The deadline the terrorists gave Israel is up in less than 15 minutes. So far, Olmert is standing fast and refusing to negotiate.

Israel will not negotiate a prisoner exchange deal with the Hamas government, the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement Monday. “The Israeli government will not give in to blackmail by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, led by murderous terror organizations. We will hold no negotiations over the release of prisoners,” the statement said, rejecting an ultimatum issued by three Palestinian factions.

“The Palestinian Authority bears full responsibility for Gilad Shalit’s wellbeing and for his safe and healthy return to Israel,” the
statement stressed.

I’ll be up for a while and keeping an eye on things. I don’t think the terrorists will kill Gilad Shalit just yet. He’s too valuable to them. But then, you can never tell what those warped subhumans will do.

Update: Nothing’s happening, and I’m quite tired. See you in the morning.

Say, mainstream media, tell me again how Hamas is signing on to the two-state solution. Tell me again that they’re moderating. Go ahead. Lie to me. Because this is what they’re telling the Arab media.

“We are a nation which has been defeated, deprived and expelled from our lands, and we are operating to obtain what we deserve – what we had before 1948. Then there was no state called Israel. This occupation state was founded due to a United Nations decision. One can still see that all the UN rules apply to the weak side and not to the Israeli entity,” he said.

Oh, and he said this, too:

“The Jew who came to the land of Palestine is a murderer and an occupier and he is the one we fight, but we have no connection to the Jew living in his synagogue in Britain or America. If he comes here, we will fight him,” Jabri continued.

Jabri provided his vision regarding the future of the Hamas movement, saying: “We are a combat movement, which will safeguard its weapons until the liberation of the entire Palestine. Therefore, we will continue our operations until the liberation is completed.

Asked what will now happen to the West Bank following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, he added: “We will help our brothers in the West Bank as much as we can so that they are liberated like we in Gaza were liberated.”

If that isn’t moderate enough for you, there’s also this last little tidbit:

“Whichever defensive measures the enemy takes - we will get to them,” one member said.

“Gaza is only the beginning,” Izz el-Din el-Qassam spokesman Abu Obeida said.

Yep. Sounds to me like an organization that is totally on board with the two-state solution. Moderating influences, yup. Uh-huh. Sure.

C’mon, AP, Reuters, BBC, Guardian, Times, and WaPo: Lie to me.

Hey, guys, thanks for letting Mr. Bloodthirsty out. All he did was cause the murder of hundreds of Australians, but hey, a few years in jail and he’s a changed man, right?

Shyeah.

JAKARTA - A reputed leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group said Monday that Indonesia should send Islamic holy warriors to Israel to punish it for unleashing airstrikes in Palestinian territories.

“Israel is the enemy of Allah,” militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told hundreds of members of the Muslim-based Crescent Star Party in the capital Jakarta. “That is why Indonesia should send holy warriors there.”

I guess the good news is that Indonesians generally don’t look Israeli. Or Arab. Oh, wait. They look like the foreign workers that Israel imported after the palestinians kept murdering their bosses and coworkers.

And in the “Ya think?” category, the AP adds this redundant paragraph:

His release from prison last month raised concerns that he would energize Indonesia’s small, Islamic radical fringe by making impassioned speeches at rallies and mosques.

Tell us again how this guy isn’t a danger to anyone.

I didn’t say it. Ted Stevens, the Republican from Alaska who voted against Net Neutrality explains why he voted against net neutrality, and while he was at it, explained to us exactly what the internet is. I thought his explanation could use some illustrations, so I created a PowerPoint presentation to help Ted explain.

Ted, feel free to download my PowerPoint file and use it in future committee meetings.

For those of you who don’t have IE or PowerPoint, I’ll work on turning the presentation into images over the holiday.

Update: Patrick turned it into a series of images for me. Since he did the work, he gets the link. Thanks, guy.

Update 2: And now, for your viewing pleasure, an Adobe PDF file, thanks to several readers, but specifically, Nathan B., who sent me the smallest copy.

Have to conserve the bandwidth, y’know. All those fat guys in tubes are hogging it.

At first glance, this seems like a refreshingly fair editorial on the Gaza situation:

When Cpl. Gilad Shalit was abducted by the military wing of Mr. Haniyeh’s Hamas movement last weekend, his administration faced a choice. It could behave like a civilized government — and work to free the hostage — or align itself with a terrorist operation. It chose the latter. Hamas government officials endorsed the militants’ demand that Israel release Palestinian prisoners it has legally arrested in exchange for a soldier who was attacked while guarding Israeli territory. Hamas justified this position by citing the terrorist movement Hezbollah, which has extracted prisoners from Israel in exchange for hostages, as well as governments that exchange POWs in wartime.

Fair enough. But if Hamas wants to be equated with Hezbollah or define itself as at war with Israel, then Israel has every right to try to destroy the Islamic movement’s military capacity, to capture its leaders (it has arrested more than 60 since Wednesday, including eight cabinet ministers) and to topple its government. Isn’t that what happens in war?

[...] The restraint reflects recognition by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel stands only to lose if the Palestinian Authority is destroyed by force. Cpl. Shalit probably can be saved only by a Palestinian political decision, and Israeli forces will have trouble retiring from Gaza and stopping further rocket launchings and abductions, unless they can reach a truce with Hamas. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been trying to draw Hamas’s political wing into an alliance with his secular Fatah movement, could still play a role in brokering such an accord. But he needs more help than he is getting from Egypt, other Arab states and the United Nations. Instead of fulminating about supposed Israeli war crimes, these actors ought to be demanding that Hamas — and its sponsors in Damascus and Tehran — stop their own acts of terrorism and war.

Yes, it’s completely refreshing to read, for the most part. But I have one question to ask the WaPo editors:

Why publish it on Saturday? Why on the least-read day of the week? Why wasn’t this deemed important enough for the Sunday edition?

Shyeah. Israel Derangement Syndrome strikes again. Can’t stand with Israel on a day when people are actually going to read the stance.

Haveil Havalim, the Carnival of the Jews, is here.

Carnival of the Cats, the Carnival of the Cats, is here. Well, that’s the main page. Waiting for the post to go up.

Update: At last. Here’s the COTC permalink.

So which ultimatum do you think is going to win the day? This one:

“We give the Zionist enemy until 6:00 tomorrow morning, Tuesday, July 4,” the groups said in their statement, which was also faxed to news agencies.

“If the enemy does not respond to our humanitarian demands mentioned in previous leaflets on the conditions for dealing with the case of the missing soldier … we will consider the soldier’s case to be closed,” it said. “And then the enemy must bear all the consequences of the future results.”

Or this one:

“There will be no negotiations to release prisoners,” the statement said. It added that Israel held the Palestinian Authority fully responsible for Shalit’s well being, and his return safe and sound to Israel.

This one:

Al-Qassam Brigades, armed wing of Palestinian ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), threatened on Sunday to hit targets into Israel similar to the targets that the Israeli air forces had hit in the last few days.

Or this one:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking in Jerusalem, said: “Yesterday I ordered army commanders to prepare our forces for a long and ongoing military operation in order to strike terror and its commanders. We will get to everyone wherever they are. There will be no immunity for anyone.”

I have my thoughts on the matter, but I will wait and see what happens. Consider the above your terrorism eye test.

The IDF went into northern Gaza—finally!—early Monday morning, Israel time. They’ve surrounded Beit Hanoun, source of many kassam launchings.

A small Israeli force entered northern Gaza at daybreak Monday, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers. They took up positions around the town of Beit Hanoun.

The operation was titled “Spearhead.” The mission is meant to conduct “pinpoint” operations against Kassam launchers, uproot terror infrastructure, find tunnels, and prevent the laying of explosives along the border fence.

The small-scale operation was not as big as what the IDF had initially requested, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apparently would not give his stamp of approval only to a large-scale operation in northern Gaza.

Olmert is a moron. A small-scale operation will not do squat. The IDF will be heading back into Gaza within a year at this rate.

Three dead terrorists, two suicide belts that won’t kill Israelis, and oh yeah, they’re from Hamas. You know, the ruling party in Gaza and the terrortories[sic]. The one that pretends the political wing doesn’t know what the military wing is doing.

Ehud Olmert, let loose the hounds. Not enough of these scumbags have been killed.

Big whoop: Following the attack on an empty Hamas HQ building, the IAF attacked an empty Al-Aqsa building. Color me impressed when they target buildings filled with terrorists.

The IDF said that it intentionally chose to attack the target late at night in a bid not to risk human life, but still convey a message to Hamas leaders.

Yes, and that message is: “We’re going to destroy your empty buildings, just like Sharon did with Arafat, until you give up or die.” Gee, lotta good that did. Arafat used the damaged building to earn brownie points with the Israel Derangement Squad until the day he died.

So Olmert says this:

“These are difficult days for Israel, but we have no intention of giving in to any form of blackmailing,” Olmert said Sunday. “Everyone understands that giving in to terror today means an invitation to the next act of terrorism, and we will not act that way.”

And his security people say this:

The security establishment is prepared to release Palestinian prisoners who have not been convicted of hostile terror activity, if a deal is reached with Hamas on the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit and instituting calm on the Gaza-Israel border.

The Israel Defense Forces said it would not support a deal that would release terrorists “with blood on their hands,” but only those who have not been involved in planning or carrying out terror attacks. The army would be willing to release individuals who are being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, such as Hamas ministers and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, as well as security prisoners jailed for relatively minor offenses, such as belonging to terrorist organizations.

If this happens, expect more kidnappings in the future.

However, military officials said they do not think the sides are close to reaching such a deal. Top IDF officials said the crisis over Shalit’s abduction is liable to last “days, weeks, months and even years.” As of Sunday night, the most updated information available to security officials indicated that Shalit was alive and that his captors planned to keep him healthy as long as they don’t think the army is planning a military operation to secure his release.

Oh, that’s comforting.

So, what is it, Ehud? Are you going to negotiate with terrorists, or not? Because from where I’m sitting, that looks mighty suspiciously like negotiating with terrorists.

The IDF says their best information says Cpl. Shalit is still alive. But they have no idea where he’s being held—so what makes them think the terrorists are telling the truth? Time to show Cpl. Shalit’s face.

I’m going to be sick if Israel releases prisoners in exchange for Shalit. But I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going to happen.