaceful, nonviolent organization. Unless you define the word “nonviolence” to exclude throwing stones and charging barricades.

Six protestors, two of them Israelis, were wounded Friday afternoon in clashes with security forces during an anti-fence demonstration at the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah.

A Border Guard officer was lightly wounded after demonstrators hurled stones at him.

Between 200 to 300 Palestinians, left-wing activists and international peace activists took part in the weekly demonstration against the separation fence at Bilin. IDF officials said that the soldiers began dispersing the protestors using crowd dispersal means after they violated a closed military zone order and rioted in the area.

According to the army, the protestors tried to break through a vehicle barricade set up by the Border Guard in an attempt to approach the separation fence and hid behind Palestinian ambulances. IDF officials added that no demonstrators were arrested.

The officials also claimed that the protestors hurled stones at the forces and tried to climb on Border Guard jeeps.

And hey, look who else took part in the “peaceful” protest:

Hadash Chairman, MK Mohammad Barakeh, also took part in the demonstration, along with several Palestinian parliament members and senior officials, including Dr. Mustaffa Barghouti and Seri Nusseibeh.

Brought to you each week by: The International Solidarity Movement, which is funded in part by Hamas, Fatah, and other terrorist organizations.