Don’t forget to check in with Michelle Malkin at 4 p.m. Eastern today. She’s running a live, streaming video telethon to raise money for From the Frontlines. Or you can go here to sponsor a care package in your price range. If you do send a package, email Michelle. She’s keeping a tally. And tell her I sent you. She’s been a good blog buddy to me. I’d like to repay the favor.

This is a case of my not agreeing with everything she writes, and vice-versa, and yet, we don’t hate each other. Go figure.

Update 11:15 p.m.: They’re closing in on one million dollars. THere’s still time to donate.

A group of Israeli teenagers pwned a few terrorist websites.

Izzadin Kassam’s site displayed a blank white screen and Hebrew text notifying of a technical error.

The websites of Arab Israeli political party Balad, and left-wing activist groups ‘Hagada Hasmolanit’ and ‘Occupation’ featured a black background with an Israeli flag, and the emblem of the ‘Extremist Zealots’ group, similar to that of Meir Kahane’s Kach movement.

The lyrics from the Israeli national anthem ‘Hatikva’ were also posted on the sites in Hebrew, as well as pictures of Palestinian babies dressed as suicide bombers with the caption, ‘Murderers from Birth.’

Pictures at the link.

Ynet doesn’t label the kids right-wing, and talked to some of the hackers, who don’t sound nearly as scary as the JPost is making them out. (The JPost is going Ha’aretz on us? WTF?)

“The criteria are defined as anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish sites that support or assist in harming Zionism and the existence of Israel as a Zionistic, Jewish state”.

According to him, the group consists of young adults from 16 to 18 years of age.

In addition to the Hamas military wing’s site, they also broke into the Balad political party site, that of the Hagada Hasmalit (the left bank), the Kibush (occupation) site and more.

[...] Despite the fact that the slogan, “Kahane was right” appears and with it, the symbol of the Kach party, a yellow and black fist, the groups’ members clarified that they are in no way connected to the Kahane Chai party, “except for many common opinions and agreement with Kahane’s ways, out of the understanding that there is no other choice.”

Fanat al-Radical is a new group of hackers whose members were members of another group called Kamikaz Team. “Since we didn’t want to include politics in Kamikaz, we created a parallel group that supports the destruction of Arab sites.

I actually don’t care what their politics are. I wish them success in hacking all the anti-Israel sites they can find.

David Ignatius hails Israel-Syrian negotiations in A surprise negotiation. There is so much wrong with this article it’s hard to know where to start.

OK, I’ll start with Noah Pollak’s observation that Ignatius:

regularly demonstrates that you can write about something for a living without understanding it

I don’t agree with Pollak’s assessment that Israel’s raid on the Syrian reactor makes it more likely that talks will succeed, his characterization of Ignatius is apt.

Lately I’ve been reading a review copy of “The Truth About Syria” by Barry Rubin. (Here’s an interview with Michael J. Totten and a review by Elder of Ziyon.) A review from me is upcoming.

Prof. Rubin’s thesis is that Syria has learned to be suited by the West. That’s how the Assad regime survives. Syria doesn’t leave obvious fingerprints on its support of terror and plays hard to get, demanding concessions from the West to support stability in the Middle East. And of course, even though the State Department classifies Syra as a state sponsor of terror, there are always those Nobel seeking politicians, credulous journalists and ambitious diplomats who see some semblance of reasonableness in the tyrants of Damascus.

Here are some of Ignatius’s points:

(3) Can Syria be decoupled from Iran?

Israel’s overriding goal has been to draw Syria away from its alliance with Iran. So far, the Israelis see no sign that the peace talks have achieved this goal. Syria-watchers caution that this sort of decisive transfer of loyalties is unlikely. But eventually, Syria may move away from Iran (and toward Turkey) because the Baath regime in Damascus is secular to its core — and mistrusts the religious fervor of the mullahs. The decoupling would be cultural and political, rather than a matter of security policy.

Really? Prof. Rubin makes the case that Syria - specifically the Assads - beneifts from the “religious fervor,” given the status of Alawites (who are not really Muslims, if I understood their description their sort of like Muslims for Jesus adopting some of the trappings of Christianity mixed in with their belief in Mohammed.) The Assads have cultivated their religious image in an attempt to mollify the Sunni majority in Syria and the Islamic world in general. Breaking with Iran would undermine Assad’s pious pose.

(4) Who assassinated Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in February?

The car bomb that killed Iran’s key covert operative in Hezbollah is still echoing in the Middle East. Suspicion immediately focused on Israel. But on Feb. 27, a London-based newspaper called Al-Quds Al-Arabi, with very good sources in Damascus, alleged that several Arab nations had conspired with Mossad to assassinate Mughniyah.

Adding to the speculation are reports that shortly before his death, Mughniyah was attempting to heal a split within Hezbollah between the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and its former leader, Subhi Tufaily. Tufaily’s power base is the Bekaa Valley, which has lost influence in Hezbollah to Shiites from southern Lebanon. According to one Arab source, Mughniyah — traveling under his longtime pseudonym, “Haj Ismail” — paid a visit shortly before his death to Tufaily’s village of Britel, just south of Baalbek.

Mughniyah usually traveled without bodyguards, believing that his protection was the surgical alteration of his features, which prevented even old friends from recognizing “Haj Ismail.” For that reason, the Syrians insisted they weren’t at fault. But a sign of tension was Tehran’s announcement that a joint commission would investigate the killing, a statement that Damascus promptly denied.

This is pure speculation. I was always skeptical of the claim that Israel killed Mughniyah. The idea that the Mossad conspired with Arab regimes in his killing. This strikes me as Uzi Mahnaimi-like speculation. Most likely Mughniyeh ran afoul of Assad.

(5) What about Syria’s secret nuclear reactor, which was destroyed by the Israelis on Sept. 6, 2007?

Oddly enough, that attack on what CIA analysts called the “Enigma Building” may have helped the peace talks. The Israelis felt that their decisive action helped restore the credibility of their deterrence policy. The Syrians appreciated that Israeli and American silence allowed them time to cover their tracks. Finally, the fact that Assad kept the nuclear effort a secret, and that he managed the post-attack pressures, showed Israelis that he was truly master of his own house, and thus a plausible negotiating partner.

Yes he’s master of his own house, but he uses that role to sow instability. The overtures to Israel worried Iran, which ended up making a new defense deal with Syria.

Getting involved in a peace process with Israel has only served to enhance Assad’s reputation in the West without requiring any tangible action on his part. It has also given leverage with his sponsor, Iran. Likely it will also get him some sort of concession from Israel that he will then claim is irrevocable, even when he fails to reciprocate.

Getting involved in a peace process for Assad is like the smoker who finds quitting easy because he does it again and again. The smoker never stops smoking and Assad will never make peace.

More at memeorandum.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Rockets hit Israel again today. And from the PA’s very own Fatah terrorists.

A Qassam rocket was fired Thursday afternoon from the Gaza Strip into Israel, exploding in an open area in Sderot’s industrial zone. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, took responsibility for firing the rocket. Sources in the Gaza Strip believe that the firing was meant to embarrass Hamas and to harm the ceasefire efforts.

Meantime, the PA’s own prime minister tells Israel to pay no attention to the rockets raining down on southern Israel, just open the crossings anyway. (What, you expected him to tell terrorists to stop firing the rockets? Please. You must be new here.)

Palestinian authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Thursday called on Israel to reopen border crossing with the Gaza Strip which were shut after Palestinian rocket attacks violated the shaky truce with Hamas.

“We have 1.5 million of our people with a sense of not having much to lose. That situation must end,” Fayyad told a news conference in Prague with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

Yes, it’s because they have “a sense of not having much to lose” that they’re firing rockets on Israel. Not because Hamas and Fatah are in a terror war with Israel. Nope. Pay no attention to the rockets, mortars, shootings, stabbings, and bombings. It’s all because of the “humiliations” suffered by the Palestinians.

And in today’s event being held in Arab/Muslim Bizarro World, Hamas is forming a committee to monitor violations of the truce—by Israel.

Earlier Thursday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that “the occupier’s continued blockade on the Strip constitutes a violation of the truce agreement.”

He spoke following a meeting held Hamas representatives with members of the Islamic Jihad, Popular Front and Democratic Front on Wednesday, in which the sides decided to form a joint committee which would monitor the Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement and decided on the response.

Got it? He’s talking to the people who are firing the rockets about monitoring Israel for closing the crossings because those people are firing rockets. Yes, a day in the life of a terrorist in Gaza or the West Bank: It’s just like a day with the Red Queen, and makes even less sense.

The NYT and Washington Post both reported on the recent breach of the ceasefire by Hamas. Though both papers included the reporting in articles about PM Olmert’s political maneuverings the Times did a superior job. The Washington Post left out a significant detail in its reporter’s attempt to draw and equivalence between Israel and the Palestinians.

In an article focused on Ehud Olmert’s last minute political save the NYT reports on the recent attacks on southern Israel by Gaza based terrorists.

Also on Wednesday, Israel closed the Gaza border crossings for supplies in response to Palestinian rocket fire on Tuesday that was the first serious breach of a nearly week-old truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza. Islamic Jihad, a small extremist group, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets, describing the move as retaliation for an Israeli raid that killed one of its senior commanders in the West Bank, which is not covered by the cease-fire accord. But the closing was expected to be brief.

Maybe the rockets were the first “serious” breach of the ceasefire, but earlier there had been a mortar fired into Israel.

Regarding the rockets on Tuesday, which struck Sderot, an Israeli border town, and its environs, Israel has said it will hold Hamas responsible for all infractions of the truce, including those carried out by other groups.

Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said Wednesday that Hamas was committed to the truce but would not “police” the border with Israel or enforce the calm with rifles.

So what was the point? Hamas is essentially denying responsibility for the agreement it signed.

James Taranto observed:

One of the hallmarks of a legitimate government is that it has a monopoly on the use of force. Hamas’s refusal even to try to exercise such a monopoly reveals that it is not a government but a gang.

The Washington Post’s Griff Witte engages in a bit of dissembling about the ceasefire.

Talks with the radical Islamist group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, have already borne fruit in the form of a six-month cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. That truce was rattled Tuesday, however, when the armed group Islamic Jihad fired three rockets from Gaza into southern Israel in response to an Israeli operation in the West Bank city of Nablus that left two of the group’s members dead.

In retaliation, Israel on Wednesday closed all commercial crossings into the coastal strip and would not say when they would reopen. Under the terms of the truce, Israel is supposed to gradually loosen the strict economic embargo it imposed a year ago, when Hamas toppled a unity government with the rival Fatah party and took control of the territory.

Hamas said Israel’s decision to close the crossings violated the terms of the truce. But the group also said it planned to continue to honor the week-old cease-fire, and by refraining from a military response, Israel indicated that it would, as well.

The truce wasn’t “rattled,” it was violated, or as Israbel Kershner of the NYT reported, “breached.” Note furthermore that in the third quoted paragraph how Witte frames the issue: Israel “violated” the truce but Hamas would “honor” the truce. Nothing about Hamas has said that it won’t stop smuggling or as reported elsewhere, denied any responsibility for enforcing the ceasefire.

Finally we come to this bit of pernicious equivalence.

The truce is controversial in Israel and Gaza, with hard-line critics on both sides arguing that now is not the time for quiet.

Retired Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, a former chief of the Israel Defense Forces, said that instead of holding its fire, Israel should be conducting targeted killings and medium-scale military operations so that, ultimately, Hamas “will cry for [a truce] without conditions.”

But Yaalon said he doubts the current cease-fire will last.

“It’s not a stabilized situation, and it’s not going to last for six months,” he said.

“Hard line critics on both sides?” So after he presents the view that both sides are honoring the truce, he quotes only an Israeli “hard-line” critic. But since Witte’s left out the Hamas statement about not enforcing the ceasefire, Gen. Ya’alon’s statement can be interpreted, I suppose, as that of a “hard-liner.” But if Witte had taken the time to report on Hamas’s denial of responsibility of enforcing the ceasefire, Ya’alon’s statement is a realistic assessment of the situation. If terror groups other than Hamas will be free to strike at Israel whenever they want, the ceasefire is not a “stabilized situation.”

I wonder if Deborah Howell is concerned.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

This story happened in Ukraine during the Soviet times and has two protagonists:

• Jewish Professor of psychiatry, a diminutive man widely known for his knowledge, professionalism, ornery character and a compassion toward his patients.
• Ukrainian Patient who got into a totally catatonic state for more than a year, without any cure in sight. Fed via a tube and slowly wasting away in a Soviet psychiatric hospital.

The doctor responsible for the Patient was totally despaired. Every known drug and every known therapy failed. Relatives visited the patient from time to time, talked to him to no avail, and, after shedding some tears, left without receiving any response. There was no hope.

And then our Professor came into the picture. He even made a bet with his colleague on success of his way of treatment. You see, he counted on the power of suggestion. Hearing and vision of the Patient were not impaired - he heard and saw everything, but apparently didn’t respond to it, living deep inside his shell. Professor also counted on the ingrained discipline of an army veteran - Patient served in the army for a very long time.

The only thing to do was to prepare Patient for the appearance of a person whose voice would penetrate Patient’s soul to the maximum imaginable depth. To this end, twenty or more times a day nurses, doctors and even some volunteer patients told Patient about a legendary Professor and his wizardly powers. Yes, Professor will definitely come, it is only that he is too busy at the moment, teared apart by the incessant demands of his other patients and other commitments. Of course, the whole brainwashing procedure was orchestrated by Professor, building up hope in the mind of the Patient. This centuries old remedy: belief-based cure - worked this time perfectly as well. With a small detail that is the reason for the story.

Well, after ten or so days of the brainwashing, Patient was told that tomorrow Professor will definitely stop by. And the patient started showing some signs of excitement that developed towards dawn into a fever of anticipation.

Come morning, about six doctors in white smocks burst into the room and promptly sorted themselves in a line which would have mollified even a drill sergeant. Patient started sweating and his eyes became almost clear. And then Professor - a small, white-haired and power-exuding figure - came into the room, approached Patient and barked: “Stand up!”.

And Patient sat up in his bed and, with some assistance, stood up!

Then, jabbing his finger in the Patient’s stomach (because of Professor’s puny height), Professor barked again: “Do you know who I am?”.

And, as if there were no year long stretch of catatonic state and muteness, the Ukrainian licked his dry lips and obediently answered:

“A kike.”

This wonderful bitter-sweet story was translated (poorly, I am afraid) by me from a book Walks Around The Barracks : Autobiographical Novella by Igor Guberman, an outstanding poet/philosopher, an ex-Soviet dissident, a Jerusalemite, a mensch. I hope Igor doesn’t mind this rip-off. Maybe it will be another tiny push to translation of this (and many other Igor’s books) into English.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.