Well, maybe not imminent, but it does appear to be in the works.

The army said Palestinians also lobbed at least 20 mortar shells into Israel from the southern part of the strip, but no casualties were reported. The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel was moving closer to carrying out a large-scale military operation in Gaza in order to put a stop to cross-border rocket and mortar barrages into Israel.

It was his first public hint of plans to combat the fire coming from the Hamas-ruled coastal strip, which Israel last week declared “hostile territory” as a prelude to possible punitive cuts of utilities.

Barak told Army Radio that a large-scale military operation would not be a simple undertaking.

“We are moving closer to a broad and complex operation in Gaza,” Barak said.

“It (such an operation) hasn’t happened in recent weeks for many reasons …. We’re getting closer to this and it should be realized that such an operation is not simple, not from the point of view of the forces taking part, not from the aspect of the length of time we’ll have to spend there and not from the aspect of the operational challenges the forces will meet.”

And, oh yeah—more dead terrorists today.

A group of four Hamas-affiliated terrorists were killed late Wednesday afternoon in an IAF missile strike on their jeep in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Hamas reported.

The army confirmed the strike and said that the vehicle’s occupants numbered five, not four, and had been on their way to launch Kassam rockets at Israel. According to the army, all five were killed.

I could write the AP article before the Gaza operation even happens… maybe I’ll do that over the weekend, as an exercise in predictability.

Arafat’s boyfriend is dying of AIDS. Of course, they’re insisting that he’s dying from “Israeli poison.” Uh-huh.

Arafat aide A top advisor of former PA chairman Yasser Arafat is suffering from similar symptoms to those diagnosed in the deceased Palestinian leader before his death, a Palestinian Web site reported Wednesday.

Doctors at a London hospital treating Nabil Abu Rudeineh had to remove one of his kidneys and implant instead a kidney donated by his sister, the Web site said.

They’re just too funny for words. I guess this is the Fatah version of “There are no homosexuals in Iran.”

Ten months after Arafat’s death, his personal doctor claimed that French doctors who treated Arafat in the last days of his life had found he was infected with HIV.

The doctor also claimed that the HIV virus was inserted into Arafat’s blood to camouflage the poisoning.

Uh-huh. And if you believe that one….

Michelle Malkin and others have posted about Shiri Negari, the terror victim who was featured in a sign protesting Mahmoud Ahmadenijad’s invitation to speak at Columbia. The name brought back memories. While the terror war against Israel was going strong, I kept on reading new names of those killed, but there was something about her story that stuck with me: the white butterfly. The emergency physician who treated her, Dr. Avraham Rivkind wrote

Several weeks ago, I kneeled over a beautiful young woman named Shiri Nagari in the hospital parking lot. I asked her how she was feeling, and she answered that she was okay. But I felt that something was wrong.

What was wrong was

… her chest X-ray confirmed my hunch: a white butterfly on the black background. Shiri’s lungs had exploded. The same loud wave of air that smashes your eardrums can compress the air in your lungs and send it to destroy the organs in your abdominal cavity. Three concussive waves do lethal damage when a bomb explodes in an enclosed area. We rushed Shiri to our trauma operating room, always left empty for emergencies, and opened her up: blood in her chest and abdomen, a liver torn apart. No matter how much blood we pumped in, she couldn’t survive. I’m 52, and like most Israelis I serve in the army too. I have seen my share of tank injuries, unrelenting cancers and traffic accidents. Shiri’s death was the first time I ever cried at losing a patient.

All of her internal organs were crushed by the force of the blast. There was nothing the doctors could do. I know it’s a terrible way to remember someone, but when the terrorists were striking with regularity, it’s how I reacted. I could name too many of the victims of the Arab terror during the so called “Aqsa intifada.” Hopefully we’ve seen an end to those terrible times. But when some brilliant academic, politician, journalist or diplomat comes up with another idea how to empower the purveyors of terror they increase the risk that they could recur. With the Holiday of Sukkos on its way, I don’t want to end on such a negative note. Fortunately, Dr. Rivkind tells of some of his successes too.

Adi Hudja, only 14, had more than 40 metal objects in her legs from the suicide bombings on Ben Yehuda Street last December. She was bleeding uncontrollably from her wounds. On the spot, we came up with the idea of trying a coagulant for hemophiliacs still not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, certainly not approved for trauma. It costs $10,000 for a small bottle, but it worked. Six months later, she’s coming for therapy three times a week in Hadassah’s Mt. Scopus Rehab Center, and she’s learning to walk. Next year, maybe she’ll be able to go back to school too. She’s the same age as one of my daughters.

and …

In October 2000, Shimon Ohana, an 18-year-old border police officer, was declared dead in the field. But I asked the ambulance driver to bring him to the hospital. Some decisions are hard to make in the field. I uncovered him, we opened his chest cavity and began to work. He came back to life but remained in a coma for 17 days. At last, he woke up. Shimon is my continued reminder that we can’t give up hope. Today, he is a fully functioning young man who trains dogs and loves computers.

No we can’t give up hope. Even when seemingly every defensive action inspires questions of those who rarely question Israel’s enemies.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

white butterfly, Shiri Negari.

Karnit Goldwasser gives more details of her meeting with Mad Mahmoud:

“During the questions we made eye contact, we looked at each other more than once. The look on his face changed the moment he realized who was facing him and what I wanted from him,” Karnit Goldwasser, wife of kidnapped soldier Ehud Goldwasser, said after her meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York.

Goldwasser managed to enter Ahmadinejad’s press conference at the United Nations building in New York on Tuesday, and told Ynet that the she was surprised by the treatment the Iranian leader received upon his arrival.

“He came in and started to smile at everyone. The reporters gave him great respect… As he walked by me he said hi to me, because he still didn’t know who I was. He thought I was one of the supporting journalists, and that he was walking into a place where everyone loved him. He seemed very pleased,” Goldwasser recounted.

Goldwasser said she was not afraid to present the president with her question, and asked him, “Hello, my name is Karnit, the wife of Ehud Goldwasser, the soldier who has been held captive for over a year. Since you are the man that is behind the kidnapping due to the aid you grant Hizbullah, why don’t you allow the Red Cross to visit the two soldiers?” she asked.

The president ignored the question.

What was that about freedom of speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad? What was that about the free exchange of information? And what was that about loving all people, including the people who live in Israel?

Israel is not a nation. Well, we like the people, yes, because they are victims as well. … We are friends with all people, Jewish people, Christians, different people of different faiths. We are, well, we’re in contact with them. Here in Iran there are Jewish communities; there are Christian communities; we’re all friends. Also, non-Muslim countries, we help them when a natural, let’s say, calamity breaks. We love all people.

Except, of course, when you don’t.

The night of the Iranian president’s speech at Columbia, 18 acts of anti-Semitic vandalism occurred in Brooklyn Heights.

Police were out in full force in Brooklyn Heights Tuesday after an overnight wave of anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered in the tony neighborhood.

The words “Kill Jews” and a 4-foot swastika defaced an apartment building on Columbia Place. Similar-sized swastikas were painted at two houses of worship on Remsen Street, Congregation B’Nai Avraham and the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue.

The graffiti, which also included swastikas spray-painted on two cars, was discovered Monday night, and by Tuesday morning the tally had grown, with at least several more cars found defaced with swastikas, and two cars papered with fliers declaring “Kill All Jews,” police said. All told, police said, there were 18 acts of vandalism.

Looks like the Mahdi Army was out in force, going after “Zionists.”

I’m sure there are many out there who will insist the two events are not related.

They would be idiots.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who says he is for peace, against war, and loves all people, deliberately snubbed Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband Ehud was kidnapped last year by Hezbollah.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refused to address an Israeli woman who asked him at a news conference on Tuesday about her husband, one of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah last year.

As he has done at previous appearances at the United Nations, where he addressed the General Assembly earlier on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad also ignored a question asked by an Israeli journalist, saying only, “next question.”

[...] Karnit Goldwasser accused Ahmadinejad at the news conference of being behind the kidnapping and urged him to at least provide some proof of life. “How come you’re not allowing the Red Cross to visit them,” she asked from the front row.

Ahmadinejad ignored the question. He later sparred with a journalist from Fox News who asked whether Iran’s goal was the destruction of the Jewish state.

And this was right after he told the United Nations the following:

Family is the most sacred and valuable human institution that serves as the center of the purest mutual love and affection amongst mothers, fathers and children, and as a safe environment for the nurturing of human generations and a fertile ground for the blossoming of talents and compassion.

[...] Friends, ladies, and gentlemen, the only sustainable way to the betterment of mankind is the return to the teachings of the divine prophets, monotheism, respect for the dignity of humans, and the flow of love and affection in all relationships, ties, and regulations, and to reform the present structures on this basis.

To fulfill this objective, I invite everyone — everybody to form a front of fraternity, amity, and sustainable peace, based on monotheism and justice, under the name of “Coalition for Peace,” (ph) to prevent incursions and arrogance and to promote the culture of affection and justice.

I hereby announce that, with the help of all independent, justice-seeking and peace-loving nations, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be heading down this path.

Monotheism, justice, and compassion for humans should dominate all the pillars of the U.N. And this organization should be a forum for justice, and every member should enjoy equal spiritual and legal support.

Apparently, when it comes to the sanctity of the Israeli family, and peace with the Israeli nation, Ahmadinejad figures that all bets are off. Of course, we already knew this. But you have to hold his blatant hypocrisy up to the world—even if nobody is really listening. Because we are.