The IDF report is out officially tomorrow, but the Jerusalem Post is writing about it now:

The IDF probe investigating the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians, caused by an explosion on a beach in Gaza on Friday evening, concluded that chances were slim that the accident was caused by IDF shelling.

According to Channel 2, the findings, expected to be formally released on Tuesday, showed an inconsistency between the shrapnel found in the body of one of the wounded babies and the metal used in IDF artillery.

Moreover, the investigation noted the absence of a large enough crater at the site of the explosion, as would be expected if an IDF shell had landed there.

The third observation casting doubt on the possibility of IDF shelling was the gap between the time when the army shot the artillery and when the commotion on the beach began. According to the probe’s findings, several minutes past after the shelling, before the Palestinians on the beach reacted.

[...] The leading theory currently entertained, suggested that an explosive charge, buried by Palestinians on the Gaza beach to prevent Israeli infiltration, was behind the explosion.

Throughout the whole investigation, army officials complained about the lack of Palestinian cooperation. Unconfirmed reports further suggested attempts by Palestinians to remove shrapnel from the bodies of the wounded, treated in Israeli hospitals, thus impeding the investigation.

You won’t see this, or you will see a completely downplayed version, complete with quotes from palestinian spokesliars insisting the Israelis are lying, in the mainstream media.

The world has spoken: Blame the Jews.

I’d outlaw the World Cup soccer tournament. Just to piss off all those soccer fans out there.

No, just kidding.

I’d ignore it, just as I do now.

Just to prove that there are options other than bullets and ballot boxes, Fateh loyalists have set fire to a Cabinet building in the Parliament complex of Ramallah.

Hundreds Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas went on a violent rampage against the Hamas-led government Monday night, riddling the parliament and Cabinet buildings with bullets to protest an attack against their comrades in the Gaza Strip by Hamas gunmen.

The security men shot out the windows of the parliament before storming the two-building Cabinet complex, where they smashed furniture, destroyed computers and scattered documents. No casualties were reported. But the mob set fire to one of the Cabinet buildings, causing heavy damage as flames quickly spread.

“Every time they touch one of ours in Gaza, we will get ten of theirs in the West Bank,” said one member of the Preventive Security force, which is loyal to Abbas’ Fatah movement. Dozens of gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a pro-Fatah militia, joined the security men.

I’ve got a few bucks in my pocket… how can I donate a few gallons of gasoline?

Okay, okay… that’s cruel. (How about weenies and marshmallows?)

UPDATE:

Fateh members have reportedly kidnapped a Hamas MK.

No no no, folks - it’s not Jim Moran of Virginia.

UPDATE:

The Hamas MK, Khalil Rabai, has been released.

This is when the film goes slo-mo and “Born Free” is sung.

One of the functions of WordPress is the ability to click on a link and see your Technorati referrers from the dashboard. From time to time, I’ve noticed that Technorati has been the victim of referrer spam, or fake-blog referrer spam. Spammers now set up hundreds or thousands of blogs via Blogspot (until they get caught and Blogspot deletes the faux blogs) or other free blog services, and fill these fakes blogs with with posts (mostly meaningless), blogrolls and archives.

My Technorati rating has jumped about 1,000 ranks due to Blogspot blog referrer spam, from the likes of such blogs as TallBasin, AwakeRiver, HealthyBoot, CompleteBoat, Quietdrop, and my current favorite, Poly Septic Tank. (That last isn’t a Blogspot blog.) There are also PoliticalBucket, EarlyHair, MixedWhistle, GreenCollar, and the evil-sounding DarkOffice. (Or maybe there was a power outage.)

These names are so great. DelicateChess. RightArch. CupForest. FalsePotato. FatWindow. PresentBaby. To counteract DarkOffice, we have GoodChest. (Not sure if they mean furniture or Dolly Parton.) And AngryTooth, obviously a candidate for a root canal. Or a lefty with a speech impediment.

CheapBasket, GreatOffice, NarrowJewel, SadIsland, ProbableWall, BrightMarble — is it just me, or are these starting to sound like neat names for, um, something. CommonDrawer, FeebleNose, IllWall — somebody was feeling crabby during those blog namings.

I could go on. There are hundreds of them. But you get the idea, and, well, I’m tired of typing the weird blog names.

I’d notify Technorati, but, well, I haven’t been very fond of their blog ranking system since they decided to take away sidebar links as an indicator of a blog’s popularity. Gee, no, why would you think a permanent blogroll link would mean that people, you know, read the blog? Their reasoning? To give the newer bloggers a chance. As a result, I dropped like a stone in the rankings, as people seem to read my blog without linking it on a regular basis (but my referrers from sidebar blogrolls continue to increase).

Besides, I’m getting a kick out of my profile being raised by spammers. I’m not paying for it. I didn’t ask for it. I’m just laughing about it.

Shire Network News is up. My portion this week discusses the demise of Zarqawi, and where most people think he’s gone.

There will be a change in my podcasting duties sometime in the near future. Tom Paine will not be able to keep hosting Shire Network News, and it’s not something that I’m able to do, either. It takes up a lot of time, and I don’t have that time to spare.

That being said, Tom is looking for someone who’d like to take over the hosting duties. Were you on your college radio station or newspaper? Did you enjoy it? Want to get some of that fun back in your life? Then click the link in this post and send Tom an email.

I can’t say what will happen to my podcasting career if SNN goes away. I haven’t thought that far ahead.

Abbas’ thugs shot at Fateh offices, so they fired back and killed a Hamasshole, and Hamas responds by rocketblasting a nest full of Abbas’ supporters:

Earlier in the day, Hamas gunmen, attending the funeral of a colleague killed in a previous exchange with the rival Fatah party, which is headed by Abbas, opened fire on the offices of the Fatah-dominated security force.

Officers fired back, hitting a gunman from Hamas’ own militia, who died on his way to the hospital.

…

Palestinian gunmen from the ruling Hamas party fired rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank rockets Monday at the Gaza headquarters of a security force loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, witnesses said.

The rockets blasted holes in the building used by the preventive security service in the southern town of Rafah. At least two people were wounded.

Will this be spliced into that overall “Cycle Of Violence” the AP and Reuters keeps talking about, or is this an entirely separate Cycle being spun up?

Amos Harel writes an analysis of the coming Hamas offensive. The most interesting part of it:

The first decision to break the hudna came earlier this month. One contributing factor was the Hamas argument that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ call for a referendum over the Prisoners’ Document must be neutralized.

At first, the military wing of Hamas operated under cover of the Resistance Committees in Gaza, which obtained rockets from Hamas ammunition stores to fire at Israel. After last Friday’s incident on the beach in northern Gaza in which seven members of the Ghalia family were killed, Hamas decided to launch an open offensive against Israel. Hamas is also refusing to cooperate with Israel on its comprehensive investigation into the beach incident, and has collected various objects from the site of the explosion.

The decision had already been made. Hamas had been working with the PRC and PIJ, as has been pointed out here and elsewhere. The Gaza Beach incident (which may have been a work accident, and not the result of Israeli shells) was simply the excuse, just as Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount was simply the excuse made to launch the already-planned second “intifada.”

So who made the decisions?

An analysis of the situation leads to the conclusion that the decision to launch the offensive was made by Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based political leader of Hamas, and the Gaza-based heads of the organization’s military wing. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, also of Hamas, was informed of the decision and did not object to it.

Perhaps Lair Simon should make a new Bingo card, and put the palestinian leadership on it. The clock is ticking.

And no, you won’t read a word about this in any mainstream newspaper. They simply don’t care about the Israeli side.

Let’s take a look at how the media is spinning Hamas’ renewal of terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. From Canada:

Israel, Hamas escalate hostilities with weekend attacks
JERUSALEM — Israel and Hamas, the Islamic movement that now controls the Palestinian Authority, exchanged fire throughout the day yesterday as the two sides edged closer to full hostilities.

Hamas ended a 16-month truce and resumed rocket attacks against Israel over the weekend after a series of Israeli strikes on Thursday and Friday left 16 people dead, including a senior Palestinian Authority official Israel said was a wanted “terrorist.”

Four Israelis were hurt yesterday, one critically, as seven homemade Qassam rockets, most of them claimed by Hamas, fell on the southern town of Sderot. Two Hamas militants were killed in an Israeli air strike yesterday on the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas, which in the 4½ years before the truce was responsible for a wave of suicide bombings in Israeli cities that killed hundreds of people, threatened to turn Sderot, on the edge of the Gaza Strip, into a “ghost town.”

Note the moral equivalence: Hamas’ attacks on civilians are equated with Israel’s attacks on the terrorists who are making the attacks. Note the scare quotes around terrorist, and, of course, the headline — “escalate hostilities,” as if Hamas has the right to drop bombs on Israeli schools.

Thanks, Canada! Good to know you’ve got an unbiased media up there, eh?

And let’s not forget, this article is brought to you by the land of CUPE, the union that schedules a vote on divesting from Israel on the Jewish Sabbath, thus making sure no religious Jews will vote against it. I guess the multiculturalism only goes so far. Or — wait, I almost forgot. It’s the Exception Clause. (That’s where you add the phrase, “Except for Israel” to any statement, like, “Canada is a multicultural nation and respects all other nations.” The corollary is “Except for Jews.”)

No, it’s not surprising. And it’s not new.

The subhumans known as palestinian terrorists shot and killed an Israeli Arab in a terrorist attack, and wounded four more. Not that they care.

An East Jerusalem resident, 35, was killed and four Arab Israelis were wounded between the Atarot checkpoint and the Ofer army base north of Jerusalem Sunday night in a shooting attack which officials suspect was terror related.

The victims’ vehicle came under gunfire from the direction of the Shadra village late Sunday. Large army forces, Magen David Adom medics and police arrived on the scene. Forces provided initial medical treatment for the wounded and began immediately to investigate the circumstances of the shooting.

Ha’aretz says the terrorists thought they were killing Jews.

IDF believe that the gunman mistook the victim for an Israeli citizen because of Israeli license plates on the vehicle.

Of course, this, and other Arab-on-Arab murder, gets utterly downplayed by the media, as do the victims of palestinian terror attacks. But if Israel screws up (and we’re not sure that’s what happened, as apparently Hamas cleared the scene of all evidence and the PA is refusing to cooperate with Israeli investigators), the world cannot wait to crucify Israel.