Israeli Police Deport Two 'Flightilla' Activists to Greece (exclusive photos)

Two Israeli police officers confer at the arrivals hall of Ben-Gurion International Airport early Friday morning, July 8, 2011. (Photo: Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

The Israel Police ratcheted down visible security at Ben-Gurion International Airport a notch overnight Thursday, after Israel gave foreign carriers a blacklist of more than 300 suspected hostile, pro-Palestinian activists headed here on flights.

See the photos and article here:http://www.demotix.com/news/748787/israeli-police-deport-two-flightilla-activists-greece

Israeli-led team discovers new planet; Olmert, Peretz mull visit

Grease? It's just one of the most fitting words here.
Knesset member (Labor) Shelly Yechimovitch,
Defense Minister Amir Peretz

From The Jerusalem Post:

"Hizbullah has rebuilt itself and is prepared for another Israeli strike," Naim Kassem, the deputy secretary general of the Iranian-backed terror organization told Al Jazeera TV on Saturday.
"We have completed the groundwork necessary and we have new battle plans," Kassem added.

Meanwhile, in another dimension - "a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind," we have this:

"The person who will inherit the defense portfolio from me will receive a ministry in better condition than the one I headed," Defense Minister Amir Peretz said in a Channel 2 TV interview aired on Saturday.
Peretz was responding to the Winograd Committee's interim report, published on Monday, which put the most of the blame for the outcome of the Second Lebanon War on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Peretz and former IDF chief of general staff Lt. -Gen. [res.] Dan Halutz.

...Amir, motek, (sigh) ya' yutz, dafuk b'sechel, listen - "You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination."

Peretz, in a typical, telling
moment of military vision

But listen - if you hurry, there's still time for you and Ehudi to book a ticket:

An international team headed by a Tel Aviv University astronomer has discovered a new planet, HAT-P-2b, outside our solar system. The planet's "mother star" is some 400 light years from Earth.

More on this story here.

IDF troops returning from Lebanon,
after battles in Summer of 2006.

Remember, dear readers: A nation of heroes, a government of cowards.

Hizbollah: Iran ok'ed all operations

Today's Headlines:

Hizbollah admits all operations approved in Iran Survivors bear witness on Holocaust Remembrance Day Witnesses in Eichmann trial meet for first time Weekly Summary – click to watch the top stories

JerusalemOnline daily news update (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• Merkel to Palestinians: Free Shalit
• Olmert urges peace talks with Arab leaders
• Katsav to be indicted on second rape count
• Winograd protocols decision postponed
• Special: click to watch US House Speaker Pelosi addresses Knesset

AIPAC LIVE/PRERECORDED COVERAGE

Go here to watch:

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/specials.asp

JerusalemOnline daily news update (special note to readers)

(I have taken a much-needed break from blogging for awhile, but will return in a few days, so please click back soon - DB 15/2/07)

• Prime Minister Olmert allows Turks to inspect Temple Mt. building site
• The race for the presidency: Collette Avital vs. her patron, Shimon Peres
• Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli rocks on
• Special: click to watch former CIA Director, James Woolsey
  
  
  
  Click here or on image for latest Israel
  Channel 2 news update.
  

Israel: 'This Place Called Hope' (insert sigh here)

Dry Bones, once again, nails it

Daniel Gordon, in pondering the hellish moods, exposes' and general crap writhing through Israeli society over the aftermath of investigations into the government and IDF's conduct of the war against Hizbullah; a slew of investigations of the (take a deep breath and try not to spew...) Government, Justice Minister, Knesset parliament, Tax Authority, both chief rabbis, and now, presidency in Israel's (modern) history, quoting an IDF general he recently interviewed, writes,

“'In any normal country, people would be in the streets, burning tires, protesting by the thousands. But here, nothing happens. People are going on as if there’s nothing to get worked up about.'”

I’m not so sure that it’s terrible that people aren’t burning tires. Burning tires would suggest that a change in the government would be enough. But that would be delusional. The reason Israelis aren’t protesting, I think, is that deep down, they understand that this problem is much deeper than the government, or the corruption, or the war. It’s Zionism. No one frames it that way, but that’s the real issue. One hundred and ten years after the First Zionist Congress, people are beginning to wonder if Zionism hasn’t begun to fail.

Very worthwhile reading about the malaise engulfing Israel.

(H-T: The Muqata)

'New Historian' glum over national survival prospects vis a vis Iran

Text: "Mahmoud Ahmedinejad showing the West
what both a peace sign and middle finger look like
when they're being developed separately."

"Glum?!" Did I write "glum" up there? Shyeah - professional discretion my *** - make that a notch short of suicide...

Benny Morris is considered the most influential and prolific member of the New Historians, a controversial group of scholars who have challenged much of the received wisdom of the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Warning: Benny has penned a serious downer of a read ahead. But read it anyway.

One bright morning, in five or ten years' time, perhaps during a regional crisis, perhaps out of the blue, a day or a year or five years after Iran's acquisition of the Bomb, the mullahs in Qom will convene in secret session, under a portrait of the steely-eyed Ayatollah Khomeini, and give President Ahmedinejad, by then in his second or third term, the go ahead. The orders will go out and the Shihab III and IV missiles will take off for Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa, and Jerusalem, and probably some military sites, including Israel's half dozen air and (reported) nuclear missile bases. Some of the Shihabs will be nuclear-tipped, perhaps even with multiple warheads. Others will be dupes, packed merely with biological or chemical agents, or old newspapers, to draw off or confuse Israel's anti-missile batteries and Home Guard units.

With a country the size and shape of Israel (an elongated 8,000 square miles), probably four or five hits will suffice: No more Israel. A million or more Israelis, in the greater Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem areas, will die immediately. Millions will be seriously irradiated. Israel has about seven million inhabitants. No Iranian will see or touch an Israeli. It will be quite impersonal.

Hmm... Maybe this will cheer up ole, Benny...

Earlier posts about Israel and Iran here, here, here, here, here, and the linkdump is here.

'Carnival of Vanities' 102 hot off the presses...

HOTDAWGS! BEERHEAH! SOOVINEERES! PRO-GRAMZ! PRETZELS! HAVEILHAVALIM! Get em' while they're hot!