JerusalemOnline news update: Nov. 22nd (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• Israeli dies after Kassam rocket hits Sderot
  
• Lebanese industry minister assassinated in Beirut
• Members of Bnei Menashe tribe return home from India
• The Terror Challenge – click to watch a special analysis

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Israel Channel 2 news update

Lebanese blogosphere outraged over Gemayel hit

The Daily Star:
Prominent Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday his death will heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making. Full Story

International reactions.

And here's a quick roundup of what appear to be decent Lebanese bloggers - local and expat - covering the Pierre Gemayel assassination, and possible ramifications for our neighbor to the north:

Lebanon Blogs:
Gunmen opened fire Tuesday on the office of a minister of state, his office announced, just hours after the assassination of anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel.

Thermo-police
(...)I don't want Lebanon sliding back towards Syria and Ahmedinijad. I know things are more complex than that, but it seems like a watershed moment, and I made my choice. Call me zionist, call me neo-con, call me self-hating Arab. You know that that is false. If Syria is back in Lebanon I will do everything in my power to eject them again. Sorry.

Beirut Spring:
All terrorist attacks that took place after the Syrians withdrew last year have targeted Christian areas and Christian leaders only, why?

Simply put, the intended aim of Syria is to repeat history, where Lebanese Christians, fragile in the context of an Islamic neighborhood, have asked them in the past to come to Lebanon to protect them. But the Lebanese Christians have now matured and are no longer falling for that gambit...

Lebop:
There are odd parallels between the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Both organizations claim Israel as their target, yet much of their actions in 2006 have been aimed at opposing their countrymen...
The March 14 movement can lie to itself and continue to pretend that the Lebanese have something in common with those lowlife. It always amuses me when Nasrallah calls for a 'national' government. Assuming that there is a national entity in Lebanon, the first thing a national government would do is to exclude HA ministers.

The Thinking Leb:
And for good measure...

...gunmen have just opened fire on the office of March 14th Cabinet Member Michel Pharaon.

It is happening gentlemen.

New Arab video clip site: dissin' da hijab...

Ikbis is a new Arab video clip site aiming for the English-speaking, but Arabic-based culture market.

Lebanese blogger Beirut Spring, (Wiki) who posted about it, asks a reasonable question:

You might be asking: "Does the world really need another Youtube?"

For a start, the website has just launched and it's a chance for instant fame. A Lebanese girl has already shot herself dancing in her room and sent it, sparking the curiosity of hundreds of viewers.

Do I hear competition brewing for "Tasha & Dishka?" Yalla, Sulha!

And going by the initial batch of uploaded clips, they sure ain't planning on YouTube-type segs calling for war on the Zionazi infidels, and Iraqi snuff clips. Well, at least not yet:

This Just In: Hava Nagila - In Thai

I think that the Thai producers who translated the lyrics of Hava Nagila were reading the page upside down...

Report: Palestinians in El Al bomb plot (UPDATED)

German authorities have broken an Islamic terror cell that was planning to bomb an El Al jet at Frankfurt airport, according to Die Welt's Tuesday edition. An airport employee was to reportedly have taken part in the suitcase bomb attack, the Federal Prosecutor's Office announced on Monday.

Frankfurt Airport

An unnamed informant alerted security officials of the plan; six cell-members have already been questioned.

Cell members had reportedly planned to bribe an airport employee into aiding them in perpetrating the attack, to have taken place during the world football championships in the city in the summer of 2007.

Map of Islamic terror attacks.

From Ynet News:

An El Al spokeswoman in Israel said the company does not respond to reports about security matters.

"Tagesspiegel" (Berlin) reports:

Members of the terror cell are "mostly" from Jordan, originating in "Palestine." The other members are also from Arab countries. They all lived in the German states Rheinland-Pfalz and Hessen. The police searched nine residences.

Nach Angaben der Zeitung "Tagesspiegel" (Dienstag) kommt die Mehrheit der Verdächtigen aus Jordanien. Es soll sich um Männer palästinensischer Herkunft handeln. Auch die anderen Beschuldigten stammten aus arabischen Ländern. Die Bundesanwaltschaft bestätigte lediglich, dass es sich um Ausländer mit Wohnsitz in Rheinland-Pfalz und Hessen handelt. Dort wurden auf Anordnung des Bundesgerichtshofs neun Wohnungen durchsucht.

Mag: Israeli spies report Iran testing nuke triggers (UPDATED)

• Bush: I would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran
• Ahmadinejad: Israel “is weak and it has many problems”
• Iran Urges Summit With Iraq and Syria
  
  

From The New Yorker:

As the C.I.A.’s assessment was making its way through the government, late this summer, current and former military officers and consultants told me, a new element suddenly emerged: intelligence from Israeli spies operating inside Iran claimed that Iran has developed and tested a trigger device for a nuclear bomb. The provenance and significance of the human intelligence, or HUMINT, are controversial.

“The problem is that no one can verify it,” the former senior intelligence official told me. “We don’t know who the Israeli source is.
The briefing says the Iranians are testing trigger mechanisms”—simulating a zero-yield nuclear explosion without any weapons-grade materials—“but there are no diagrams, no significant facts. Where is the test site? How often have they done it? How big is the warhead—a breadbox or a refrigerator? They don’t have that.”

Source: Christian Science Monitor

And yet, he said, the report was being used by White House hawks within the Administration to “prove the White House’s theory that the Iranians are on track. And tests leave no radioactive track, which is why we can’t find it.” Still, he said, “The agency is standing its ground.”

JerusalemOnline news update: Nov. 20th (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• DM Peretz slams ministers over Kassam remarks
• PM Olmert rebukes tycoon's aid to Sderot
• Nasrallah calls for mass street demos
• GA Close Up: click to watch Isaac Herzog, Minister of Tourism

Click here or on image for latest
Israel Channel 2 news update

Sderot media under-coverage: hope amid despair

I reiterate my previous call to Israeli bloggers, readers and supporters, both here and abroad, with thanks to the many who are already standing by.

Allison at Israelity just about nails what I am feeling these recent days and weeks about events in Gaza (with the pain over unintentional civilian deaths) - and Sderot:

Every time I read about what is going on in Gaza I am continually surprised and disgusted. This Haaretz article reports about an abandoned IDF raid on a house in Gaza. They warned the resident of the place to leave, and were planning to hit it - because it is known as a weapons storage facility. Someone “called out the troops” as it were - and groups of Palestinian civilians (also terrorists? hard to tell) came to protect the house.

You read correctly - they were willing to risk their lives in order to save the ammunition held inside.

And our media colleagues? Omri at Mererhetoric writes in a white heat:

This one kind of goes along with the "why are Palestinian threats of genocide OK just because they're really pissed off" post that''s just below. Except it's more like "why are Palestinians actions that are totally evil and inspired by 9th century barbarism OK just because they're really pissed off".

Meanwhile, just across the way (but, apparently light years from our policymakers) in Sderot - where all those weapons are aimed - over a thousand this year alone, Rinat at Balagan - a seasoned reporter who's seen enough mayhem in her career, is moved to tears, after interviewing schoolchildren about living (living? - barely coping is more like it) under the daily rocket barrages.

In the words of Professor Efraim Inbar, writing in The Jerusalem Post:

The fear of military casualties and the subsequent hesitation on part of Israel's leadership to conduct military operations also constitute a violation of the basic social contract around which a state is built.

The Zionist rationale was founded on the desire to end the helplessness of the Jew in the Diaspora by building a Jewish state whose main function was to defend its Jewish citizens - by force if necessary. (...) While foolproof defense is not always a realistic goal, the Jewish state seems to have difficulty in fulfilling its most basic function - providing security to its citizens.

Four thousand Katyushas during the last summer as well as the continuous downpour of Kassams on Israeli settlements in the Northern Negev raise the question: Why should Israelis pay taxes to build and strengthen an army, if the state is reluctant to use the military force at its disposal for the protection of its citizens?

Piles of spent Kassam rockets stacked behind Sderot's police station (Photo: Rinat)

Why indeed, Ehud?:

"I am against causing southern residents to flee their homes, and against millionaires' PR maneuvers on the account of people for other considerations," the prime minister told the ministers.

He added: "Do they want to portray us as people who flee their homes? Will we leave Kiryat Shmona, Tiberias and Safed empty? Is this not a declaration of surrender?"

You tell us - better yet, tell the children of Sderot. And while you're going - take Dan and Amir with you.

And don't let the door slam allayouse' in the ass on the way out.

Previous Sderot coverage is here, and daisychains backwards.

And finally, (yet again) posting this press conference with Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal:

Sderot Mayor: 'Kassams? We Stopped Counting'

'Bowel-ing' in the holyland: Forget 'four to a lane'

Herb Keinon at The JPost has a stick-to-the-ribs look at local bowling (or "bowel-ing," as it tends to be pronounced here, in the language of the Prophets) ah-umm, "customs."

Watching Israelis bowl provides a fascinating insight into society. First of all, it is clear that this is a group-centered society. There is no four-people-to-a-lane rule here. Rather, bring the extended family and sit them right down. As a bowler who likes to concentrate, I've had my focus shattered by having the misfortune of ending up in a lane next to groups of six, eight and even 10 people.

Big fun - and so true.

Jerusalem Faces: Mahane Yehuda open-air market (Photos)

"Purple Daze" (Photo: Dave Bender)

Hiya, hiya, hiya. Been away, and really under the weather, but went to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market this last Friday for shopping and pics. Juggling a camera and several shopping bags at once, while dodging elbows, hawkers and the maddening crowd is an acquired skill, I'll tell ya...

I'm preparing a movie/slideshow of the images I shot there, but here's some at my Flickr site in the meantime:

My comments on the photos are at the Flick site, Your comments (be nice! Firm, but nice...) are welcome.

"Hero of the Soviet Nation" (Photo: Dave Bender)