BBC: Hamas does... and does not recognize Israel

Same time screen captures of BBC.co.uk pages

"If one goes to the BBC News page, they have two different settings: a "UK version" and an "International version." And each version has slightly different content, even at the same time.

When checking out the two different versions a few minutes ago, I found two different headlines -- saying the EXACT OPPOSITE thing! About Hamas recognizing Israel! So I kept two windows open, each with the contradicting headline, and overlapped them, them took a screenshot getting both simultaneously. Here it is:

BBC: Hamas does and does not recognize Israel.

So, for the UK version, it says "Hamas 'implicitly accepts Israel." And the International version says "No recognition of Israel - Hamas."

Both these pages were online at the same moment! Unfortunately, BBC has already changed the pages, but at least I got a screenshot of the crazy contradiction!

Go figure...

(Hat tip to Zombietime)

Israeli Defense Minister Peretz: stuttering and glassy-eyed

L-R: Israel CoS Dan Halutz, Defense Minister Amir Peretz at press conference, June 13, in Tel Aviv. (Gil Cohen Magen/Reuters)

I had a terrifying moment of deja vu this evening over events that took place on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War, while watching Channel 10's 17:00 news show on Tuesday.

Folks, the grave concern on the face of Channel 10's chief military affairs reporter, Alon Ben-David, was clear to see, as he aired several clips of Defense Minister Amir Peretz during recent press conferences on the fast-unfolding events in Gaza, repeatedly stumbling, stuttering, and pausing, glassy-eyed in mid-sentence, as he tried to address the gathered reporters.

Dismayed, I had to get up from the desk, walk away from the tv screen, as the hairs on my arms stood up, and I had this awful, bottom-dropping-out-of-the-elevator-car sense of, “oh no, we've been in this movie before...”

I hurriedly called Carl over at Israel Matzav, to get his take on it, (thanks, Carl) and then, checked two other reputable historial sources to make sure that I wasn't exaggerating to myself about the startling parallels:

Two (of many) pivotal scenes traumatically engraved in Israel's collective memory are of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol stumbling and stuttering on-camera during a press conference on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War, and of IDF Chief of Staff Yitzhak suffering a brief, but incapacitating nervous breakdown during the same period.

As noted author Michael B. Oren writes in his highly regarded "Six Days of War June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East:"

"Israel's military command was alarmed. Waiting while Egypt's strike force was become stronger and stronger and letting Egypt strike first was militarily unsound. It was the Israeli government, under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, that had the power to decide when to strike, and Eshkol, who was also defense minister, held back, hoping war could be avoided by talking to the Russians and to the Johnson administration in Washington. The pressure was unbearable for Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli army's chief of staff, who had not been able to sleep. And, around the 25th, Rabin had a nervous breakdown - not unlike Moshe Dayan in the approach of war in 1973. Responsibility for Israel's survival was a heavy weight to bear."


L-R: Ariel Sharon, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres (Photo: Newsday)

And this from “Six Days Remembered” by Anne Lieberman, noted at Boker tov, Boulder!:

“May 28: Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol delivers a speech on Israel Radio that can only be described as disastrous. Oren would describe it as "a stuttering, rambling, barely intelligible reading that listeners interpreted as a sign of exhaustion and panic... Soldiers huddled around transistors in the Negev were said to have burst into tears."


Back to the here and now:

Although I can't readily agree with Carl's conclusions - certainly under the present acute circumstances - he does bring forward a powerful take on the issue:

“At the Israeli ministry of defense, the buck stops with Defense Minister Comrade Peretz. When Peretz, whose highest rank in the army was Captain, was appointed Defense Minister there were fears that he would not be able to handle the position. There was talk about adding another Labor party MK who had been a general (Ephraim Sneh or Fuad Ben Eliezer) as his 'assistant' to actually run the Defense Ministry. But politics won out and no 'assistant' was appointed. And because Ehud Olmert wanted Labor in the cabinet and could not give Peretz the Finance Ministry (which Peretz really wanted, but which would have destroyed the economy), Peretz became defense minister. Regardless, that means the defense buck stops with Peretz. And if what the media are reporting is true, it is time for Peretz to resign.”

"IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today that there was a warning over the past 10 days on the general location between Sufa and the Kerem Shalom crossings, but no specific warnings.

"As a result of the warning, both crossings were closed down.

"Senior Shin Bet sources confirmed late Sunday that they had passed specific intelligence regarding the attack to relevant officials inside the IDF.

"The information had included the precise location of the attack and the fact that a tunnel would be involved, but did not specify a time frame.

"Defense Minister Comrade Amir Peretz, however, told reporters that the IDF had only received a general warning."
---
No matter what the political and media spin docs spew, whether it is a matter of mere lack of sleep, or worse, I am deeply worried about the next few days here.

Mark Steyn bodyslams critics of Coulter's 'Godless: The Church of Liberalism'

Ok, first things first: I do not usually get involved in internal American politics, including voting for recent presidents. I did, however, interview and take part in a program on a radio station to in the States about the influence of American - Israeli voters living in Israel on the 2004 elections).

Having said that, and reminding you that I don't really care for columnist Ann Coulter's waaaay over the edge political rants, uber-columnist Mark Steyn rarely fails to deftly skewer the political bonfires of the inanities, especially in the US, UK and Europe. In this column, he outdoes himself, handily filleting Coulter's critics:

"Ann Coulter's new book Godless: The Church of Liberalism is a rollicking read very tightly reasoned and hard to argue with. After all, the progressive mind regards it as backward and primitive to let religion determine every aspect of your life, but takes it as advanced and enlightened to have the state determine every aspect of your life.

"In 2004, in the gym of Newton High School in Iowa, Senator John Edwards skipped the dreary Kerry-as-foreign-policy-genius pitch and cut straight to the Second Coming. "We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases... When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." Mr. Reeve had died the previous weekend, but he wouldn't have had Kerry and Edwards been in the White House. Read his lips: no new crutches. The healing balm of the Massachusetts Messiah will bring the crippled and stricken to their feet, which is more than Kerry's speeches ever do for the able-bodied. As the author remarks, "If one wanted to cure the lame, one could reasonably start with John Edwards."

Like him or hate her, you know you want to read it all.

(Hat tip to Judeopundit)

Israeli hospitalized after mock anthrax threat against UK parliament

A very sad story From Ynet:

"After threatening British Parliament with anthrax false alarm, Elad Shitreet, son of former Finance Minister Shimon Shitreet, is held under mental observation in London.

"Sitting in his room in the closed wing of Park Royal Centre for Mental Health in Northwest London, Elad Shitreet, son of former Finance Minister Shimon Shitreet, has trouble understanding how he got to this point."

Read it all.

Poll: Should Israel negotiate the IDF soldier's release with the PA?

"Meanwhile, in another poll, "82 percent of Palestinians are of the opinion that the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit should only be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a survey conducted by the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported on Tuesday," The Jerusalem Post reports.

Overview of coverage at Ynetnews.

So, heard the one about the Jewish lawyer who tried to get into an Israeli bar?

Image: http://www.new-jersey-lawyer.com/humor.htm

Okay, okay. Stop me if you've heard this one before:

A Jewish lawyer tries to get into this Israeli bar, right?... He gave up, saying he couldn't fit in.

Ahh, sometimes, I just slay me.

Got any good lawyer jokes? Post em' here.



Shabbat Shalom, and have a great weekend.

IDF dismisses 2nd kidnapping claim

The IDF said early Tuesday morning that Palestinian claims of kidnapping an Israel West Bank resident were false.

Let's hope that's so, despite a persistent report aired on Army Radio's 08:30 news break that the individual was a Breslav Hasid nabbed trying to reach Patriarch Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I posted the following late last night, and pulled it moments later awaiting any denial or confirmation).

Palestinian sources are claiming to have kidnapped what they are referring to as a "settler," in the Nablus area of the West Bank, and are, reportedly, planning a press conference soon to announce the deed.

There has been no official response to this claim, as of this posting.

Israeli security officials are investigating the claim, and are taking it seriously, according to initial reports on my beeper service, and Israel Army Radio at the 23:30 update Monday night.

From Ynetnews:

"A spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committee told Ynet on Monday evening that his group kidnapped a settler in the West Bank. Spokesperson Mahmoud Abed Alal said he would release more information on the kidnapping later Monday night.

"The Israel Defense Forces said it was aware of the announcement but could not yet confirm that an Israeli citizen had been kidnapped, adding that they had received no report on a kidnapping from settlers. Settler leaders also said they are unaware of a kidnapping attack.

I so hope this report turns out to be psy-ops against Israel, and not valid.

However, there was a similar kidnapping attempt against two Israeli women in the West Bank two weeks ago, which, thnakfully, she managed to escape from.

From Haaretz:

"Palestinians tried to kidnap two Israeli girls at the Rechalim Junction, near the West Bank town of Nablus, on Thursday. Israel Defense Forces troops and police officers searched the area, and arrested the three would-be abductors.

"The three armed Palestinians pulled up to a hitchhiking station near the settlement of Rechalim, where the two young women were standing. They exited the vehicle and tried to force one of the girls, Amona Shahar, into the car. She fought them off, suffered a light head wound, and fled. The other girl waiting at the hitchhiking station ran away and used her cellular phone to alert security forces."

Kassam rocket into Sderot wounds one, cuts power to area

First report:

A Kassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slams into a neighborhood in Sderot, wounding one resident, who sustained shrapnel wounds to the leg and traumatizing several others, according to first reports.

The rocket hit a power pole in the town's Kasdor neighborhood, cutting electricity to the area, Lachish region police report.

'Editorial writers of America's leading newspapers: biased, silly or stupid?'

Barry Rubin at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center asks:"Are the editorial writers of America's leading newspapers biased, silly or stupid about the Arab-Israeli conflict? This week I'm leaning toward the theory that they are silly, by which I mean addicted to saying things that don't make sense.

"True, they are sometimes biased in the sense that both sides can be equally right; the Palestinians can be right, but Israel cannot be right. That doesn't always apply but often does, especially to the New York Times. They are also often stupid in the sense that they are simply ignorant about basic facts, facts which can often be gleaned from reading their own news columns."

Barry, I always liked that about reading and interviewing you one-on-one: simple, plain spoken and to the point, and so refreshingly un-"academic."

Israeli army demolishes Gaza tunnel - almost (Video)

IDF armor units deploy near Gaza for possible incursion (Photos: AP)

From Ynetnews:

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking in Jerusalem, said: "Yesterday I ordered army commanders to prepare our forces for a long and ongoing military operation in order to strike terror and its commanders. We will get to everyone wherever they are. There will be no immunity for anyone."

"National Security Council, has been appointed to head an investigation committee which will look into the attack and submit its conclusions to the defense minister and chief of staff.

"IDF forces blew up the tunnel used by terrorists to penetrate Israeli territory, but also found that the tunnel branched out – pointing to possible plans to carry out a more complex attack."

From Haaretz:

"Militants demand women, children in Israeli jails released in return for information on soldier"

From The Jerusalem Post:

"Exactly 30 years after the heroic rescue of Air France hostages from Entebbe by an airborne IDF force, Israel still suffers from a hostage complex. Ongoing warfare at varying levels, which has been Israel's norm for its entire modern history - including hostage-taking, soldiers missing-in-action and others held as prisoners-of-war - are all a tragic part of the normal scheme of things. Israel regularly captures hundreds of terrorists and other prisoners, and so, the IDF's superiority notwithstanding, it can't be illogical for things to also happen the other way around."