The Man With The Plastic Gun:

Israeli police commandos stormed the British Embassy late Thursday and captured a Palestinian gunman who had scaled the fence and demanded political asylum. There were no reports of injuries.

The gunman, who had burst into the embassy several hours earlier, was disarmed, said the police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media.

Later reports state that he had a plastic gun.

So, what gives? He saw a bunch of so-called palestinian “security forces” marching with wooden rifles and believed that the Israelis were armed with similar hardware?

“Our wooden rifles are no match for his plastic gun! Quick! Call the commando units with their wooden rifles wrapped in aluminum foil!”

In typical AP fashion, the headline says “Israeli Police Storm British Embassy.”

You know, because “Israeli Police Capture Palestinian Gunman” or “Israeli Police Secure British Embassy” would make too much sense and actually sound positive.

I take back my earlier statements that every AP staffer who pulls this blatantly biased crap should have a flaming typewriter shoved up their ass.

(They should shove two flaming typewriters shoved up their asses.)

Remember that much-touted interview by Chipmunk Cheeks Nasrallah (may a Hellfire missile find him before his next birthday), where he said there would be no second round against Israel?

Turns out he lied.

Hizbullah representative in Iran Muhammad Abdullah Sif al-Din, said Wednesday that Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has a new strategic plan to rearm ahead of the “next round against Israel .”

In an interview with the Iranian news agency Fars, al-Din said: “No one can promise us that Israel won’t attack again. Whoever lives as a neighbor to the Zionist regime is in danger and must not save any effort to obtain all of the means to defend himself. We are convinced that there still danger and the situation has not yet been solved. We must, all the time, prepare ourselves for self-defense and to plan for the next stage.”

I know, I’m shocked, too.

No, not really.

Let us review, kiddies. Who funds and arms Hezbullah? Iran (with the aid of Syria). Who calls the shots in Hezbullah? Iran. Who pulls Hezbullah’s strings? Iran. Who is this guy? Iran’s Hezbullah representative.

Do you need help drawing the conclusions here, or can you say, “Good cop/Bad cop”?

I knew you could. But I’m getting dizzy, too. It’s like watching a ping-pong match from a foot away. Someone else watch for a while, I need a break.

During the Hezbullah war, a Red Cross ambulance was supposedly fired on by Israel, and headlines race around the world, causing hundreds of fraudulent news stories, what with the ambulance having never been hit by IDF missiles. But the world still got to read about it with their morning coffee the next day.

Sometime in the last two weeks, a Red Cross ambulance driver was murdered after having been kidnapped. Nobody knows when, because nobody really noticed, and nobody really cares—because he was a Sudanese, and he was killed in Darfur. The ambulance driver wasn’t an Arab killed by an Israeli. There’s absolutely no news value in another dead Sudanese. After all, there have already been some 200,000 Sudanese killed in the war—two hundred times the number of Lebanese killed—and nobody really cares. It hardly even makes the evening news. I could only find a dozen or so articles on Google News about it.

I doubt Time Magazine will mention it at all. Dead Sudanese? Not sexy enough. Dead Arab killed by Israeli missiles? STOP THE PRESSES!

No worries that Zombie will have to put up any stories of phony hits on Darfur Red Cross ambulances. The world doesn’t care enough to show up to take photographs.

Udpate: Reader Birt points out correctly that the driver wasn’t an ambulance driver. Sorry, folks, I misread and assumed. The main point, of course, remains the same: There is a different level of attention to anything that Israel does.

And of course, it was completely ignored by the world media.

Hamas is supposedly near a deal that will release Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Ha’aretz blames Israel for holding up the deal.

GAZA - A source involved in negotiations for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit told Haaretz that Israel was the one holding up the implementation of a deal that could lead to his release.

The source, who is located in the Gaza Strip, said Israel and Hamas have agreed on the principle of exchanging Shalit for Palestinian prisoners, but that the two parties have not yet decided the exact nature of the deal or how it will be carried out.

He said the kidnappers, with whom he is in contact, have made realistic demands. The source would not say how many prisoners Hamas is demanding in the swap, but he did say the number is not in the thousands, as had previously been stated.

Mind you, I’m skeptical about this. No good can come from a lopsided prisoner exchange. They’ve been done in the past. They don’t work for Israel. I think Israel can put more pressure on Hamas over this one. The natives are getting restless.

Palestinian government spokesperson and Hamas official criticizes chaos, violence in Gaza, says Israeli occupation couldn’t be blamed for all; calls on Palestinians to admit to mistakes

No, really.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Thousands of angry civil servants turned up the pressure on the beleaguered Hamas government Wednesday, marching to demand payment of overdue wages and winning Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ blessing for a major strike next week.

I’d say the peasants were revolting, but it’s such an obvious line… oh, wait. Never mind.

If you didn’t read all of the article at AFP whining about the IDf shooting Palestinians while Mahmoud Abbas clutches Kofi Annan’s skirt and begs, you’d have missed this good news:

In the occupied West Bank, Hossam Jaradat, the head of the armed wing of the hardline Islamic Jihad faction, died from wounds sustained during an Israeli commando operation on August 23.

Jaradat, whom Israel held responsible for numerous attacks against the Jewish state, suffered head wounds and had been in critical condition.

Except one thing… from Al-Guardian:

But Islamic Jihad said they were not sure Israel was behind the shooting.

Did they suddenly get sure, or did AFP just make the assumption? You know, like the Frenchies did with Mohammed Al-Dura in the editing room.

Rob Reiner says Mel Gibson’s apology for his anti-Semitic outburst isn’t good enough.

(AP) Mel Gibson’s apology for making drunken anti-Semitic remarks isn’t enough to redeem him, actor-producer Rob Reiner said.

The actor also must acknowledge that “his work reflects anti-Semitism,” particularly the 2004 hit movie “The Passion of the Christ,” Reiner told Associated Press Radio.

“When he comes to the understanding that he has done that, and can come out and say, you know, `My views have been reflected in my work and I feel bad that I’ve done that,’ then that will be the beginning of some reconciliation for him,” Reiner said.

You know, I always liked the guy when he was on All in the Family.

Reiner, however, said Gibson also must do some “major soul-searching.”

“It’s not a matter of just apologizing for some words you’ve said,” said Reiner, who is Jewish. “It’s to really understand why it is you’re anti-Semitic and where those feelings came from.”

“I believe that people can be redeemed and people can change, but that’s going to be a very long process,” he added.

I don’t think it’s ever going to happen, judging from his father’s example. You can change a person who spouts anti-Semitic slurs out of ignorance, because everyone she grew up with did. I know this from my own experience with a friend, who spouted anti-Semitic slurs when she was drunk one night, even though I stood in front of her and told her to shut up. She called me the next day, apologetic, and we talked a few days later. She explained to me how she realized (now that she was sober) how hurtful she’d been, and that she wasn’t excusing her behavior, but she grew up in an area where anti-Semitism was not called out in casual conversation.

I never heard another hurtful word out of her, drunk or sober. We’re still friends.

There’s a difference between someone like my friend, and someone like Gibson, who was brought up by in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism. My friend was genuinely sorry for hurting my feelings. Mel Gibson is genuinely sorry for hurting his career.

I don’t think he’s changed his mind at all about Jews.

I think Rob Reiner is wasting his breath.

Hezbullah is extending its tentacles to Argentina, where there is a substantial Jewish population, and where Hezbullah already murdered hundreds of Jews. (Sorry, it’s FT subscriber-only, but it’s all I’ve got.)

Allegations that Argentina’s Arab community is sending money to Hizbollah have incensed Jewish groups, in a country where memories are still raw of two deadly bomb attacks on Jewish targets in the 1990s blamed on the Lebanese militia.

“There is a bank account, opened by the Lebanese embassy, and anyone who can is collaborating, with both cash and humanitarian aid,” Yaoudat Brahim, president of the Federation of Argentine Arabic Groups in Buenos Aires, told the Financial Times.

I thought this happened years ago: The U.S. froze Hebullah’s assets and stopped its fundraising.

The Bush administration moved yesterday against a key fundraising arm of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement that is part of Lebanon’s government, ordering a freeze on its assets in the United States and making it illegal for Americans to contribute to the organization.

[...] Yesterday’s action against the Islamic Resistance Support Organization was intended in part to demonstrate the link between Hezbollah and terrorist activities. The Treasury Department released copies of a receipt issued by the group to a donor, which on the back listed projects such as “collection box project for the children and homes,” “contribution to the cost of a rocket” and “contribution to the cost of bullets.” The donor, whose name was redacted, used ink to signal his interest in helping fund a rocket.

The next time someone tries to tell you that a terrorist organization has a “political wing” and a “military wing,” punch them—hard—in one arm. And say “That was for your military wing. I’m sure your political wing didn’t feel it, as it’s wholly separate and apart.” It might get the point across. It might get you punched back, but hey—tell it to my political wing.

“Hezbollah projects an image as a humanitarian organization,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. “This puts the lie to that image. This shows there is no separation, and they raise money for social services and also raise money for terrorism.”

Gee. Ya think?

Say, W&M, I thought you said Americans don’t like Israel? Oh, look—another poll saying Americans like Israel.

The survey, conducted Aug. 8- 17, found that three-quarters of U.S. adults identify Israel as either a close ally or “a friend, but not an ally,” compared with 16% who see the nation as “not friendly, but not an enemy” and 8% who see it as “unfriendly and an enemy.”

By comparison, 76% of those polled view Iran as an enemy, while 21% see the country as not friendly, and only 4% view it as a close ally or friend.

How many times can we prove W&M wrong in one day? Well, that depends on how many times we post about them.

Gee, thanks, Kofi: It’s so good to know that the head of the UN can go to Lebanon and blame Israel for everything that went wrong, but is utterly unable to find out if the kidnapped soldiers are alive and well.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday after meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he was unable to confirm a report that the kidnapped IDF soldiers were alive.

Annan told reporters that he was under the impression that the kidnapped troops were alive, but stopped short of confirming it. He was referring to a statement by US civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, who met Syrian and Hamas leaders in Damascus and said that the soldiers were “alive and well.”

Eff you, Kofi. Join your pal Jimmy the Jew-Hater Carter and leave us alone.

And last, but not least, they’re still terrorists: The IDF foiled a major terror attack heading for the Karni Crossing—you know, the one the world keeps screaming that Israel should re-open due to humanitarian needs.

The IDF and the Shin Bet thwarted a terrorist attack that Palestinians had planned to carry out via a terror tunnel, it was revealed on Wednesday.

IDF troops discovered an underground tunnel earlier this week that had been dug by terror operatives on the outskirts of the Shajaiyeh neighborhood in Gaza City.

The opening of the 13-meter-deep, 150-meter-long tunnel was found inside a building at least one kilometer away from the Gaza security fence. It was believed that the target of the attack was the nearby Karni Crossing.

It was as yet unclear whether the tunnel - similar to the one used by Palestinians in June’s attack on the IDF outpost at Kerem Shalom in which Cpl. Gilad Shalit was abducted - was intended as a means of infiltrating Israeli territory, or whether it was meant to be rigged with explosives.

Does it really matter? The point is, the pals are still trying to murder Israelis at every opportunity, and anyone who thinks they want peace is fooling herself.

Yes, I have a particular “her” in mind, but we don’t talk about these things any more, because she is utterly unable to see reality, and I refuse to lose a friendship over it.

It’s a good thing I have my blog. You guys get it.

Long before I moved to Richmond, is lone kosher butcher retired, and the Richmond Jewish community apparently couldn’t manage to find a replacement for him. So by the time I got here, there were no kosher butchers. You could find kosher food in various supermarkets, generally Empire, generally frozen. One or two stores carried fresh beef from time to time, but that’s about it. So I would pack my large cooler with me on my trips to NJ and fill it with kosher meats from my favorite butcher shops there, and freeze it here. That worked fairly well for a long time, but in the last year or so, it wasn’t working out at all. So I tried the shops in Rockville, MD, while visiting readers Jan and Chris in northern VA. That was working mostly okay, though I’m a bit off schedule now.

But at long last, Richmond is getting a kosher butcher of sorts: The Kroger on Quiocassin is setting up a kosher meat section. I spoke to one of the managers tonight (delightful man; his stepfather was Jewish and he learned how to cook from his Russian Jewish step-grandmother), and I’m so glad—I won’t have to drive 100 miles to pick up decent kosher food anymore. Now I can just visit Jan and Chris and Stretch and enjoy the company and not leave early to pick up meat. Well, except there’s that great kosher Chinese restaurant that I love to stop in—nah. I won’t travel 100 miles for kosher Chinese food.

Now, all we have to get is a decent Italian bakery, and I’ll start feeling like I’m back in civilization again.

Gee, Mearsheimer, looks like you were wrong about American attitudes on Israel—again: Americans like Israel even more since the war with Hizbullah. What a surprise—I thought W&M said Americans were siding with the terrorists. I guess they must have lied about the data again.

Americans’ view of Israel has become even more positive since the recent war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah forces, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Americans see the Palestinians and Iran, both of whom are strong Hezbollah allies, as slightly less friendly to the United States than they were in a June 12 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. In addition, Syria, another Hezbollah benefactor, is viewed by the U.S. public more negatively than any country other than North Korea and Iran.

The poll of 1,080 American voters gives respondents the names of 17 countries or institutions and asks them to rate each on a scale of 0 -100 according to “how friendly or unfriendly do you think” each nation or group is to the United States.

The mean scores for each nation or institution:
1) England - 78.3
2) Canada - 71.7
3) Israel - 65.9
4) India - 53.4
5) Mexico - 51.4
6) United Nations - 49.2
7) Russia - 45.5
8) France - 43.2
9) China - 39
10) Saudi Arabia - 38.2
11) Venezuela - 35.9
12) Iraq - 27.7
13) Cuba - 24
14) Palestinian Government - 22.8
15) Syria - 21.7
16) North Korea - 15
17) Iran - 13.9

Wow, the PA ranks only slightly above Iran. How’s that for attracting hearts and minds, hm? And speaking of hearts and minds:

Saudi Arabia, which condemned the original Hezbollah attack, dropped slightly from 39.5 in June to 38.2.

“Although the changes in each case are modest, together it is reasonable to assume that they show the recent fighting increased Americans’ sympathies toward Israel and increased the animosity in the United States toward Israel’s enemies,” said Brown.

Apparently, all that Saudi money spent on all those anti-Israel college think-tanks isn’t doing the job they’d hoped it would do. You can’t fool all of the people, etc.

I forgot to link to Haveil Havalim, which is at Me-Ander’s place.

And there’s the Carnival of the Cats. I’m feeling a little less than charitable towards some cats this morning, as Tig’s been on a “wake-up-and-pet-me” tear several times a night. We are currently re-fighting The Battle of The Shoes and Pillows. I’m winning. So far.

Okay, so I missed last week’s due to being at the beach.

So here are both of them, in brand-new poses. First, the elusive Gracie, who stuck out her tummy while I was on the phone with Sarah, and who didn’t escape before I shot this picture.

Her lower belly is that pink because the fur hasn’t fully grown back yet. She nearly denuded herself earlier this year, when she was licking compulsively so much that she licked the hair right off her belly. I like it better covered in white fur. You can also see where she’s licked the fur from her tail (it’s growing back, too).

And here’s my goofy guy, in another pose guaranteed to make Snoopy tell me to put Tig on a diet.

Sorry, Snoopy, but I have a motto that’s lasted most of my cat-raising career: A fat cat is a happy cat.

Tig is very happy.

And until the vet tells me to make him diet, he’s staying this way.

I have belonged to the relatively small fraction of Israeli public opinion that believed in an independent commission of inquiry into the Lebanon war. Such a commission would have had a full authority to delve into any and all matters related to the war and to issue conclusions of a personal nature about the people at the helm. Without restrains and almost impossible to muzzle.

Were Olmert feeling secure and clean of any wrongdoings, he would have gone for such a commission - if only to remove the cloud of blames and suspicions. And what does he do? Here:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided Monday to set up two committees of inquiry into the government’s and military’s handling of the Lebanon war, rejecting both the option of a more comprehensive, independent state commission of inquiry and a government commission of inquiry.

Sorry, it does not wash. It is a dirty trick worthy of a small town mayor using a local sheriff to investigate allegations about his thievery, while sharing the spoils of the thievery with the said sheriff. As correctly stated Zeev Segal in Haaretz: The committees of inquiry are a national farce.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pulled out of his hat committees without any real foundation, lacking in public trust, just like hot balloons. Even were these to do their job properly, they would not win the confidence of the public, no matter what their findings might be.

So it is the time for the rope, tar and feathers, ladies and gentlemen. And, as the following ad that is doing its rounds over Internet, says:

Wanted in a country in the Middle East:

• President
• Prime Minister
• Minister of Defense
• Minister of Justice
• Chief of Staff
• Police commissioner.

Experience not required. Good wages.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

The reviews are in: W&M are still spreading vague charges with no evidence to back them up, and accusing Jews of controlling America. Funny, as I recall, it was American controlling Israel during the Hezbullah war (and after, and before), but hey, what do I know? I’m probably part of that nefarious lobby.

And oh yeah–W&M are accusing Israel of having lain in wait for Hezbullah to kill and kidnap her soldiers so she could start a war.

Picking up on the “attachments” lingo, Mearsheimer did mention Bolton but cited two Jews, Elliott Abrams and David Wurmser, as “the two most influential advisers on Middle East affairs in the White House. Both, he said, are ” fervent supporters of Israel.” Never mind that others in the White House, such as national security adviser Stephen Hadley, Vice President Cheney and President Bush, have been just as fervent despite the lack of “attachments.”

This line of argument could be considered a precarious one for two blue-eyed men with Germanic surnames. And, indeed, Walt seemed defensive about the charges of anti-Semitism. He cautioned that the Israel lobby “is not a cabal,” that it is “not synonymous with American Jews,” and that “there is nothing improper or illegitimate about its activities.”

But Mearsheimer made no such distinctions as he used “Jewish activists,” “major Jewish organizations” and the “Israel lobby” interchangeably. Clenching the lectern so tightly his knuckles whitened, Mearsheimer accused Israel of using the kidnapping of its soldiers by Hezbollah as a convenient excuse to attack Lebanon.

“Israel had been planning to strike at Hezbollah for months,” he asserted. “Key Israelis had briefed the administration about their intentions.”

So, where’s your proof, dude?

A questioner asked if he had any “hard evidence” for this accusation. Mearsheimer cited the “public record” and “Israeli civilian strategists,” then repeated the allegation that Israel was seeking “a cover for launching this offensive.”

Uh-huh. Now THAT’s scholarship. Wow, it’s almost like W&M are, well, bloggers. The bad kind, that is. The ones who don’t care about facts. Oh, wait. That can describe a hell of a lot of the media. But wait, it gets worse.

Before leaving for an interview with al-Jazeera, Mearsheimer accepted a button proclaiming “Walt & Mearsheimer Rock. Fight the Israel Lobby.”

“I like it,” he said, beaming.

Al Jazeera today, Stormfront tomorrow. STFU, W&M, because you crossed the line into Jew-hatred a long time ago. And now, it’s time for the Yourish.com mantra: Anti-Semites of the world, just die already.

Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for W., sent a letter to Jimmy Carter expressing his dismay at Carter’s accusations against Israel in the recent Hezbullah war.

Even after the interviewer reminded you that Israel was the first to get attacked, you charged Israel with lacking “any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.”

As someone who served in the White House as a spokesman for a President, I am reluctant to criticize another President, but in this instance my conscience compels me to do so.

Mr. President, your words are music to Hezbollah’s ears and your message is a blow to long-term peace.

Just as you underestimated the threat of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, you underestimate the threat of radical Islam today. Your condemnation of Israel, the victim, only encourages Hezbollah, the attacker, to bide its time and attack again.

Ahmed Barakat, a member of Hezbollah’s central council, last week told the Qatari newspaper as-Watan that “Today Arab and Muslim society is reasonably certain that the defeat of Israel is possible and that the countdown to the disappearance of the Zionist entity in the region has begun. The triumph of the resistance is the beginning of the death of the Israeli enemy.”

I was raised a Democrat but I changed parties in 1982 because I believed your policies and the nuclear freeze movement invited increased Soviet militarism and adventurism. President Reagan’s military build-up and credible threat of the use of force helped bring about the demise of Communism and brought freedom and a better life to hundreds of millions in Central and Eastern Europe. It also secured a lasting peace.

Ari, you don’t get it. There’s an element you simply do not understand about Jimmy the Jew-hater: He doesn’t like Israel because there are too many Jews in it.

I no longer believe there is any other reason for his vitriol against the Jewish state. His voice fills with anger and hatred when he mentions Israel. It’s quite clear that Mel Gibson isn’t the only celebrity Jew-hater around these days.

So, I got an invitation to MySpace today.

Is, like, that a joke?

Y’know, I can’t figure it out.

I should create a MySpace blog?

Because it’s not like I already have a blog or anything, right?

My readers. They love to drive me crazy.

Yet another person who claims to be pro-Israel appears in my comments threads with yet another “I’m a friend of Israel, BUT” and then goes on to ask us to defend Israel against yet another charge of harming the poor, poor, pitiful pals.

Sometimes, someone slips through the moderation queue and manages to get comments in without approval. This was one of those times. I believe I’ve stopped the troll, but may I remind my readers one last time that I simply will not have those debates here. Please don’t respond to these people. And for would-be trolls: This is a No Israel-Bashing Zone. Let me quote the relevant paragraph from that post:

This weblog is a No Israel-bashing Zone. I simply won’t have it here. I read negative articles about Israel in all the world’s media. I see negative news reports on Israel on nearly every television channel. I hear Israel-bashing news on radio stations. I read Israel-bashing articles all over the web. And I have seen comment thread after comment thread devolve from a discussion on Israel or anti-Semitism into neo-Nazis throwing around the same tired anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks. So, no. I won’t have it here.

Once again, I simply don’t care about the “other side” of the argument—I get to read that side in every news article about Israel from a non-Israeli source (and sometimes from Israeli sources), in most weblogs, and in every single unmoderated comments thread that touches on the subject of Israel or Jews.

I have a corollary to Godwin’s Law: Every unmoderated comments thread that mentions Israel or Jews in any way will always devolve into anti-Semitism.

Always.

And so, I will not have that here. I am a Zionist and a Jew, and this is my weblog. You want to spout your anti-Israel crap, be somewhere else. I am not interested in it here.

The big news hitting the airwaves over the weekend was Hassan Nasrallah’s interview with a Lebanese news station in which he said he wouldn’t have approved the operation that murdered and kidnapped Israeli soldiers had he known the Israeli response would have been so huge.

In an interview granted to Lebanese news network New TV, Nasrallah said in an almost apologetic tone that “we did not believe, even by one percent, that the captive operation would result in such a wide-scale war, as such a war did not take place in the history of wars. Had we known that the captive operation would result in such a war we would not have carried it out at all.”

Interestingly, the AP quote differs from Ynet’s—substantially.

“We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 … that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not,” he said in an interview with Lebanon’s New TV station.

The AP article also continues the world’s habit of ignoring any cease-fire violations by anyone who is not Israel, while also managing to let Nasrallah justify cease-fire violations against Israel. Funny how Kofi Annan can’t manage to raise his voice when Hezbullah sends rockets and gunmen at Israeli forces after the cease-fire was in effect.

“The current Israeli situation, and the available information tells us that we are not heading to another round,” he said.

However, he called any possible attacks on Israeli troops “legitimate” as long as even one Israeli soldier remained in Lebanon.

Lebanese officials have said continuing Israeli overflights violate the 2-week-old cease-fire, and Annan proclaimed an Israeli commando raid one week into the truce a violation. Hezbollah has not retaliated, but Nasrallah said the group would “choose the time and place” to strike back.

“If we have been patient until now, it does not mean we will be patient forever, but we are not obliged to reveal the limits of our patience,” he said.

And, of course, there’s the refusal to disarm Hezbullah:

“There won’t be public displays of weapons in the south , except of in cases of preparations or funerals of martyrs,” stressed Nasrallah.

“This is our policy – to refrain from displaying weapons. If the Lebanese army notices any gunman – it is it’s natural right to expropriate the weapons,” said Nasrallah.

Now, how do we interpret these remarks?

The Israeli government, of course, says this proves that Hezbullah was seriously harmed during the war. Note how Nasrallah isn’t boasting about the “great victory” over the IDF, and has dialed down the threat rhetoric immensely. Of course, my questions are: Is he doing this because of the Lebanese reaction, or is he doing this because his masters in Iran have told him to act less threatening for the moment? Some reports have Iran furious that Hezbullah wasted so much money and materiel in a war now, when apparently they were supposed to wait for approval from Iran. Other reports say that Hezbullah doesn’t so much as sneeze without the Mad Mullahs’ permission.

But here’s a very interesting article in today’s JPost that seems to bolster the argument that Hezbullah screwed up, big-time, by launching thousands of katushas at Israel:

Hizbullah has dismantled 14 outposts on the Israel-Lebanon border near the Shaba Farms, Lebanese security sources said Monday.

Reportedly, the group evacuated the posts using trucks to carry artillery, other weapons and military equipment, while bulldozers blocked access to tunnels and bunkers.

Witnesses said that the vehicles laden with weapons and other military equipment were headed northward.

A French news agency reported that the Lebanese army had deployed troops along the border with Syria and that its soldiers had blocked routes used by weapons smugglers.

This is huge. HUGE. Shaba (or Shebaa) Farms is the territory captured from Syria that Hezbullah is using as its excuse for “occupation”—in other words, to legitimize (in their eyes) attacks on Israel.

Of course, in my eyes, that’s a target-rich environment, but then, the world won’t stand for Israel actually bombing terrorists and their supply lines. But that’s a post for another time.

I have just stumbled on a post by Picow in One Jerusalem that is positively demanding of the “three stooges” (Olmert, Peretz and Halutz) to quit. It is not that this is a new revolutionary approach, but the vehemence of the post is outstanding.

We should take a pause to breath some fresh air. Possibly with assistance of one of these brown bags that help in cases of hyperventilation - in the movies, at least. We should try and remind ourselves that we are, possibly, the most bloodthirsty nation in everything related to our leaders punishment/performance. This doubtful quality could be seen best in our love/hate relationships with our football coaches. There is not a single one of them who has not been crucified at this time or another by the media and the public as one (this is one of the cases where these two work in full synch usually).

Unfortunately, we frequently apply the same “methodology” to our duly elected leaders. This is not to say that I am going to stand in the way of the lynching mob, protecting them by my puny little body. I myself have my doubts about some of these three candidates for lynch. But the demand that they just quit, not preceded by a demand for a commission of inquiry that will have a full freedom of subjects and of recommendations - such a demand is pure and stupid pandering by the crowds to the crowds.

The whole issue of Lebanon war, the related decision-making process, the army preparedness or the lack of it - all these issues are not simple. They are somewhat more complicated than Joe the Public and Sammy the journo would like to see them in their righteous anger. And if the commission of inquiry is not created, if we, instead, revert to a simple lynch - the loss is all ours.

So, my answer to all those baying for blood: not in my name, chaverim. Not in my name.

P.S. If you really want to see the lessons learned and then the justice done, go there and vote for the commission of inquiry. Knowledge of Hebrew might be a pre-requisite.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

I found statistics on how many Merkavas took damage during the war:

Colonel Moti Kidor, Commander of the 401 Armored Corps Brigade, however, says that “those who ask these questions simply don’t understand the field, and unfortunately these include senior IDF officers. When you look at the full picture, one understands that during the war hundreds of antitank missiles were fired, and in total 18 tanks were damaged. Of those, missiles penetrated only five or six. To my sorrow, eight soldiers were killed in these incidents.”

Eighteen tanks damaged, eight soldiers killed. I don’t know if this also counts the soldiers killed in the tank that tried to retrieve the kidnapped soldiers before the war.

He added: “Like every tank in the past and in the future, the Merkava MK 4 is vulnerable. It’s basically like asking why a chopper fell.
If you strike it, it falls. I don’t think there is any surprise here, and whoever is surprised simply doesn’t understand. It’s true that eight soldiers were killed in tanks, and that every soldier is a world in himself, but in relation to the number of missiles fired at us – it’s not a lot.”

In total dozens of Armored Corps soldiers were hurt and dozens of tanks hit, all from the Merkava MK 2, 3, and 4, some from tanks sent from the war reserves store unit shortly before entering in Lebanon. Among those injured were many reserves.

“Only a small number of tanks were seriously damaged, most of them have already been returned to units after the recovery,” said a senior IDF officer.

Hezbullah, of course, is lying about how many tanks they took out. Now, reading between the lines here, the big question is: Was Hezbullah successful? How many tanks were in the battle zone altogether? That affects the percentages, too.

The news agencies are having a field day over the story that the IDF fired on a car full of Reuters reporters. They go into great detail about how the car was clearly labeled, blahblahblah, press, blahblahblah, and then you read, buried deeply in the AP article, these paragraphs:

The white sport utility vehicle was emblazoned with the Reuters logo and had “TV” and “Press” written on it in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

“This is a cold-blooded crime,” said Mohammed Dawdi, head of the local journalists union.

Capt. Noa Meir, an army spokeswoman, said the vehicle was the only one in the combat area, was driving suspiciously and came near Israeli forces during the nighttime raid.

The only words that matter are the ones in bold. It doesn’t matter how clearly the car was labeled. It was nighttime. And it was a battle zone. IDF troops fired on a car heading towards them in the middle of a battle.

Somehow, that fact keeps getting minimized, and yet, it is the reason the car was hit. The Reuters report:

“This car was not identified by the army as a press vehicle,” she said. “If journalists were hurt, we regret it.”

The missile struck the vehicle after dark. The Reuters armored car was clearly labeled as a media vehicle, with signs on all sides, including the roof.

Right. Nighttime raid, combat zone, soldiers not about to stop and read the sides of the car. And, gee, it’s not so easy to read letters on a vehicle at night. Ever driven next to a commercial vehicle at night? Can you read the letters, no matter how clear the markings, unless you’re right next to them? Yeah, me neither.

Yet another example of the anti-Israel media bias, Israeli Double Standard Time, and a host of other biases.

If any of you have sent me a recent email (in the last three or four days) and were expecting a response and got none, I may not have received your email. There’s been a server switch, and the spammers haven’t caught up on the DNS yet, so I’m thinking some other emails may not have, either.

Or not. Maybe I’m just not getting much mail.

The AP actually changed its boilerplate to the truth for a change. Look what I found in a tongue-bath for Al-Manar, a.k.a. Hezbullah TV:

During the conflict, which began July 12 after Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two in a cross-border raid, the station routinely aired reports on guerrilla rockets strikes on northern Israel and ground battles with Israeli troops.

Wow. They usually completely omit the part about the three soldiers who were killed.

But then, of course, you read a little further and you find the usual crappy editing job by AP. Here’s a hint, schmucks: The Protocols are forgeries.

He said contingency plans to face such a situation were made several years ago, after the U.S. decision in December 2004 to place the station on its list of terror organizations. Earlier that year, the station was blocked from satellite programming in Australia and had to struggle with France to keep it from taking similar measures after its transmission of an anti-Semitic miniseries was denounced by Jewish lobby groups.

The series - “Al-Shatat,” Arabic for “The Diaspora” - was based on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” - the 20th century anti-Semitic text purporting to describe a plan to achieve Jewish global domination - and depicted among other scenes the killing of a Christian child on the orders of a rabbi so the child’s blood could be added to matzos for Passover.

And of course, what tally would be complete without the “they won simply by surviving” meme?

Regardless of who won on the battlefield, employees at Al-Manar are confident they have won having survived the war.

I suppose that means the South really won the Civil War, then. It’s still here.

Jeff Goldstein went undercover to see if people were more amenable to Jew-hatred from the left or the right.

It’s an absolutely hilarious video. Doesn’t matter if you like Goldstein or not, he’s wonderful in this.

If Jeff would stick to this sort of thing and dump the anti-feminist posts, I’d probably read him a lot more regularly again.

There is no such word as “irregardless.”

It doesn’t matter how many times you use it. It’s still not a word.

Or, to put it another way: Irrespective of the frequency of the use of “irregardless,” it is still not a word—regardless of what some people think.

Alas, I am back from the North Carolina Outer Banks and back in the non-vacationing world. We had a wonderful time, and are planning to do it again next year.

A few pictures, so I can look at them and sigh longingly.

Dogs allowed

Girl talk.

We walked the dogs on the beach in the evening, when there were fewer people around. The girls generally tagged behind, looking for shells and talking.

It was a good time. Too short, though. Next year, the full week. Next year, it’ll be a much more planned vacation, and hopefully, a paid one. Temping really sucks in that respect—I don’t work, I don’t get paid. Not in this job, anyway. My previous one had much better benefits. I accrued a certain amount of time per hours worked, and could start taking it after a month.

Oh, well. Perhaps Large Company will change its mind and make me a permanent employee soon. Hey, I have another Outer Banks vacation to plan, and I need to buy a few more beach items. I want my own boogie board. And some kind of raft or tube. I told Heidi what I want to do next year is get a floating lounge chair and jury-rig an anchor for it, then float it out past the breakers and just lie there and enjoy the ocean. She laughed and said that would be fine, until the next day, when I’d be in agony from the sunburn.

Okay, so next year, I’ll spend some time outdoors first. Got a bit burned yesterday, and last night wasn’t the most comfortable sleep I’ve ever had. Between the sunburn and the cats yowling at me because I was back home, I didn’t get much sleep. Oh, right. I’m writing this Thursday night and it will post on Friday morning sometime. The wonders of scheduled posting.

Not content to kill Lebanese through the willful use of them as human shields in Hezbollah’s war on Israel, Bashar Assad is now strangling their recovery by cutting off electricity:

Syria has cited technical problems for its decision to cut power supplies to Lebanon, which was already suffering from severe electricity rationing after the outbreak of hostilities last month, Syrian and Lebanese officials said Friday.

The Syrian office for the production and transport of electricity had informed the state-run Lebanese electricity company that “it cannot ensure supplies anymore,” because of technical problems with its own power grid.

There was speculation the electricity supply cut was an attempt by Damascus to pressure the Lebanese not to comply with the Israeli demand.

When Jews cut off electricity to Arabs as political pressure, it’s a crime against humanity and every nation and NGO shrieks bloody murder.

But when Arabs willfully cut off electricity to other Arabs as political pressure, it’s just “technical difficulties.”

Oh, and making the Lebanese dependent on Syrian electrical power isn’t a form of occupation and dominance while Palestinians dependent on Israeli electrical power is.

See how that works?

American military supports Israel: Looks like not all of our ex-military big guns are anti-Israel. Check out this ad in the Sun.

A former Soviet general says Islamic terrorism was created and executed by the Soviet Union, and details many terrorist attacks that were sponsored by the KGB. He says Russia essentially fomented Jew-hatred to create an American enemy in the Middle East after losing so badly in the Six-Day War. I remain somewhat skeptical as to his claims of the Soviets originating it. Yasser Arafat grew up hating Jews, and the Middle East sheltered Nazi war criminals long before 1967. However, there’s no denying the Russian fingerprints in the Middle East, then and now.

On September 11, 2001, President Vladimir Putin became the first leader of a foreign country to express sympathy to President George W. Bush for what he called “these terrible tragedies of the terrorist attacks.” Soon, however, Putin began moving his country back into the terrorist business. In March 2002, he quietly reinstituted sales of weapons to Iran’s terrorist dictator, Ayatollah Khamenei, and engaged Russia in the construction of a 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor at Bushehr, with a uranium conversion facility able to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. Hundreds of Russian technicians also started helping the government of Iran to develop the Shahab-4 missile, with a range of over 1,250 miles, which can carry a nuclear or germ warhead anywhere in the Middle East and Europe.

Iran’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had already announced that nothing could stop his country from building nuclear weapons, and he stated that Israel was a “disgraceful stain [on] the Islamic world” that would be eliminated. During World War II, 405,399 Americans died to eradicate Nazism and its anti-Semitic terrorism. Now we are facing Islamic fascism and nuclear anti-Semitic terrorism. The United Nations can offer no hope. It has not yet even been able to define terrorism.

Hat tip: Lt. Smash.

Sorry, I’m not interested in the Indian restaurant with the Hitler theme. It disgusts me too much. Go read LGF if you want the information; you won’t find it here. However, just for that, I’ll be calling the city Bombay from now on. Because it will get me more attention to not use its Indian name.

Israel ups the ante: More nuclear-capable subs are on the way from Germany.

With the purchase of two more German-made Dolphin submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads, military experts say Israel is sending a clear message to Iran that it can strike back if attacked by nuclear weapons.

The purchases come at a time when Iran is refusing to bow to growing Western demands to halt its nuclear program, and after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

The new submarines, built at a cost of $1.3 billion with Germany footing one-third of the bill, have diesel-electric propulsion systems that allow them to remain submerged for longer periods of time than the three nuclear arms-capable submarines already in Israel’s fleet, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The latest submarines not only would be able to carry out a first strike should Israel choose to do so, but they also would provide Israel with crucial second-strike capabilities, said Paul Beaver, a London-based independent defense analyst.

Israel is already believed to have that ability in the form of the Jericho-1 and Jericho-2 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, which are buried so far underground they would survive a nuclear strike, he said.

Good. But will it stop the madman who wants to murder the world’s Jews?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if he ever became the supreme decision maker in his country, would “sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel,” Giora Eiland, Israel’s former national security adviser, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

At present, Eiland stressed, the ultimate decision maker in Iran was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 67, whom he said was “more reasonable.” But, Eiland went on, “if Ahmadinejad were to succeed him - and he has a reasonable chance of doing so - then we’d be in a highly dangerous situation.”

The 49-year-old Iranian president, he said, “has a religious conviction that Israel’s demise is essential to the restoration of Muslim glory, that the Zionist thorn in the heart of the Islamic nations must be removed. And he will pay almost any price to right the perceived historic wrong. If he becomes the supreme leader and has a nuclear capability, that’s a real threat.”

He needs to be assassinated, if you ask me. Too bad we don’t do that anymore.

Oh, look. Hezbullah is threatening Lebanese Christians. Watch the world ignore this.

Jacques Chirac, ever a friend to Israel, says 15,000 peacekeepers is too many.

PARIS (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that he does not believe the expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon needs 15,000 troops, and he called that figure “excessive.”

A U.N. resolution calls for the force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to expand from 2,000 troops to 15,000.

Chirac, who has pledged a total of 2,000 French troops, said the territory in question was too small to require that many peacekeepers.

You know, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that excuse used before.

Reading Debkafile is a mixed pleasure. You never know where the reality starts and the pure fantasy begins with these people, and that is on top of the team being clearly partisan and peppering what is supposed to be reporting with own political agenda.

So, reading this article, I had to apply all available filters, and even after this, the picture is pretty grim. If even a part of what it says is true, it appears that the upcoming (hopefully) commission of inquiry has to investigate not only the internal decision making by our government and IDF top brass, but also the state of absolute dependency on, let us say it straight, a less than brilliant team residing currently in the White House.

The article starts with a reference to a curious spate of calls by some ministers (Amir Peretz, defense, Tzipi Livni, foreign affairs and Avi Ditcher, internal security - at least two of them knowing a thing or two about security) for a negotiations with Syria and a possibility to trade the Golan Heights for peace with Syria and Lebanon. The explanation is coming at the end of the article:

It appears that Condoleezza Rice was not exactly happy with the way the war turned out, nor with the failure of diplomacy to bring Lebanon’s hostilities to a satisfactory conclusion or even to deploy an effective multinational force to stabilize South Lebanon. She therefore decided to explore the chances of luring Bashar Assad away from the Iranian fold. This is a tentative idea which has not ripened into a policy - much less gained a White House go-ahead. But as soon as word was leaked to Jerusalem, several Israeli ministers jumped aboard - Peretz first, followed by Livni, who there and then created a Syrian Project Desk at the foreign ministry, the education minister, Yuli Tamir and finally, on Monday, Dichter.

Still, this is from the realm of Machiavellian and happens all the time with politicians. While the end result is some egg on some faces, the story could be regarded as another failed attempt to put a feeler out in the direction of Damascus. The answer to this attempt is known - a series of battle cries (or rather battle squeaks in this case) by baby Assad, here is the latest.

The rest of the article, however, is dealing with deadly matters. It paints a picture of a decision-making process that created a disastrous mix of an army unprepared to the war with politicians dancing to the music hastily composed in the White House, with several composers disagreeing one with another. It paints a picture of total subservience to the masters who are unable to make up their own minds, with the servants asking only “how high?” when the masters suggested another jump in a new direction.

I wouldn’t quote too much of the article, it is worth a read whether you believe it or not. But the bottom line is:

Olmert’s absolute compliance with Rice’s directives without fully comprehending their military import threw Israel’s entire war campaign into disorder.

The article may as well be just a part of the usual blame game or a fallout of some internal politics. However, even if partly true, the whole failure requires a good look at Israeli “independence” and ability to do what is good for us even if some of our friends in Washington may be pissed off. It also reminds the good old “כבדהו וחשדהו” (respect and suspect).

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Just when I thought I’d won the Charcoal vs. Gas argument…

AP: Israeli president grilled again over sex claims

Grilled over sex claims?

*sigh* I’m going to need a bigger grill.

So, about that disarming Hezbullah thing: Looks like nobody wants to do it. UNIFIL says it’s not in their mandate. The Lebanese Prime Minister Syrian Sock Puppet says UNIFIL shouldn’t be doing it, anyway, only the Lebanese army (try not to laugh now) can disarm Hezbullah. Say, wanna bet the Lebanese Army folds Hezbullah into their organization, thus “disarming” it?

“It’s clear that the Lebanese army will carry out this mission,” the Lebanese leader said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
“The multinational force is not supposed to do that and should not bother itself with it. Hizbullah is a political party represented in the government and it agreed to the seven-point plan presented to the UN by the Lebanese government.”

Let’s start a pool now.

Syria tells the UN not to come near its border: Yeah, they’d see the weapons smuggling first-hand. But Baby Assad is slipping. Doesn’t he realize the UN will turn a blind eye to the smuggling?

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Syria on Wednesday opposed deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in Lebanon “explosive.” A cease-fire was further shaken by artillery shells and explosions that killed three Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli.

Syria has been emboldened by the fact that it sent weapons into Lebanon to its proxy army, killed Israelis without punishment, and effectively attacked Israel with impunity. Say, Ehud, whattya say to that?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert toured northern Israel Thursday and visited, among other venues, the hospital in Nahariya directly hit by rocket fire during the Lebanon war.

“We must be prepared for (various) scenarios and ready for anything,” he said. “We must push forward deadlines and be ready for the possibility of receiving casualties under all conditions.”

During his visit, Olmert examined the hospital’s fourth floor, which sustained the most damage in the rocket attack. The prime minister observed Lebanon through the giant hole in the wall, which has not yet been renovated, and said: “We must be protected and ready.”

Anyone else out there not buying it?

Oh, wait. The U.S. says they’re ignoring Syria’s complaints.

WASHINGTON - The White House said on Wednesday that it intends to ignore Syria ’s threat to close its border with Lebanon if United Nations peacekeepers are stationed there to prevent arms shipments to Hizbullah.

Okay, now that’s funny. The Dorktator, given an international wedgie by the football team. Gotta love it.

I know! Let’s give Lebanon to Mikey: Nobody wants to be a part of the peacekeeping force, not even France, who fought hard for the bogus cease-fire that left Hezbullah nearly fully-formed.

BRUSSELS, Belgium Aug 24, 2006 (AP)— Italy, which has offered to send the largest contingent, made a plea Wednesday for more European troops to an expanded U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.

Premier Romano Prodi expressed frustration over the efforts to raise the force mandated by a U.N. resolution that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

“It’s unthinkable that we would be there alone, and we have been working to strengthen the quantitative and international aspect of the mission in Lebanon,” Prodi told reporters at the Tuscan seaside resort of Castiglione della Pescaia, where he has been vacationing.

Someone needs to explain to me again about how the UN and the world bodies can solve the problems of the Middle East. How many mistakes can they make on this one? They force a cease-fire plan in that does not disarm the offending party. They offer up a peacekeeping force that has no ability to keep the peace because they can’t fire their weapons. And then, of course, nobody wants to put their people in the middle of a war zone to be sitting ducks and cover for terrorists.

Apparently, all the UN can do effectively is condemn Israel and block the U.S. from doing its job.

You know you’re doing your job when they hate you: Hezbullah says Tony Blair isn’t welcome in Beirut. Well, you’re not welcome in London, so there.

Oh, sure, the cats are happy, and yeah, I have to be at work tomorrow, but still, it kinda sucks to be home. I’d rather have been able to stay for two more days.

Oh, well. Lots more to tell tomorrow. Time to wrap things up and head for bed. I have an all-day workshop tomorrow with only a 30-minute break.

Before I hit the beach….

Mahmoud Abbas, who was pretending that he was going to stop the firing of kassam rockets into Israel, has had even his pretense taken from him. Can you say, “impotent”? I knew you could.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was forced earlier this week to call off plans to deploy PA security personnel in the northern Gaza Strip when several armed groups, including militias from his own Fatah movement, threatened to attack these forces, PA officials here told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Abbas had planned to deploy several hundred PA policemen and security officers in an attempt to stop the armed organizations from firing rockets at Israel, the officials said, noting that the proposed move had won the backing of the US and Israel.

When even USA Today notices the “peacekeeping” force is bogus, well, it’s bogus.

The most glaring problem is that the 30,000-man peacekeeping force, designed to separate the Israelis from Hezbollah and prevent resumption of rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel, has been slow to arrive.

The Lebanese army moved about 3,000 troops into southern Lebanon — 12,000 short of its commitment. As for the remaining 15,000 troops, other nations are waiting on France, which had signaled it would take the lead. But the French, who showed great zeal in drafting the U.N. resolution, have committed just 200 new soldiers, protesting that the rules of engagement are unclear.

U.N. officials are working on those rules with maddening languor. When they are done, countries will think about sending troops. A process that France’s U.N. ambassador said would be “swift” is turning out to be anything but.

Then there’s the question of what the peacekeepers will do, if they ever get there. It has become clear in the past week what they won’t do: disarm Hezbollah.

The Boston Herald agrees:

So far the 30,000-member force that was supposed to secure a fragile peace between Israel and Hezbollah consists of the same United Nations crew of 2,000 that has been ineffective for the past 28 years - and 3,000 members of an untested and unproven Lebanese army newly arrived on the scene.

Is it any wonder Hezbollah apparently feels free to continue smuggling arms - and Israel baited into responding?

Where are the AP headlines screaming “Hezbullah violates cease-fire“? Oh, wait. Sorry. I had a moment of insanity, it’s gone now.

A week after a UN-brokered cease-fire went into effect, IDF troops clashed with Hizbullah guerrillas in the village of Shama in the western sector of southern Lebanon Monday. Three gunmen were killed during the fighting that erupted after the Hizbullah guerrillas were spotted approaching an IDF paratrooper force.

Wait, I found the AP’s description of this event!

Israel has clashed with Hezbollah several times since the truce was declared, claiming it was acting in self-defense. Israeli aircraft also have flown over Lebanon.

And now I am beach-bound. TTFN.

Italian authorities seized a container of weapons and explosives going from Saudi Arabia to the U.S.

Gee. I wonder what they were going to use them for.

Italian authorities seized a container full of weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles and plastic explosives bound for the US from Saudi Arabia in May, Press reports said.

Il Mattino newspaper reported that the ‘arsenal’ was discovered during a search of a ship registered to an unnamed ex-Soviet republic which was travelling from Saudi Arabia to the US east coast.

In addition to 70 AK-47 assault rifles and plastics used in explosives, the shipment also contained launch pads for rockets, it said.

An inquiry is under way with the participation of US secret services, said an AFP report.

Regarding the power station that the IDF took out in Gaza when it was being used as cover for rocket launches…

Israel knew exactly what it was bombing, says station manager Dr. Drar Abu-Sisi. It’s impossibl