And it’s posted before sundown, too.

It’s been reported that Syria’s pretty much fully rearmed Hezbollah at this point, despite the various mandates by the United Nations Security Council to disband and disarm militias not under government control blah blah blah…

So, what’s UNIFIL doing about it?

Spanish U.N. peacekeepers dressed as Santa Claus play musical instruments during a Chirstmas party for children in Deir Mimess village, south Lebanon December 22, 2006. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher (LEBANON)

Go ahead and scream.

I know you want to.

How hated is Israel? So hated that Jordanian teachers who came to Israel to learn about the Holocaust at Yad Vashem had to do it in secret.

Officials at Yad Vashem said the one-month stay in Israel changed the Jordanian teachers’ perception of Israel, the Jews and Judaism.

Maybe the next group can do it openly.

The UN’s tIme-FILler: The UN mandate that sent international forces to stop weapons smuggling into Lebanon is portrayed in all of its futility. Hey, guess what? If the German Navy thinks that a ship might possibly be involved in smuggling, they can ask the Lebanese to investigate the ship. Wow. Talk about your big-stick policies! The Germans are going to tell on you! Wah!

According to the formulated procedure, UNIFIL ships are merely “hailing” all ships headed to Lebanon, checking off a list of 14 questions.

“Those who are suspicious are passed on to the Lebanese,” explains Lieutenant Colonel Oliver P, commander of the war room on board the force’s flagship.

About 1,600 trade ships have been thus checked. Only three times has the suspicion of UN soldiers been raised so far. But all three cases turned out to be unrelated to terrorist activity.

Of course, the UNIFIL forces are completely ignoring the truck convoys that bring weapons daily from Syria, but that’s another story.

But they’re just “crude, homemade projectiles”: More kassam rockets landed in Sderot, narrowly missing a school and community center. The palestinians are back to launching them every day. Yep. Many rockets per day. The AP is back to pretending that rockets being launched every day aren’t a problem, because they’re “crude, homemade projectiles” that rarely kill anyone. As if that excuses them.

So all those supposed peace overtures from Syria? They’re hollow.

Warning that Israel may face a “Syrian intifada,” a high-ranking officer in Northern Command has told The Jerusalem Post that villages recently built by Syria along the border are planned to be used as “death traps” for IDF troops in Hizbullah-inspired attacks.

Since this summer’s war in Lebanon, Syria, the officer revealed, has invested large amounts of money in replicating Hizbullah military tactics, particularly in establishing additional commando units and fortifying its short- and long-range missile array.

The idea is to draw Israel into an asymmetric war, the officer said, like the warfare the IDF encounters in combat against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as against Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Over the past two years, Syria has built a number of villages along the border with Israel, some inhabited and some not. At first, the IDF was not sure of their purpose. But now, following the war, the officer said, it was understood.

“Syria drew motivation from Hizbullah’s surprise success this summer,” the high-ranking officer said. “They now want to copy that type of guerrilla warfare.”

This is on top of the fact that Syria has completely re-armed Hezbullah.

Syria, the officer said, has since the war ended, transferred truckloads of weapons and missiles to Hizbullah. Due to the convoys, Hizbullah, he said, was almost back at its full strength where it was before the war with Israel.

Springtime. I think it will be in the spring.

Because they’re building a Muslim prayer room in Ben Gurion Airport.

But—but—the Israelis are racists! They hate Arabs and Muslims! All they want to do is oppress them! Right? Right?

Wrong.

The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) Thursday ordered the establishment of a Muslim prayer room at Ben-Gurion International Airport to serve the port’s Muslim passengers.

The room, 20 square meters (215.28 square feet) in size, will be lined up in a southeasterly direction and will include an alcove facing Mecca. Rugs will cover its floor and a 35-centemeter (13.65-inch) high bench will be installed.

A small library of Quran books will also feature in the facility, which was conceived by officials at the Ministry of the Interior.

“The initiative to set up is another step in efforts undertaken by the IAA to improve relations with the Arab sector, and came about after requests to the IAA that a prayer room be established. The initiative is part of a number of projects initiated by the Israel Airport Authority to improve relations with the sector,” IAA CEO Gabi Ophir said.

Damn those wily Jews! They’re not following the script!

Well, my contracting time with Large Company in Richmond ends today. The work has run out, and Large Company has a hiring freeze going on, so it doesn’t look like I’ll be back anytime soon.

I really liked working for Large Company. I was in a great department, full of really great people to work with, and the work was interesting. About the only thing I didn’t like about the company were the prices in the cafeteria, but the Chinese buffet restaurant five minutes away made up for those. (Well, so did bringing my lunch, but sometimes, you just want to eat what’s in the caf.)

Had two phone interviews for three different contracting positions. I’ve added Microsoft Sharepoint and writing training documentation skills to my resume, but all three positions went to someone with more experience in those two fields. Too bad.

I have a host of agents looking for me now, and will be contacting more in the next few weeks. I got some great job-hunting tips from one of my soon-to-be-former coworkers. But I have to say, it’s tough being in this position over and over again. I’ve been temping for the past two years, and have yet to find a permanent position. I’ve had three jobs pulled out from under me in two different (and large) companies. I just can’t seem to catch a break as far as a permanent job, and the resulting security, is concerned. And that win-the-lottery plan? Gotta say, it hasn’t paid off yet.

In any case.

One of the good things I have to report: I will be guest-blogging at Jewcy the first week in January, starting on the second. And it’s a paid gig. If I’d gotten the contracting jobs, I probably wouldn’t have been able to write for Jewcy. So go and read up on it, because I’ll be there in a couple of weeks, and won’t be posting a whole lot here as a result. No cross-posting allowed, either, so everything I write over there will be something you won’t read here. That’s life in the professional writing biz, folks.

A few more writing gigs like that, and I won’t need a permanent position at a Large Company.

This one’s for Sorena, who plays the cello, but if you like humor, you’ll probably like it too.

I’m starting to think we need to add a YouTube category.