Tig3 is trying to decide what to do with the APC. I suspect evil motives.

Here’s a shock: Even though the media services have been touting Hamas’ “softening” of their stance against a partial truce (e.g., Gaza only), Ismail Haniyeh said today that they’re not changing their minds.

A day before delivering Hamas’ officially response to the Egyptian ceasefire offer, group leader Ismail Haniyeh hardened his positions Wednesday.

Speaking in Gaza, Haniyeh said that should a truce be reached with Israel, it would bind the parties both in the Strip and in the West Bank. The talks mediated by Egypt currently focus on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip only, as a first stage.

I know you’re all shocked to hear that Hamas is still dedicated to Israel’s destruction, having heard it only about a thousand times from me, but try to control yourselves.

According to Haniyeh, “The truce, should it be accepted by Israel, must be reciprocal and comprehensive – both in Gaza and in the West Bank. The mechanism for implementing the ceasefire depends on halting the aggression, lifting the blockade and opening the crossings. The ball is now in Israel’s court.”

And oh yeah—they’re never, ever going to recognize Israel, either.

Haniyeh reiterated remarks made Monday by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, stressing that his movement would not recognize Israel.

Watch for the medai to still blame Israel for not agreeing to this bogus truce. The UN has just declared Israel’s Gaza policy a failure. They haven’t come up with any other ideas, though. Just the idea that Israel should feed, clothe, and fuel the enemies who want to kill her.

“The collective punishment of the population of Gaza, which has been instituted for months now, has failed,” he said. “The immediate and common goal must be an end to violence and a reopening of crossings.

Yeah, here’s the thing: The reason the crossings were closed in the first place was to secure and end to the violence. Since they have not yet succeeded in that respect, Israel should do more than keep them closed. Stop sending in food and fuel. Let the Egyptians handle Gaza. It was theirs until 1967. Give it back. Problem solved.

Considering that Carter has made many, many statements that are demonstrably false, I’m gonna go with Condi on this one. She says she warned him off talking to Hamas. He says she’s lying.

Former US President Jimmy Carter denied on Wednesday that the State Department warned him not to meet with leaders of Hamas before he made a recent trip to the Middle East.

The State Department has said earlier that US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top US Diplomat for the Middle East, urged Carter not to meet with Hamas, a position restated by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but Carter denied this.

And here’s his diplospeak for “She’s a liar”:

President Carter has the greatest respect for … Rice and believes her to be a truthful person. However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true,” the statement said.

It’s common sense time. Nobody, but nobody wanted Carter to talk to Hamas. For him to claim that he was never specifically told not to speak to Hamas is a load of crap. But then, Carter is an expert at finessing the language when he wants to get around taking responsibility for his actions. Like justifying suicide bombing in his anti-Israel screed. Of course, he apologized for making people think that he justifies suicide bombings. But then you have to wonder, since he’s constantly using the language of the terrorists (”40 dead Palestinians for every Israeli” is straight out of the Hamas playbook). It’s getting hard to tell the difference these days.

A brief note: I hate, hate, hate alligators and crocodiles. It is probably because when I was a child, my father thought it was funny to pretend to knock me into the alligator pit at the Staten Island Zoo while I stood on the wall, holding tightly to the brass rail, and stared down at dozens of enormous crocodiles in the cement pool below. Yes, coming up behind your daughter and grabbing her by the back and pretending you’re going to shove her over the rail—wow, that’s utterly hilarious. I also think that contributed to my fear of heights. That, and taking me on the Cyclone in Coney Island when I was about five.

But I digress. I feel bad for this poor woman:

US authorities say a 69-year-old Florida woman found a 2.5 metre long alligator prowling in her kitchen on Monday night.

Sandra Frosti says the gator must have pushed through the back porch screen door and then went inside through an open sliding glass door at her home in Oldsmar, just north of Tampa.

It then apparently waddled through the living room, down a hall and into the kitchen.

That’s eight feet long. There’s a picture at the link.

I may never complain again about ants in my kitchen.

Israel is reopening Nahal Oz in spite of the attacks on it in the last two weeks that killed two civilians and threatened more.

The Nahal Oz fuel terminal will reopen Wednesday morning for the first time in two weeks, since the terror attack which left two Israelis dead.

For the time being, the defense establishment will only allow the transfer of diesel to the Gaza Strip’s power station, while the transfer of petrol will not be possible.

The terminal was partially opened last week for the transfer of diesel and heating gas, but Palestinian gunmen fired at the tankers, leading to a decision to leave the depot closed.

Following the attempted infiltration attack at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Saturday, the defense establishment began looking into the IDF’s activity at the crossings.

Sources in Gaza warned Tuesday of the total collapse of all electricity, medical, sanitation, drainage, and other power-related systems in the Strip due to an extreme shortage of fuel.

In addition, the Palestinian Energy Authority (PEA) said that the Palestinian power station would cease to function as of Wednesday.

You’re about to run out of fuel? I have a suggestion. Don’t effing kill the people who are supplying the fuel to you, and I guarantee they won’t stop supplying it.

Israel should stop all shipments from Nahal Oz and tell the Palestinians to get their fuel from their Arab brothers—through the Egyptian crossing. For every attack on a crossing, Israel should shut that crossing. After a while, there will only be Egypt. Let all of their supplies come through there. The Egyptians have finally realized that Hamas doesn’t give a damn for them, either. I’m sure the Egyptians will use the legendary Arab/Muslim kindness to fellow Arabs and Muslims—just as Iraq and Iran showed each other during their wars, and Egypt showed Yemen during their wars, and Syria showed Lebanon these twenty-odd years—yes, the Arab notion of brotherhood is what the Palestinians truly deserve.

via memeorandum
Ha’aretz reports:

According to a government source in Jerusalem, the incident caused great embarrassment for UNIFIL. The source described the incident, explaining that UNIFIL troops on patrol discovered the truck and chased it down and pulled it over. When the UNIFIL troops approached the vehicle, the source said, armed Hezbollah men exited the truck and threatened the troops at gunpoint. The UNIFIL patrol then went back into their cars, according to the source, and returned to their base.The report submitted to the Security Council said the incident occurred on the night between the 30 and 31 of March. “This serious violation of the UN resolution raises concerns,” the report said.

While it doesn’t seem to be in response to the above incident, Israel Matzav notes that Arutz-7 is reporting that returning Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi wants to change the UNIFIL”s rules of engagement and Hezbollah is none too happy about the proposed changes.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced last week that he would be reviewing the rules of engagement for the 2,500 Italian soldiers serving in the UN force, saying the troops were being prevented from reacting to certain situations. “We pledge our support for the strengthening of democracy (in Lebanon),” he said, “but we want to look at the rules of engagement. Our soldiers find themselves in a unique situation…because they cannot react. We will re-examine the rules of engagement.”The Hizbullah-led opposition in Lebanon warned against amending UNIFIL’s rules of engagement, saying that it would change it into “occupation forces.” The use of that language is meant to signal that Hizbullah terrorists would begin targeting UN forces in attacks.

We already knew that Hezbollah was re-arming as expected.

I doubt that Berlusconi will be successful in changing the rules of engagement. The UN just does not have the political will to challenge Hezbollah.

More at the Jawa Report, Solomonia and LGF who explains the media’s missing this story with:

I think Britney Spears was doing something very important around that time.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Syria funds and supplies Hamas and Hezbullah. Syria has treaties with Iran guaranteeing that Iran will step into any altercation Israel has with Syria. Syria is the reason Lebanon is the shithole that it is, and has been for twenty years. A few months ago, Israel bombed what everyone thinks was a nascent Syrian nuclear weapons site. Syria has installed Hezbollah-style rocket launchers on its border with Israel. And word is that Ehud Olmert has agreed to give back the Golan Heights in exchange for “peace” with Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has informed Damascus that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agrees to fully withdraw from the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria, the independent Damascus-based website Press Shams reported Wednesday, quoting diplomatic sources.

The Prime Minister’s Office declined comment Wednesday on the report, saying that “we will not comment on the said report but we can refer everyone to the prime minister’s holiday interviews saying that we know what the Syrians want of us, and they know what we want of them.”

Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem linked the report to the upcoming US Congress hearing regarding the North Korean bid to distribute nuclear technology.

Several days ago, Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed Olmert’s remarks that Jerusalem and Damascus were holding talks through a third party in a bid to look into resuming the negotiations between the two countries.

Now, I’m all for peace with Israel’s neighbors. But I don’t see how Syria has done anything to indicate that Syria is interested in peace with Israel. Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, lives comfortably and safely in Damascus. Imad Mugniyeh was protected by Syrian intelligence forces. Syria hosts regular terrorist conferences. Not terrorism conferences. Terrorist conferences, where they all get together and figure out new ways to kill Jews.

If this is true, Olmert is the biggest threat in Israel’s existence. The only good thing about this is that his government will absolutely fall if he tries to force this onto the Israeli people.

The Syrian report’s credibility may be questionable, but that did little to pacify the infuriated political arena.

Head of the Knesset’s House Committee, Knesset Member David Tal of the prime minister’s Kadima party, announced Wednesday that he would push forward the forming of the Golan Heights Act once the Knesset returns from its Passover hiatus. The bill will make a referendum on the region’s future mandatory.

Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said the report indicated “unprecedented irresponsibility on Olmert’s part both political and defense-wise.”

Without the Golan Heights, he added “Israel will have serious trouble defending itself and its water sources. I have no doubt the public is on the Golan’s side, not the prime minister’s.”

I’m going to have to give this one the I-Don’t-Think-It’s-True rating. But I suspect Olmert would cede the Golan without demanding that Syria expel all terrorists from Damascus. And it’s a pretty bad reflection on Olmert that I think that.