So let’s see what the Palestinians sent out of Gaza yesterday.

Mortars:

Palestinians fired five mortar shells from the Gaza Strip into the Eshkol area in the western Negev on Tuesday.

The shells fell in agricultural areas in one of the kibbutzim in the region.

There were no reports of wounded or damage.

Bombs:

Palestinians detonated a bomb next to the Gaza border fence on Tuesday night.

No one was wounded and no damage was reported.

Kassams:

Two Kassam rockets fired from northern Gaza landed in the Sha’ar Hanegev region on Tuesday.

No one was wounded and no damage was reported.

But there is a “lull.” A “calm.” And if Israel sends in troops to try to stop mortars, kassams, and bombs from being used against Israelis, the news media will scream in unison that Israel is “violating” the “calm.”

Because for some reason, incoming artillery, rockets, and bomb attacks don’t seem to count. Only outgoing defensive measures against them.

And there were two more kassams today, scoring a direct hit on a kibbutz, followed by Palestinians deliberately shooting at Israeli farmers. Funny how that never seems to get the same attention as the twice-killed 65-year-old Palestinian farmer.

Two Qassam rockets fired from northern Gaza landed in Kibbutz Mefalsim in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council Wednesday morning, causing damage to several buildings.

Shortly afterwards, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at farmers in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. No injuries were reported.

What time is it, folks? That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time. But don’t worry, it only occurs on days that end with a “y.”

An Israeli company has developed a cellphone that’s made it to Guinness book of World records as the smallest and lightest cellphone.Phone magazine describes it like this:

The idea of having a single cellular handset that can serve multiple duties giving wireless data access to a variety of modular devices isn’t new, but modu are hoping to be the first to market with a working implementation of the concept. Their modu unit is a compact cellphone of unknown technical specs (though I’d presume HSDPA or some sort of high-speed wireless in order to make the whole deal worthwhile, together with a fair chunk of memory) that can be slotted into laptops, car stereos and larger phone/tablet devices as appropriate.

Slashgear has more:

The Modu is based on a module interchanged ‘jackets’ concept that turn a tiny cell phone into a fully functional phone or gadget that enabled internet features. The company is expected to launch the modu In Italy, Russia and Israel on October the 1st, then probably in US next year. A Modu with two jackets bundle is estimated to sell around $280.

The company’s website informs us:

modu was established in early 2007 by Dov Moran, founder and CEO of msystems (NSDQ:FLSH), inventors and leaders of the USB flash drive market (DiskOnKey™), FlashDisk (DiskOnChip™) and other ground-breaking products. A seasoned team comprised of executives and managers from msystems, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Qualcomm, Intel, SanDisk, Symbian, Marvell, Orange and other leading companies allows modu to offer a unique blend of experience and unrivaled expertise in the mobile and consumer electronics arenas. modu has already developed key relationships with leading partners and manufacturers and has raised significant initial funding from a distinguished group of financial institutions and strategic investors.

Pretty neat especially as we’re now seeing commercial with a laptop getting pulled out of a manila envelope.

UPDATE: I didn’t have time before to point out that there’s an Israeli connection to the MacBook Air. The ad for it features a song by Yael Naim. (h/t Digital Irony, Rubicon3)

What I’ve also discovered is that modu has released an ad showing the functionality of its new phone.

Plus here’s an interview with modu’s founder Dov Moran.

Maybe in a few years the first thing you see when heading to luggage claim at Ben Gurion Airport will no longer be the big NOKIA name, but homegrown modu instead.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

I had a hard time understanding this:

Israel will transfer to the Palestinian Authority 25 armored vehicles from Russia for use in PA controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. Permission for the transfer was granted by the Olmert government during a high-level meeting Thursday night.

The article goes on to report that the transfer was only approved once Russia agreed not to arm the vehicles with automatic weapons.

I found this interesting.

An additional 25 will be supplied if the first shipment is “properly used,” Israeli officials said.

What are the chances of that happening? I’d guess: not very good.

Specifically, the Americans are concerned that the PA does not engage in the full spectrum of counterterrorism activities, including arrests, interrogation and trial, as it would if it were trying to eradicate the armed wings of Islamic terrorist organizations. Instead, it makes do with trying to “contain” terror - to prevent specific attacks, and to keep Hamas from growing strong enough to threaten Fatah’s rule in the West Bank.The PA security services do occasionally arrest members of Islamic organizations, but they do not then follow up with the other steps in the “chain of prevention”: interrogations, arrests of additional operatives, indictments and trials. Trials generally take place only if the PA is under external pressure, as in the case of the Palestinians who killed two off-duty soldiers out on a hike near Hebron three months ago. And when they do take place, they are generally hasty affairs.

Israel has been complaining about the lack of a “chain of prevention” for years, ever since the second intifada broke out in 2000. Now, it seems that the American monitoring team, headed by General William Fraser, has adopted Jerusalem’s position on this issue.

Security coordination between Israel and the PA has deteriorated since the terror attack on Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav Yeshiva three weeks ago. Palestinian security officials are angry over what they view as Israel’s lack of faith in them, as reflected in its recent decision to go after four wanted terrorists in Bethlehem itself, rather than informing the Palestinians and letting them try to arrest the men. And while the PA has recently arrested several members of Islamic organizations in the northern West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service question the significance of these arrests.

So Israel has a demonstrated “lack of faith” in the Palestinian security services and yet agrees to upgrade their capabilities.

The Ha’aretz article also reports:

With regard to Israel’s obligations, the Americans recently gave both the government and the defense establishment a list of 10 questions concerning outposts, settlement construction and other issues. Associates of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been harshly critical of Jerusalem’s failure to evacuate outposts, remove roadblocks and take other measures to improve the PA’s economy, such as establishing industrial parks along the seam between Israel and the West Bank.

Those industrial parks are nice idea, but though they worked well in Gaza for awhile, they are now shut down. The success of the industrial parks will depend on the will of the Palestinians to live in peace with Israel.

And despite the way the American demands are presented, as reported last year, they are not without risks. Indeed.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Say, you know those “humiliating” checkpoints that everyone says Israel should remove? The ones that are only preventing peace, not helping it?

Shyeah.

A Palestinian was caught at an army checkpoint north of Nablus on Tuesday with two makeshift hand grenades.

The grenades were detonated by a sapper.

Nablus is one of the areas that the Palestinians are supposed to be policing. Because they’ll stop things like this from happening.

Shyeah.