Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Israel-haters and anti-Americans have a new club.

Nelson Mandela and five other senior statesmen will today form themselves into a team of international troubleshooters called “The Elders”.

The initiative, funded by Sir Richard Branson, will be launched in Johannesburg during celebrations marking Mr Mandela’s 89th birthday.

The former South African president, who spent 27 years behind bars during the apartheid era, is a figure with unparalleled moral authority.

The idea is that he will team up with Jimmy Carter, the former US president, Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, Mary Robinson, the former Irish president, Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel Laureate and founder of the Green Bank in Bangladesh.

Okay, I don’t actually know much about Mohammed Yunus beyond his Nobel Peace prize for giving microloans to the poor (an idea which I wholeheartedly support) so they can create their own businesses and be poor no more. He gets a bye. But the others?

The membership of The Elders has been carefully chosen. Each one is a non-partisan figure with a rolodex packed with international contacts.

“This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken,” said Mr Mandela in a statement.

Shyeah. I’ll bet they’re going to speak freely, and it will mostly be against Israel and the United States. Here’s a look at their previous [kaff] non-partisanship:

Mary Robinson, who led the UN Human Rights Commission during the infamous Durban conference: Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel.

Jimmy Carter, whose latest anti-Israel screed is a best-seller: Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel.

Nelson Mandela, who never met a Palestinian terrorist he didn’t like: Anti-Israel. Anti-American.

Desmond Tutu, who thinks all the world’s problems can be traced to the U.S. and Israel: Anti-Israel. Anti-Israel. Anti-Semitic?

Non-partisan my ass. I suppose the best thing I can say about this new “council of elders” is that with any luck, they’ll be dropping like flies due to their advanced ages.

Exit question: How long before their first anti-Israel statement is released? Let’s start a pool.

It’s a good thing that the IDF is pulling back on getting Palestinian terrorists. Because it’s obvious that the Palestinians are giving up terror. Well, if by “giving up terror” you mean “business as usual.”

IDF troops discovered a five-kilogram bomb and arrested five Palestinians next to Ramallah on Wednesday.

IDF sappers defused the devise and the Palestinians were transferred for security interrogations.

Ramallah, Ramallah, Ramallah… gee, what’s Ramallah’s importance to the Palestinians?

Oh, right. It’s the home of their government. The place where they complain that Israel isn’t releasing terrorists fast enough.

Ziad Abu Ein, director-general of the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, said the Palestinians should “not be overjoyed” with the expected release of 250 prisoners on Friday.

“Since (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert announced at Sharm el-Sheik that he would release the prisoners, Israel has detained 326 Palestinians,” he said. “This sort of attitude attitude invites extremism, instead of an attitude that will build a bridge for renewed understanding and trust between the nations.”

According to Abu Ein, some 11,000 Palestinians are still being held in Israeli jails, including 431 minors and 127 women.

“We hoped the Israelis would take the feelings of the Palestinian prisoners and their families into consideration and act with the aim of restoring the Palestinian public’s faith in the peace process,” he said.

Yes, it’s all about restoring the Palestinians’ faith in the peace process. Because they’re such a peaceful people.

An IDF outpost near Nablus came under gunfire Wednesday afternoon.

None of the soldiers were wounded, according to Army Radio.

And of course, there’s the inevitable nightly terrorist roundup:

IDF troops arrested 16 Palestinian terror suspects in the West Bank overnight Tuesday.

Ten of the detainees were arrested in Ramallah, while three were arrested in Bethlehem and another three in Hebron.

This is what Fatah wants to stop. Not the terror. The arrests. It’s the same-old, same-old. It’s not Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat any more. The players have changed. But the game is still the same, and it simply astonishes me that Israel falls for it. Every. Single. Time.

Folks, regular commenters keep on getting put into Spam Karma’s spam queue. I don’t know why. I’ve had to manually recover comments every day for several days now.

If I can’t figure out why it’s happening, I may have to go to completely moderated comments. Which is far too much extra work.

If anyone out there knows more about Spam Karma than I, advice would be helpful.

Did you see this story? Our friends the Saudis are responsible for nearly half the jihadis attacking Americans in Iraq:

Nearly half of the foreign detainees held in Iraq are Saudi citizens, and lists of their names were given to Saudi officials during a recent visit by an Iraqi delegation, national security adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie said in remarks aired Monday.

Al-Rubaie’s comments to Al-Arabiya television were made during a three-day visit last week to Saudi Arabia in which he met senior officials, including Interior Minister Prince Nayef.

“The Iraqi government says that nearly half of the foreigners in Iraqi prisoners are from Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of them are in Camp Bucca and other prisons controlled by coalition forces,” al-Rubaie said. He did not give a total figure of Saudi detainees.

But it gets worse. Hot Air quotes the LA Times:

With its own border with Iraq largely closed, Saudi fighters take what is now an established route by bus or plane to Syria, where they meet handlers who help them cross into Iraq’s western deserts, the senior U.S. military officer said.

He suggested it was here that Saudi Arabia could do more, by implementing rigorous travel screenings for young Saudi males. Iraqi officials agreed.

“Are the Saudis using all means possible? Of course not…. And we think they need to do more, as does Syria, as does Iran, as does Jordan,” the senior officer said. An estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters cross into Iraq each month, according to the U.S. military…

U.S. officials remain sensitive about the relationship. Asked why U.S. officials in Iraq had not publicly criticized Saudi Arabia the way they had Iran or Syria, the senior military officer said, “Ask the State Department. This is a political juggernaut.”

Our friends the Saudis. Home of 15 of the 19. Origin point for Osama bin Laden, and the place where Wahabbism started and is still running full-bore. Billions of Saudi dollars go to Wahabbi madrassahs the world over, and fund mosques and schools even here in America. The ruling family is best buds with the Bushes and, Jimmy Carter has gotten tons of Saudi funds. They even hired a PR firm after 9/11 to try to make Americans think they’re our friends. The campaign failed miserably. We may be many things, Americans, but we are not stupid.

Funny. You never see the kind of slams by the left against Saudi Arabia as you do against Israel, and yet, Saud Arabia can legitimately be blamed for much of the violence across the globe today—and their citizens who came to this country murdered thousands of Americans.

I wonder what the difference is? Oh, right. They’re not Jews.

Israel is simply surrounded by liars.

First, of course, there are the Palestinians, who lie just about every time they open their mouths.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday denied a Haaretz report that said the Palestinian Authority wants the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to remain closed.

Erekat stated that the PA has requested the opening of the border on numerous occasions.

Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Palestinian sources said PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas asked Israel and Egypt to prevent the movement of people from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, after Hamas’ mid-June takeover of the coastal strip.

The sources said that Abbas said if the crossing is opened, Hamas will be able to let in thousands of people without supervision into Gaza - including activists who could strengthen the group, which rival Abbas’ Fatah movement.

Then there is Syria, which insists that those weapons are getting into Lebanon some other way than via Syrian trucks crossing the border at night:

The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations has submitted a letter to the UN secretary general saying that Israel is fabricating evidence against Syria’s supposed smuggling of weapons to Lebanon.

Bashar Ja’afari told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Syria protests the fact that the UN “adopted the fabricated claims that it received by Israeli intelligence sources.”

The letter also addresses a report submitted several weeks ago by Terje Roed-Larsen, the secretary general’s envoy to Lebanon and Syria, on the implementation of UN resolution 1559. The resolution requires the full withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon.

Larsen wrote in the report that weapons are being smuggled to Lebanon through Syria. Though other UN reports have made the same claim - including a secretary general report and an independent investigation on the Syria-Lebanon border - Ja’afari demonstrated pointed contempt for Larsen’s report specifically.

Ja’afari requested that the information Israel passed on to the UN be discounted because it is “hostile” to Syria and occupies its land, he said. The fact that Israel has information on activities on the Syrian-Lebanese border, Ja’afari wrote, proves that Israel is violating UN resolution 1701, which ended last summer’s Second Lebanon War, by flying spy planes over Lebanese skies.

Shyeah. The Syrians pretend they want peace. But they don’t.

“Different parties have been used to send messages. This is not new. It has been going on for quite some time,” Regev said. The problem is not the lack of good people offering their good offices. The problem appears to be with the policy goals of the regime in Damascus.”

“While it is possible that they talk about peace, that’s all it is - talk. They are in fact playing the Israeli card cynically in attempts to solve their diplomatic problems with the countries of Europe and North America without any real intentions to change their relationship with Israel,” he said.

And Syria wants—as a precondition—the return of the Golan Heights.

He said several peace mediators had recently approached him to try to restart talks. “We told those delegations about our firm stance, the rejection of secret negotiations, because there is no need to hide anything from the people,” Assad said.

He added that Syria wanted written guarantees on the restitution of the Golan Heights, taken by Israel in the 1967 war, as a precondition to negotiations.

Sure. Because that’s how it happens. You lose territory in a war—territory from which you shelled civilians—continue to fund the enemies of the state that won the territory, constantly threaten that state, and then, in order to have peace with that state, you get the territory back.

Well, in the Dorktator’s fevered little fantasies, that’s how it happens. In reality, well, no. But the world will definitely blame Israel for not sitting down and making peace with Syria. That’s what happens when you tell a lie often enough. It becomes conventional wisdom, and accepted truth. Just ask the anti-Israel factions why the PLO came into being. They’ll tell you it was the occupation. If you tell them that it was founded in 1964, they won’t believe you.

And we come full circle. Lying. It’s the new truth.