Kitty pictures.

First, Tig in the front window.

Next, Gracie exhibits the reason she is named: Grace personified. Watching her move is like watching music come to life.

These are from December, back when Tig was still pretty much himself. Pictures of Gracie will be forthcoming after I remember to bring my camera home. I left it at school last week.

Blogging may be light tomorrow. The world is rather depressing right now.

Gee, that was quick.

Yesterday, me:

And oh, yeah. Hamas has never stuck with a cease fire. Not ever.

Later that day, the Jerusalem Post:

Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Thursday rejected Egypt’s call for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire with Israel, saying they would only accept the proposal if Israel stopped pursuing their members both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The announcement came during a meeting of representatives of the two groups held in el-Arish with Egyptian General Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

Earlier in the day, Suleiman met in Cairo with US Undersecretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch, and discussed how to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.

Wow. This Suleiman guy is be the Egpytian Charlie Brown to the Palestinians’ Lucy. Either that, or he’s dumb as a brick.

How many of you know that several children were killed during the IDF operation in Gaza last week? Everyone? But of course. The victims are paraded in front of the cameras, their names, ages, and quotes from families pushed at the media around the world. But when it comes to Israeli victims of terror, can you remember seeing the names or ages of victims in any mainstream media source?

The media do not disappoint. Well, they do, but they do not surprise. Throught the non-Israeli media, The perpetrator of the massacre is named, aged, and there are quotes from his family about how proud they are that their son murdered seven children and one adult. But not the victims. The Israeli victims of terror attacks have no names.

The Times Online named the murderer and gave the quote on the first page of their article. The names and ages of the victims are buried in the very last paragraph of the story. And there’s a photo slideshow of the funeral procession, complete with headshot of the murderer.

The AP doesn’t bother to name the victims. The murderer is named in the seventh graf. And of course, they implicitly blamed Israel for the attack. The lede:

Thousands of Israelis gathered outside a bullet-scarred Jerusalem rabbinical seminary on Friday to mourn eight students killed by a suspected Palestinian gunman, while an Israeli official said the country would not suspend peace talks.

A bearded rabbi recited Hebrew psalms line by line, the crowd repeating after him, in memory of the dead, one of whom was 26 and the rest between ages 15 and 19. People packed nearby balconies to observe the ceremony, after which the bodies were to be taken for burial.

Naming the murderer:

The family of Alaa Abu Dheim, a 25-year-old from east Jerusalem, said he had carried out the attack. They described him as intensely religious, but said he was not a member of a militant group and had planned to get married in the summer.

Abu Dheim had been transfixed in recent days by the news of bloodshed in Gaza, said his sister, Iman Abu Dheim. “He told me he wasn’t able to sleep because of the grief,” she said.

The moral equivalency:

Afterward, Jewish seminarians gathered outside the library and screamed for revenge, shouting, “Death to Arabs,” while in Hamas-controlled Gaza thousands of Palestinians celebrated in the streets.

CNN names the killer in the third graf. This is the most it gives the victims:

The students, ages 15 to 26, died Thursday night when a gunman armed with an automatic weapon and a handgun slipped into the school and began shooting.

Notice the passive “died,” instead of “were killed.” Notice the use of the age range, which minimizes the fact that two were 15, two were 16, two were 18, and one 19. Four were minors. Children. The accompanying video that CNN is running says “The victims were men in their late teens and twenties, all devout students of Jewish law.”

The AFP names the killer and not the victims. But they at least point out how young the victims were.

Eight students — most of them 15 or 16 years old — were shot dead late Thursday at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, a seminary in predominantly Jewish west Jerusalem. Another nine were wounded.

Reuters doesn’t bother to name or age the victims, but is happy to call the seminary a college, making you think none of the victims were children.

Hamas is claiming resposibility for the attack. More on that later.

Tired of the media double standard for Israel?

So am I.

Here are the conditions for a Hamas cease-fire, the one that the Egyptians are trying to broker, and the one that supposedly is stopping Ehud Olmert from sending the IDF back into Gaza:

“Hamas’ conditions are clear: We will halt our fire in exchange for a complete end to Israeli military operations in Gaza and in the West Bank, and a lifting of the blockade on Gaza.”

“Otherwise, we have no intention of halting our activities against Israel,” he said.

Got that? The IDF doesn’t get to stop terrorist attacks, arrest terrorists on their way to performing terrorist attacks, or find terrorist support groups after a terrorist attack has occurred. Israel has to stop defending herself completely. In return, Hamas will call for a “hudna.”

Another Hamas official, Mushir al-Masri, said the militant group must have a say in the running of the border crossings - a demand Israel would likely oppose.

Al-Masri said “Abbas’ monopolizing of the crossing management is an extinct … experiment, and we don’t want to fall into those same slippery road again.”

Suleiman’s deputies met with officials from the two Gaza militant groups, Egyptian security officials said, in an effort to convince Hamas to accept a truce that would involve halting rockets attacks on Israel.

Hamas officials said one of the group’s senior leaders, Mahmoud al-Zahar, was heading its delegation in El-Arish.

Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, confirmed the group sent a team to the Egyptian city for “talks about calm.”

“The conditions are clear, the Zionist enemy must end all forms of aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank and lift the siege on Gaza,” he told Reuters.

And watch Reuters lie in its own damned article:

Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, confirmed the group sent a team to the Egyptian city for “talks about calm.”

“The conditions are clear, the Zionist enemy must end all forms of aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank and lift the siege on Gaza,” he told Reuters.

Hamas had stopped short of saying any truce must include the West Bank.

Really? So what’s that quote in the beginning of the article? The one from Hamas, saying the truce must include the West Bank?

Right. Chalk up another “truce” dead on arrival. And watch the round of Israel-blaming begin.

Four of the young men killed at Mercav Harav have been named:

The murdered were identified as Yohai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem; Yehonatan Yitzhak Alder, 16, of Shilo; Yonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar; and Neria Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem.

The full list, via Dave:

• Yochai Lipschitz, 18, of Jerusalem
• Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shiloh
• Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar
• Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem
• Roey Roth, 18, of Elkana
• Segev Pniel Avihayil, 15, of Neveh Daniel
• Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat
• Maharata Trunoch, 26, of Ashdod.

Note that four of them are minors.

Prediction: You will see neither the names nor the ages of these children anywhere but in the Israeli media. Neither will you hear them described as “youths.” Or “civilians.”