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.