BREAKING: BBC reporter freed (updated)

MSNBC is reporting that BBC journalist Allan Johnston has been freed, according to an AP report:

Johnston was not seen after the announcement, but the Islamic militant group said he was in the custody of its military wing and meeting with deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Now, what about the eight Israeli soldiers STILL
in Hamas and Hizbullah captivity, including
Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eyal Regev?

Here's an interesting debate on the issue of releasing Palestinian prisoners to get their safe return. More on this here, here and here.

Update: a powerful message from Aish:

"We all have a tendency to think, 'I am only one person! What can I possibly do to help bring the captured soldiers home to their families?' But if every person who is reading these words would take one small step to bring Gilad, Eldad, and Udi home, then together we could make a real difference. Remember, even a marathon starts with a single first step.
What can you do? The following are a few suggestions:

• Commit to keeping a new mitzvah (spiritual precept) in the soldiers' honor, for example, lighting Shabbat candles every week before sunset, refraining from eating meat and milk at the same meal, attending a weekly Torah class
• Write to your representatives in the government. Tell them that you haven't forgotten about Israel's captured soldiers, and that they shouldn't either
• Forward this article to ten friends to raise awareness
• Give charity to merit the soldiers
• Donate directly to the campaign to release the soldiers: http://www.banim.org/en/index_en.html
• Recite the Soldiers' Psalm (Psalm 102) Listen to the Psalm in the original Hebrew.

July 4th, 1976: Entebbe rescue hero's last letter found (exclusive video)

• Entebbe hero Yoni Netanyahu's last letter discovered
• Lottery winners share 50 million shekel prize

Click on the screen for the latest
Israel Ch. 2 news update.

Israeli-American baseball bitchfest

Bradley Burston over at Haaretz - whose iconiclastic take on things I usually like and respect gets all deep-y and socio-psychological-ish about - best be sitting down for this one, kids - baseball in Israel:

"Dual loyalty, baseball, and the Israeli psyche

"For the immigrant, the majority culture is inevitably despotic."

And his windy opining gets much more tendentious - let's just make that "dopey," on a slow news day, apparently - from there... But the talkbacks at the bottom of the page? Each one a gem of logic, passion and reason, I tell 'ya. /sarc tag off

More about "kadur basis" here (and may God help us with translating this game for the local announcers...).

Here's an AP video about the first-ever game of the Israel Baseball League (be patient with the ad first):

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Screens up, Sulu: 'Electronic Jihad software, 2.0'

From Information Week:

"The "Electronic Jihad Program" is part of the long-term vision jihadi Web site Al-jinan.org has to use the Internet as a weapon, something that affects any organization that relies on the Web.

"Electronic Jihad allows users to target specific IP addresses for attack in order to take any servers running at those IP addresses offline. The application even includes a Windows-like interface that lets users choose from a list of target Web sites provided via the Al-jinan site, select an attack speed (weak, medium, or strong), and the click on the "attack" button."

Expose: Former al Qaeda-UK jihad member tells all

From The Daily Mail: 'Terror ringleader' is brilliant NHS doctor.
An Iraqi junior doctor and a brilliant neurologist working for the NHS are among the suspects being quizzed over the series of bomb attacks across Britain, it emerged today.

Or, "Well, that didn't work out so great..." Iowahawk at his computer screen-drenching finest:

"Ever have "one of those days?" Sure, all of us go through the occasional rough patch, but I swear there are times when I think Allah must really have it in for me. I mean, I know the "Big Guy" is supposed to have a sense of humor, but do I always have to be the punchline?

..."Take for example this last week. A few mates and I had been planning a big martyrdom weekend for quite a while; it's something we first began discussing a few years ago in medical school back in Amman. We were sitting around the dorm eating pizza, cramming for a big anatomy final, when Ali said 'you know, after graduation, we should get together for something really big.'

"Anyhoo, Achmed finally says, "how about packing cars with explosives and killing hundreds of random infidels in a coordinated series of gigantic fireballs?" And we're like, f***kin' A! Not only would we be it an awesome bonding experience (with plenty of Paradise poontang, LOL), we would be doing a valuable community service. Okay, so we high-fived and made a solemn promise that we'd target two years after graduation for the big weekend prank blowout.

..."Get this: Achmed, whose only job it was to call in a simple f***ing detonation code, switched his cell carrier to get the new iPhone and forgot to transfer his goddamn detonation contact list. So I'm like, "how about Bilal? Did he explode? Please tell me exploded." The dopey expressions around the room told me otherwise. Faaaack. Now there's NO dead infidels, NO horny virgins, and I'm out one leased Mercedes with a £12,000 balloon payment."

Read it all. You'll laugh, you'll cry. You'll spit beer out your nose. (which beats cryin' over said beer, right, laddies?)

Laser-etched Spock matzah (Klingon heksher)

Mideast mayhem giving you an appetite? Go snack on this.

"For the laser geeks out there, 100 power / 60% speed (on a 35W CO2 laser)."

And, for all you "covenentally-challenged" readers out there, here's another load for your storehouse of useless knowledge (Jews already know this, genetically):

In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the salute. The letter Shin here stands for Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)", and has a special significance in Judaism. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue. There he saw the blessing performed, and was very impressed by it.

"The accompanying spoken blessing, Live long and prosper... is similar to the Hebrew greeting, "Shalom aleichem" (peace be upon you) and its reply, "Aleichem shalom" (upon you be peace)."

Iran & the Winds of War

Joshua Muravchik, in a powerfully written Wall Street Journal op-ed, believes that "Iran is making a mistake that may lead the Middle East into a broader conflict."

"Consider the pell-mell events of recent weeks. Iran imprisons four Americans on absurd charges only weeks after seizing 15 British sailors on the high seas. Iran's Revolutionary Guard is caught delivering weapons to the Taliban and explosives to Iraqi terrorists. A car bomb in Lebanon is used to assassinate parliament member Walid Eido, killing nine others and wounding 11 more.

"At the same time, Fatah al-Islam, a shady group linked to Syria, launches an attack on the Lebanese army from within a Palestinian refugee area, beheading several soldiers. Tehran trumpets further progress on nuclear enrichment as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeats his call for annihilating Israel, crowing that "the countdown to the destruction of this regime has begun." Hamas seizes control militarily in Gaza. Katyusha rockets are launched from Lebanon into northern Israel for the first time since the end of last summer's Israel-Hezbollah war."

"The apparent meaning of all of this pointless provocation and bullying is that the axis of radicals--Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah--is feeling its oats. In part its aim is to intimidate the rest of us, in part it is merely enjoying flexing its muscles. It believes that its side has defeated America in Iraq, and Israel in Gaza and Lebanon. Mr. Ahmadinejad recently claimed that the West has already begun to "surrender," and he gloated that " final victory . . . is near." It is this bravado that bodes war."

Important reading.

Israeli - Palestinian prisoner swap: video debate

Worth watching:

Society

Naomi Hazan, former Knesset member and Professor of Political Science and a well known human rights advocate and Frimet Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered in the suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem's Sbarro cafe in August 2001, discuss the rights and wrongs of the just-decided move by the Israel government.

IDF soldiers Gilad Schalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by terrorists one year ago. Eight Israeli soldiers are kidnapped or missing in action.

More posts on this issue here and here.

Israeli medical marvel: bloodstream-sized robot

Incredible:

"Israeli scientists have actually created the imaginary technology depicted by the 1966 science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, in which a submarine is reduced to microscopic size, injected into the bloodstream and able to travel through the body to provide medical treatment.

"A tiny 'submarine' robot has been designed by Dr. Nir Schwalb of the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel and Oded Solomon of the mechanical engineering department of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

They say it has the unique ability to 'crawl' through tubes with the width of human veins and arteries, even going against the flow of blood at the speed in which it passes through blood vessels."

Also guess it's goin' on the British boycott list, huh? Maybe they should use the micro-robot to clear out the crap in their brains.

Go astonish yer'self with more Israeli medical advances here.

Fatah prisoner release: signing a death warrant? (editorial cartoon)

From Haaretz:

"[Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert announced the plan on Monday at the close of a four-way summit with Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, saying that Israel would only release prisoners not held for deaths of its citizens.

"As a gesture of goodwill toward the Palestinians, I will bring before the Israeli cabinet at its next meeting a proposal to free 250 Fatah prisoners who do not have blood on their hands, after they sign a commitment not to return to violence," Olmert said."

---

"This is a wrong, harmful message that will not strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It will only weaken it," Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday in response to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to release Palestinian prisoners.

"[Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, also known as] Abu Mazen will be hurt by such a decision," continued Netanyahu. "Giving them guns and releasing their prisoners is a big mistake."

More on Bibi & Co. here.