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)

Israel's wildly successful YouTube dance duo do it again! (video)

Remember those two women who had a monster YouTube video of them lip-synching a Pixies song?

With a single three-minute dance video, two young Israeli women accomplished what the country's public relations officials have been after for decades - gaining an audience of 10 million adoring viewers.

With the help of YouTube, a Web site that allows people to watch and share videos for free, Lital "Tasha" Mizel and Adi "Dishka" Frimmerman have made their lip-synching interpretation of rock group The Pixies "Hey" the fourth most popular video of all time, with 9,993,604 viewers to date.

Well, get on your dancin' shoes, 'cause, they're back! From their video page:

Me and Dishka created, edited and danced to the
cute song from the 60's "Do you love me" by "The Contours"
and the song: Dr. Demento - Funny Farm "They're Coming To Take Me Away."

We were inspired by "American Apparel" cool clothes!

(HT: Omri)

EXPOSED: Borat, Ahmadin-what's-his-name are imposters!

Boy, are our faces red!

Looking back, we can only laugh at our unblinking acceptance of Ahmadinejad, an "Islamist hard-liner" dressed like a Turkish used car salesman, who called to wipe Israel off the map or move it to Alaska, demanded a manual recount of Holocaust victims, and banned all Western music.

The hoaxers' identities were uncovered last week when both Misha and Sacha had been picked up by New York City police while on a dinking spree in Chelsea, after a local man complained about a pair of deranged Middle Easterners harassing passers-by with demands of clean prostitutes and an immediate annihilation of Israel. The arresting officer recognized both the "Iranian President" and the "Kazakhstani journalist," and within minutes sold the story to the New York Post.

Post with utterly no redeeming Jewish, Israeli, or Palestinian value...

Sometimes at night, scientists stare out at the vast universe, and they wonder what’s out there. They wonder if it’s wondering about us. They wonder if whatever's out there is, at that very moment, looking down and marveling at the Great Wall of China or the glimmering lights of our magnificent cities. Or the giant faces of our fast-food mascots.

After many months of secrecy and hiding enormous tiles behind its back whenever anyone walked in the room, KFC revealed an 87,500-square-foot smiling mug of Colonel Sanders yesterday, installed in the Nevada desert near Area 51 (of course). The icon has earned KFC the distinction of being the world’s first brand to be visible from space, made possible by some 50 designers, architects, engineers and astrophysicists who surprisingly didn’t have more pressing tasks to attend to.

(And to think: I spent my high-school, wonder-years, jes' a-slavin' away over a deep-fat fryer at - of all things - the competition: Church's Chicken... damn good spicy chicken, though - treif as hell, but good!)