Today was a banner day in Gracie’s return to health: We had an official morning bellyrub, complete with deep, throaty purr and the kneading of paws in ecstasy.

Of course, she wasn’t where you see her in the picture. She was in my bed, waiting for me to get out of the shower.

Later this morning, after breakfast, I made the mistake of putting my shoes on before brushing my teeth. Gracie thought I was going to take her to the vet’s and disappeared under the bed, so no second bellyrub. Ah, well. She’ll get used to my wearing shoes upstairs again sometime.

But we had a happy, happy morning. She’s getting back to normal, and I’m pretty sure she’s also putting on weight. I need to get a scale one of these days.

Really. Check out the last two paragraphs in this AP story. Notice which paragraph is absolutely dead last (the one that nearly always gets cut from a newspaper story.)

The battle is a fallout from the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel that ravaged parts of Lebanon. The guerrilla force’s strong resistance against Israeli troops sent its support among Shiites skyrocketing, emboldening it to grab more political power. Hezbollah also feels Saniora did not do enough to support it during the fight.

Pro-government groups, in turn, resent Hezbollah for sparking the fight by snatching two Israeli soldiers, dragging Lebanon into war with Israel.

Yep. Lebanon’s problems are Israel’s fault. Nothing to do with Syria and Iran meddling in Lebanon for the past thirty years, or the inability of the Christians and Muslims to get along in one country. Nope. It’s Israel’s fault. Damn those Jews!

Two days of sort-of truce, when there were no kassam rockets fired (Wednesday and Thursday) have ended with a literal bang: The terrorists launched more kassams this morning. Oh, the “sort-of” label? That’s because the pals were trying to kill Israelis all along.

Palestinians fired a Qassam rocket at the Negev on Friday morning, in violation of the Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. There were no injuries.

As of Friday morning, Palestinian militants have fired 14 rockets at Israel since the cease-fire began Sunday, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Israel has not responded to the rocket fire.

In the West Bank, a Border Policeman was lightly hurt Friday morning by a firebomb hurled at him near the entrance to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Israeli forces returned fire and killed a Palestinian man who they said was the militant who threw the firebomb. The troops later found a knife on his body.

On Thursday, a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by IDF troops in the West Bank village of Beita, near Nablus.

The soldiers fired on a group of Palestinians who were throwing firebombs and a pipe bomb at them.

Yes, the so-called truce, the one where the IDF eases up on the terrorists, and the terrorists continue to smuggle weapons and materiel into Gaza.

Since Israel and Palestinian militants agreed to a ceasefire five days ago, Palestinians have continued smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip from neighboring Egypt, including several pieces yesterday, Israeli and Palestinian security officials told WND.

The truce, which went into effect Sunday, called for a halt of smuggling activity by Palestinian groups in Gaza. It also called for a cessation of rocket attacks launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza aiming at nearby Jewish communities in exchange for Israel withdrawing its ground troops from the Strip and halting military activity in the territory.

The IDF is warning against extending the truce. Gee. Can’t imagine why, what with the palestinians pretense being reported by all the major news organizations.

Security officials are expected to advise the cabinet Sunday not to expand the Gaza Strip cease-fire to the West Bank, Israel Radio reported Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday, expressed her appreciation for the restraint Israel has exercised in recent days in the face of continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and said the cease-fire in Gaza needs to be bolstered with further measures.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told reporters Thursday that Olmert wants to extend the cease-fire to the West Bank once it has proven effective in the Gaza Strip. As of Friday morning, Palestinians have fired 14 Qassam rockets on Israel since the cease-fire went into effect Sunday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Someone please explain to me how consistently firing rockets, attacking Israelis, and smuggling weapons is an “effective” truce.

I cannot believe the Israelis do this, time and time again, and the world pressures them to do it, over and over again, no matter how much evidence is presented to the contrary.

Right now, I hate most of the world. Yes, nearly all of it. Okay, only the part of it that hates Israel and Jews.

Oh.

With James Baker and his cronies about to sell Israel down the river on one side, and Jimmy Carter and his ilk on the other, I have to say that I don’t trust either party when it comes to maintaining Israel’s existence as the lone democracy in the Middle East, and the ancestral homeland, and last refuge, of the Jews. But it’s getting a little tiresome to keep hearing people tell me what great friends of Israel are the Republicans. Maybe the rank and file, but the ones in charge of things? Not so much.

Here we have a perfect illustration of the anti-Israel Republicans, and even worse, it’s Henry Kissinger, a Jew. One of the things that never left my mind is a picture I saw of a protest in Israel regarding Kissinger’s Mideast diplomacy. It stated: “In U.S., he is Kissinger, in Israel, he is Killinger.” The reason? Well, in this conversation with the Iraqi foreign minister in 1975, here’s Kissinger ready to sell out Israel to curry favor in the Middle East, even talking about the waning power of the Israel lobby.

Hammadi: This is my painting of the picture now—up to 1980. You say the United States is bringing all its weight to bring about a settlement. But this is a settlement, not peace. A new wave of troubles and clashes will start because Israel is not a state to stay within what they are. Because if there is an opportunity, they will expand. The record shows it. And they are supported by the biggest power in the area. What the United States is doing is not to create peace but to create a situation dominated by Israel, which will create a new wave of clashes.

Kissinger: I understand what you are saying. When I say we are willing to improve relations with Iraq, we can live without it. But it is our policy to move toward better relations. I think, when we look at history, that when Israel was created in 1948, I don’t think anyone understood it. It originated in American domestic politics. It was far away and little understood. So it was not an American design to get a bastion of imperialism in the area. It was much less complicated. And I would say that until 1973, the Jewish community had enormous influence. It is only in the last two years, as a result of the policy we are pursuing, that it has changed.

We don’t need Israel for influence in the Arab world. On the contrary, Israel does us more harm than good in the Arab world. You yourself said your objection to us is Israel. Except maybe that we are capitalists. We can’t negotiate about the existence of Israel, but we can reduce its size to historical proportions. I don’t agree that Israel is a permanent threat. How can a nation of three million be a permanent threat? They have a technical advantage now. But it is inconceivable that peoples with wealth and skill and the tradition of the Arabs won’t develop the capacity that is needed. So I think in ten to fifteen years, Israel will be like Lebanon—struggling for existence, with no influence in the Arab world.

You mentioned new weapons. But they will not be delivered in the foreseeable future. All we agreed to is to study it, and we agreed to no deliveries out of current stocks. So many of these things won’t be produced until 1980, and we have not agreed to deliver them then.

Our policy is to move our policy towards peace and to improve relations with the Arab world. Iraq is not a negotiator, but I think the policy of Egypt and Syria to improve relations with us helps us to bring pressure for a settlement.

The Israelis like you better than [Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat because they like to put it in terms of a U.S.-Soviet problem. We don’t want you to have unfriendly relations with the Soviet Union; we don’t interfere in your relations with the Soviet Union. But basically, the Israelis prefer radical Arabs.

If the issue is the existence of Israel, we can’t cooperate. But if the issue is more normal borders, we can cooperate.

Read the rest. It’s just as bad. Hat tip: Lynn.