Gaza fashion sense

Whether or not people agreed with the the Gilad Shalit deal, last Tuesday I know everyone agreed on one thing while watching the Egyptian Interview.

That shirt was one freakin' ugly shirt.

So someone explain to me, how is it that this shirt is now the height of fashion in Gaza?

But while most focused on his gaunt frame, it appears many Palestinians were more interested in his outfit, which became an immediate trend in Gaza. Merchants in the Strip are now offering "The Shalit shirt" in a wide range of colors, for NIS 60 ($16.5). The demand, it seems, is very high.

Facebook group member uploads photo comparing himself to Shalit

I guess there really is a humanitarian fashion crisis in Gaza.

The day after the release - random Gilad Shalit thoughts

I feel emotionally spent after spending the day yesterday following every minor event related to the release of Gilad. There's a jungle of thoughts running around my head, it's impossible to get them organized.

• Today is a better day than yesterday. Today, Gilad wakes up in his own bed, and will meet only people he knows and trusts.
• So many little things he'll need to catch up on. In five years he's missed out on (among others) Facebook, iPhones, last Harry Potter book, Lady Gaga, Chemistry Nobel prize... 
• We all saw the forced Egyptian TV Interview. It was cruel and sadistic. And yet, it highlighted the stark contrast between Gilad's sweet character and the brutality of his captors.
  I almost retched when I heard the question "You’ve known what it’s like to be in captivity. There are more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, will you now join the campaign for their release?"
  Gilad answered "I’ll be very happy if they are released, but they shouldn't go back to fighting Israel"
  This answer is nothing short of amazing, considering his captors were right behind him with a gun, and he couldn't be sure that his answers wouldn't prevent him from going home.
• Side note: this was not how it was translated in Arabic or by the BBC. People not listening to the original Hebrew received "I'll be very happy if they are released and go back to their families". Why bother interviewing him if you're going to lie about his answers?
• Speaking of cruel and sadistic, the interviewer Dragon Lady said she didn't know he was being forced to do the interview.
  Really? Masked Hamas men with guns behind him, and you think it's his free will?

  

  This looks like it's exactly how Gilad would like to spend his time

• To all the people who criticize Israel for "disproportionate use of force", where are you now? Why are you not criticizing this deal for its disproportionality?
• Reading users' comments on any other news site which allows them is an experience equivalent to reading a Kafka novel. On more than one occasion I've read comments talking about "the arrogance of the Israelis, thinking that they're the chosen people, that one Israeli is worth over a thousand Palestinians".
  Really? You guys think that we set the exchange rate? How clueless can you get?
• To all the people who scream "Apartheid" at Israel, will you continue doing that? You do realize that here we have killers going free just because they're Muslim and their targets were Jews? 
• Amna Muna, the She-Devil who lured Ofir Rahum to his death, was not nice to other inmates while in prison. In fact, she harassed and terrorized them. So much in fact, that she refused to enter Gaza because she feared retaliation from her victims' families. Instead, she delayed the whole thing and finally got sent to Turkey. May she choke on a Turkish delight. Amen.
• There were some delays in getting Shalit back due, among other things, to the Egyptian interview. We waited patiently, holding our breath.
  There were some delays in getting the freed prisoners to Beitunia, and finally the transfer route was changed. Of course the Palestinians rioted and threw stones. No one is even surprised because it's so typical.
• Notice how relieved we all were that Gilad, while extremely pale, traumatized and underfed, is more or less in good condition?
  How come nobody even doubted that the Palestinian terrorists would be?
  Oh right, Israeli Double Standard time.
• I started crying when I heard the Yas'ur pilot say over his speaker "מביאים את גלעד הביתה" (We are bringing Gilad home).
• What a dissonance. Gilad, after 5 years in captivity, can still muster enough optimism in him to say that he hopes this will advance peace. The terrorists, after barely a few minutes of freedom, already cried for "the next Gilad Shalit" to be kidnapped. 
• It's so nice to see Noam and Aviva genuinely smiling. 
• I can hardly believe the strength of character that Gilad has shown. What a sweet, brave young man.

I'd like to end this post with an apology to Gilad. 

For years we've glimpsed into your life, into your family. We feel like we know you, and now that you're back we act almost like we deserve a piece of you and your life. We don't. Please forgive our curiosity, it all comes from a good place in our hearts, and we want confirmation that now, everything will be all right and you'll be happy. I hope everyone respects your privacy.

ברוך שובך

Israeli-Palestinian exchange rate

The next time you hear someone use the faded old rhetoric of  comparing number of Israelis killed vs. number of Palestinians killed in order to bash Israel, just remind them of the exchange rate which Palestinians have imposed on the region.

As of today, 1 Israeli life is worth 1027 Palestinian lives.

Let's have a look at the region's skewed concept of "Fair Market Value", shall we?

Over the past 30 years, Israel has released around 7000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 19 Israelis and the bodies of 8 Israelis. Here is an overview of some of the most notable exchanges:

• Jibril Agreement in 1985: 1150 prisoners released in exchange for 3 Israeli prisoners. Among the released: Ahmed Yassin
• July 1996: A deal with Hezbollah to return the remains of 123 Lebanese soldiers in exchange for the remains of 2 Israelis.
• June 1998: Another deal with Hezbollah, to return the remains of 40 Hezbollah soldiers (including Nasrallah's son's remains) in exchange for the remains of one Israeli.
• January 2004: Yet another Hezbollah deal, 435 prisoners in exchange for the bodies of 3 Israeli soldiers kidnapped at the very beginning of the 2nd Intifada (Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaid), and "businessman" Elchanan Tennenbaum.
  Among the released: Mustafa Dirani and Abdel Karim Obeid, two "jokers" originally intended as bargaining chips for Ron Arad.
• July 2008: 5 terrorists, among which Samir Kuntar, and the bodies of 204 other terrorists, were exchanged for the coffins containing the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. 
• September 2009: Israel released 20 female prisoners for a proof-of-life tape of Gilad Shalit.

No, Israel is no stranger to this history of lopsided prisoner exchanges.

A Double-Edged Sword

While all the news of the world are pointed at the Shalit family, I'd like to take a step back and look at Benjamin Netanyahu, who ultimately bears the responsibility for the decision of the prisoner release.

Think of all that must be going through his head, and has been for years.

On one hand, there's a boy who hasn't begun to live his life yet because he was obliged, as every young Israeli man, to first serve his country as a soldier.

So who are these monsters we have to release?

Make no mistake about my feelings in regard to the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap. I am very happy that he will come home and while the price to pay for his release is very high, I applaud my government for being able to make this very difficult choice, and support this decision.

But it is an incredibly high price to pay and one can only wonder about the society which welcomes monsters such as the terrorists we are forced to release.

Here's a little glimpse of a handful of the people beasts the peace-loving and state-deserving Palestinians wish to see free:

• Walid Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Hadi Anajas, born in 1980, currently serving 36 life sentences for his role in the terror attack at Moment Caffé in Jerusalem on March 9, 2002, where 11 civilians were immediately killed and 54 more were injured.
  
• Nasir Sami Abd al-Razzaq Ali al-Nasser - Yataima, born in 1977, currently serving 29 life sentences for his role in helping bomb the Park Hotel in Netanya when it was full of guests for the Passover Seder on March 22, 2002, where 30 civilians were killed and 140 injured.
  
  
• Maedh  Waal Taleb Abu Sharakh, born in 1980, currently serving 19 life sentences for his role in the bombing of bus 37 in Haifa on March 5, 2003, in which there were 17 fatalities and 53 wounded.
• Fadi Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jaaba, born in 1982, currently serving 18 life sentences, also for his role in the bombing of bus 37 in Haifa.
  
• Mus’ab Ismail aI-Hashlimun, born 1982, currently serving 17 life sentences for dispatching the two suicide bombers who realized the twin bus bombing in Beer Sheva on August 31, 2004, where 16 civilians were killed and 100 wounded.
  
• Tamimi Aref Ahmad Ahlam, born in 1980, the female terrorist currently serving 16 life sentences for driving the suicide bomber to his destination, the Sbarro pizza restaurant terror attack on August 9, 2001, where 15 people (including 5 members of the same family) were killed, and 130 people wounded.
  
• Abd al-Aziz Yussuf Mustafa Salehi, born in 1981, the man who proudly waved his blood stained hands to a cheering crowd after the brutal lynch of two Israeli non-combatant reservists, before their bodies were thrown from the window and trampled on, on October 12, 2000.
  
  ;
• Muna Jawad Ali Amna , born in 1976, serving 1 life sentence, was present at the Ramallah lynching and was excited by what she saw, and decided to get active online. She lured 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to Jerusalem then Ramallah, after telling him on the Internet that she was a new immigrant from Morocco. She drove him to his killers who fired several shots at him.
  While in prison, she adopted a young baby born there, does not regret what she did and says that people shouldn't look at her only as a murderer, she also has a deep personality.
  

These are not people who deserve to be free. They deserve to rot in hell for a few eternities, not to be hailed as heroes in their home villages.The only thing I can console myself with is the fact that they had very good living conditions in Israeli prisons, and will now go back to their previous, crummy living standards. In fact, they will all probably have to go into hiding because Israel has made it clear that just because they are being returned does not mean they are no longer targets.

Remember, it's easier to kill them outside of prison rather than inside.


You can see the full list of the terrorists about to be freed here.
For detailed accounts of the lives cut short because of these terrorists, One Family Fund has it all. Read their stories and remember their lives.

The torment of freeing Gilad Shalit

I don't dare get my hopes too high.

Just yesterday there was the inauguration of the exhibit of "When the Shark and the Fish first met", a story written by 11 year old Gilad Shalit, at the European Parliament in Brussels.

And today I come home to read the headline we've been waiting for for over five years.

Gilad could be home within days

I can hardly believe it.

I know there are two sides to this argument.

Everybody's boy - הילד של כולנו - Notre enfant à tous

Le chanteur israélien Aviv Geffen a composé une nouvelle chanson pour Gilad Shalit "Hayeled Shel Koulanu" (''notre enfant à tous''). Il l'a chanté pour la première fois lors de la manifestation qui s'est déroulée mardi dernier pour la libération du jeune détenu captif par le Hamas depuis deux ans.



The Israeli singer Avv Geffen wrote a new song for Gilad Shalit, "Hayeled Shel Koulanu" ("Everybody's boy"). He sang it for the first time during the rally held last Tuesday for the release of the young man held hostage by Hamas for the past two years.

In Bercy park in Paris, people protest a poster supporting our three missing soldiers.



What do you make of this? The protesters are not capable of putting their posters next to the one standing, no, they need to completely remove the Israeli one in order to make a pathetic little point. Just like in real life, they can't even conceive putting a Palestinian country next to Israel, they need to completely wipe Israel off the map to exist. They can't stand hearing another point of view other than their own, which is exactly the problem in the Middle East.

The mairie of Paris has put up this poster in support of three abducted soldiers. On June 25th 2006 Gilad Shalit was abducted from Israel proper by terrorists who built a tunnel to enter Israel from Gaza. In this terrorist attack, the terrorists killed two Israeli soldiers. Israel had completely disengaged from Gaza about 10 months prior to this incident. During these ten months, Kassam Rockets from Gaza into Israel proper never ceased. Less than a month later, on July 12th, on the northern border, Hezbollah launched Katyusha rockets into Israel as a diversion, then attacked two IDF Humvees with anti-tank rockets, and abducted Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. During this unprovoked attack, four Israeli soldiers were killed. Israel had completely disengaged from southern Lebanon more than 6 years prior to this incident, in May 2000.
A year after Gilad's abduction, a voice recording of him was given by the military wing of Hamas, asking that the Israeli government proceed with a prisoner swap.
We haven't heard anything from Hezbollah about Udi and Eldad.

200 people in Paris protested the fact that this poster has been put up in the Bercy Park. As you can see in the video, the three faces are covered with an appeal for the Palestinian prisoners, as if there is some sort of moral equivalent between them, and some injustice has been done by showing support for the Israelis.
First of all, why not put up your protest next to the missing Israeli soldiers? Why is it that pro-Palestinian ALWAYS has to equal virulent anti-Israel?
Second of all, do you really believe that there's some sort of moral equivalent? Our three soldiers were abducted from inside Israel, by terrorists who live in areas which have no reason to target Israel any longer*, in order to later have the upper hand in some sadistic negotiation. We have no news from them, they have no medical treatment, access to them by the Red Cross is denied, we don't know their whereabouts or even if they are still alive, how they are treated, or rather, how they are tortured, or when this will all come to an end. Talking from experience though, how many abducted Israeli soldiers have come back home?
Their prisoners are, in fact, prisoners. They were not abducted, they are not MIA. They were caught during a terror attempt, or during a raid on a terrorist source, or arrested, or whatever. Their families know where they are, how they are doing, they can even go visit them (since they always seem to complain that the ride to the prison is so long. Pfff), they get regular doctor visits, Amnesty International and the Red Cross are ever present when it comes to non-Israeli prisoners, they get three HALAL meals a day, they get to pray whenever they wish (confirmed by the fact that they once complained that they had to pray in the direction of the toilet, the poor dears), they even get to have cellphones (with which they took pictures to complain about their treatment). Most importantly, they have contact with their families and they know how long their sentence is.

In the video you can see a poster of a young man, Salah Hamouri, who the protesters say is a French-Palestinian student. The truth, it turns out, is slightly different. But why should they care about itty bitty details like the truth?
Salah Hamouri is an Arab-Israeli, not a Palestinian, who also has a French nationality (as does Gilad Shalit, incidentally). He was arrested with two other Arab-Israelis for suspicion of plotting to kill Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Belonging to the PFLP, they were convicted of assisting the enemy at a time of war. That's quite different from the image they try to paint to the audience.

The protesters managed to get the Israeli poster removed last week.

Yesterday on the radio I heard that the mairie de Paris decided to put the poster back up, though I can't find any mention of it online.


*There never *is* a legitimate reason to target Israel, but your average terrorist-Joe will always be able to complain that they only target Israel because of some unjust occupation. But seriously, what do people in Gaza want more from Israel after they completely disengaged from Gaza? What do Hezbollah in southern Lebanon want after Israel completely disengaged from southern Lebanon? Oh right, they want complete annihilation of Israel.

Why is it always Israel who has to do an act of goodwill towards the 'Palestinians' ?

Abbas: 'This is just the first group of prisoners to be freed'

What?? It was hard enough to find 250 prisoners with no blood on their hands.

Some prisoners knelt and kissed the ground as they arrived at the checkpoint and
boarded the buses. Leaning out of bus windows, some flashed V-for-victory signs and held up Palestinian flags and posters.

I think people don't realize this enough. When 'Palestinians' make a V sign with their fingers, it's NOT a sign of "peace, dude". It's a victory sign. So these newly released prisoners are flashing victory signs. Does this make anyone else feel uncomfortable? If freed terrorists claim victory, this is not a good sign.

The protesters voiced their opposition to the gesture and called for Jewish
prisoners to be released first, Israel Radio reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the prisoner release was part of a package
of goodwill gestures that was to give new momentum to stalled peace efforts.

Why is it always Israel that has to do goodwill gestures? We're not the ones randomly firing homemade rockets into their civilian centers. We're not the ones who are holding captive one of their soldiers in a secret location, giving no one access to him, and giving him no access to anything. We're the ones who disengaged from Gaza. Wasn't that one big heck of a goodwill gesture?

I would think that what with the world always complaining that we're always abusing of our disproportionate force and that we must restrain ourselves, then just the fact that we didn't flatten Gaza completely should be considered a gesture of goodwill.

And where are our boys?

Bring our boys back home.

We Will Not Capitulate

Last year I found this article, a proposed text for a speech by the Prime Minister that would explain to the world exactly what it is we’re fighting...

We Will Not Capitulate

Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.

We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.

A voice for six million citizens

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinejad proclaims.

And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers.

Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.

Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.

Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.

The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.

What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly.

We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.

In a loud and clear voice

And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassam missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.

An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us.

So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?

In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to live normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late.


By Ben Caspit, July 31st, 2006
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/457/743.html

"FREE THEM NOW" Rally in New York

I know I have some readers from New York and its surroundings, so in case you haven't heard about this rally, here's the info:


FREE THEM NOW!
One long year has passed since IDF soldiers Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev were kidnapped by Hamas and Hezbollah.
Show the world we have not forgotten and will not forget them.
Join us in demanding their immediate and unconditional release.
Monday, July 16th, 2007
12:00 noon / Rain or Shine
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (1st Ave. and 47th St.)

Please urge your organization's leadership and membership to join you there.
Sponsored by the: Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Jewish Community Relations Council of New York
In cooperation with the United Jewish Communities, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, UJA-Federation of New York, and American Zionist Movement

A Whole Year and Still Nothing About Our Boys

Unfortunately I haven't got much time to blog these days, but I would like to mark the fact that a year ago today, Hezbollah terrorists penetrated Israel, crossed a UN approved border, killed three Israeli soldiers, abducted two Israeli soldiers, fired Katyushas into Israel, and all this in an unprovoked attack. Israel had completely withdrawn from southern Lebanon in 2000.

According to Bibi Netanyahu, not in the smartest of ways:

"The Barak government's irresponsible withdrawal from Lebanon brought
Hizbullah to the fence, paved the way for Nasrallah and caused the problems
in Lebanon in 2006,"

In the next few weeks, I'll post flashbacks to things that marked last year's war and the world reaction to it. Here's a start.

A year ago today, Dan Gillerman made some informal comments at the Security Council Media Stakeout.


To watch the video click here.
(Real Media, requires Real Player... Maybe I'll find a way to embed these type of videos into blogs one day, until then, you'll have to click... sorry.)

Two days later he made an excellent speech at the UN Security Council, during a meeting about the "Situation in the Middle East". The full video is almost two hours long. I'll spare you the suspense, it's a lot of Israel bashing and incoherence about victims and restraint and fallacies.

In the midst of this room full of darkened opinions, there is one candle of intelligence and enlightment. Dan Gillerman. You can see his contribution in the next two youtube clips.

Part I of Dan Gillerman's Speech at the UN's Security Council

Part II of Dan Gillerman's Speech at the UN's Security Council

As brilliant as his speech is, there is a drawback. His audience is the UN. His words fell on deaf ears. Just like Herzog's speech after the UN's ridiculous decision to equate Zionism with racism. In a movie, or in an Ayn Rand novel, speeches like these would wake up the dormant neurons in the audience, they would realize what the "big picture" is, they'd get up and give a standing ovation (in the movie), or nod in silent agreement and act accordingly (in the Ayn Rand novel), and the world's intelligence level would have increased a notch.
Not here.


In the days following the start of the war, Cox and Forkum had some excellent comic strips made.



This one is actually from right after Gilad Shalit was abducted, but I discovered it on July 13th. I like this image so much. For me it represents the whole situation of the Middle East.

The media world exploded. Countless staged pictures of dead children on the Lebanese side, the now infamous Green Helmet Guy, incredible exaggerations in captions which have nothing to do with either the picture or reality, photoshopped pictures on Reuters exposed by LGF, objects meticulously placed in order to ignite reader disapproval against Israel, pictures showing what Hezbollah wanted the world to see, pictures wrongly identified, debris of same building shown over and over again to insinuate constant Israeli destruction and contempt for Lebanese civilians... And the list goes on...

And in all this, world condemnation of Israel, excessive force, Israel should use restraint, blahblah. And where are our boys? Geneva convention anyone? Has Amnesty done anything in order to know anything at all about them? Has the Red Cross condemned anyone because the illegally abducted Israeli soldiers haven't been given access to their services?

www.banim.org

Score 1 Point for Sarkozy

Sarkozy talks about Gilad Shalit.

Sarkozy told Noam Shalit, Gilad Shalit's father, that he considers Gilad – who has French citizenship – a
kidnapped Frenchman and that he is obligated to "care
for him as one of our own."

Now let's see if these words can turn into action.

BBC's Alan Johnston freed after 16 weeks

I'm sure that by now you've all heard that Alan Johnston has been freed. He seems to be in fine shape and will hopefully be back home soon. I first read about it here and felt I had a few things to say.

Hamas routed the Fatah faction in a kind of civil war in Gaza last month
and since then has been trying to deliver on promises of security and stability.

What's a kind of civil war?
A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power. [wiki]
What is going on in Gaza is a civil war. They share the same culture, the same society and the same nationality. What they don't share (besides the power, obviously) are their international policy tactics.
Hamas makes it officially loud and clear that they will annihilate Israel if given half the chance.
Fatah has it a well known secret that they will annihilate Israel if given half the chance.

The release of Johnston was an important goal for Hamas, which is
classified as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, in
its efforts to secure international credibility.

International credibility for what? For being able to negotiate with terrorist scum like themselves? How do we know this wasn't orchestrated by Hamas from the start, in order to later be able to show the world "Look, we freed him, we're good people".

At the news conference, Johnston thanked all those who had worked for his
release, including Haniya and Hamas. He said he was only beaten in the last
half-hour before his release, and said that once Hamas took over Gaza, his
kidnappers, whom he described as "comfortable," began to get very nervous.

A subliminal message to make us feel that the Hamas takeover is a good thing?

"It was really grim," Johnston said. "It was like being buried
alive, really, removed from the world." His kidnappers were
indifferent and he became very ill twice, he said, "and I had the
feeling that they would watch television while the British guy died in the other
room."

Does that mean that now Alan Johnston will be writing about the horrible situations of Tzvi Feldman, Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz, Ron Arad, Guy Hever, Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev? After four months of indifferent treatment, does he realize what 25 years of torture and cruel treatment means?

Mahmoud Zahar, said Hamas would enforce the rule of law in Gaza and protect
foreigners. "It's a new era," Zahar said. "We will not allow illegal activities
against anyone."

This coming from Hamas? They won't allow illegal activities against anyone? Kassam rockets are legal now? This doesn't make much sense at first sight.
Meryl has often said that fallacies like what we just heard often make sense if at the end of the fallacy you add "Unless it's Jews/Israel/Israeli citizens". Let's give it a try.
"We will not allow illegal activities against anyone, unless it's Israeli citizens."
Yep, perfect. Works every time.

His continuing detention was considered an embarrassment by many ordinary
Palestinians, who considered him a fair and sympathetic voice, and made
it more difficult for other journalists to cover the territory.

And yet the British academic boycott is against Israel. Go figure.

Now let's see how his release was arranged

Hamas and the clan agreed that kidnappings would stop and that the
clan's extensive weaponry will be considered part of "the resistance" against
Israel and not confiscated, according to a member of the Army of Islam
interviewed this morning. But his version of the deal could not be immediately
confirmed. One member of the Hamas military wing said that the Army of Islam had "played an important role in the resistance," including in the capture a year
ago of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, still being held.

I'd like to remind readers, or maybe inform new readers, that this "resistance" is against a neighboring country who gave them full control over Gaza, removed every last Jew from the strip, and are no longer an "occupying power". What on earth are they resisting against?

Also, I'd like to point out that the only reason Hamas helped free Alan Johnston is because having him kidnapped is bad for their image, and therefore bad for their ultimate goal.
What is that ultimate goal?
Total. Destruction. Of. Israel.
And if they can get the world to close their eyes and let them do it, that's just the cherry on top.
But they can't quite do that if they're also holding a BBC reporter captive right? So free the dude, get the world to love you again and appreciate your peacefulness, continue doing everything in your power to destroy Israel.

And now to the double standards issue.
The last paragraph of the story is the following.

Israeli troops fatally shot a Palestinian youth in Hebron on Tuesday
evening after they mistook a toy rifle he was carrying for an M-16, an Israeli
Army spokeswoman said. Maan, the Palestinian news agency, identified him as
Ahmed Skafi, 15.

What has that got to do with anything?? [full story here]
First of all, how stupid do you have to be to play around with a plastic M-16 replica in a war zone with armed soldiers? Maybe Israeli soldiers should have waited to see whether the M-16 would shoot at them to determine if it's real or not.
When armed robbers who are killed by policemen are later found to have been carrying a fake arm, no one blames the police. Why should this be any different? Ah yes, because it's Israel. (When in doubt, always refer back to the Meryl concept)

But the real issue is, why on earth is this part of the article??
If it's there just to paint a general picture of the situation in the past 24 hours fine. But then why not mention this?

A Kassam rocket was fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday
evening. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Why not add that Hamas launched a rocket into the State of Israel in the hopes of killing civilians again? Because it would defeat your point of Hamas being a nice fuzzy-wuzzy organization trying to bring peace and tranquility to the world?

Just because Hamas "helped" free Alan Johnston doesn't mean they're not bloodthirsty terrorists.

Olmert to release terrorists in order to appease the other terrorists

Ehud Olmert announced yesterday that he will release 250 Fatah terrorists, and make them sign a pledge that they will never ever again do terror.

Then he's going to make them write 500 times "Sitting in an Israeli jail is proof that Israel exists and I therefore recognize it" on a blackboard.

I mean, really, making them sign that thing? Will it change anything? Since when do terrorists care about not breaking promises to the infidel?

And they are Fatah terrorists. Gilad Shalit is being held by Hamas terrorists. There's an itty bitty civil war going on between them, maybe Hamas won't be too happy about Israel strengthening the "other side" (which is, I assume, one of the reasons that is actually pushing Olmert to do this).

It's not easy being Prime Minister, because statistically speaking, you're bound to make some bad decisions. But I know we ALL have a feeling that we could have somehow handled this better.

In honor of this feeling, I hereby present you with a childhood favorite of mine:
Adoni Rosh Ha-Ir - Mister Mayor.
Sung by Igal Bashan and written by Igal Bashan and Uzi Chitman (another Israeli musician gone too soon). It's a kiddie song asking the mayor to please step aside for one day, I'd like to try out the job, after all I love this city too. Cute way to start the day.

Breaking news: A recording of Gilad Shalit

This is the first sign of life that we have from Gilad Shalit in a year.

You can hear the recording here on walla.co.il. Gilad Shalit's father confirms this is his son's voice.

There is a Hebrew transcript apparently here but I can't read a word of Arabic, so I don't know where to look for it.

Here's the English transcript I took from monsters & critics:

'I am the soldier Gilad, son of Noam Shalit, imprisoned by the martyr Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades.
'Mom and dad, my brother and sister and my friends in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
'I send you my greetings from prison and my yearning to see you.
'I have completed an entire year in captivity, my health continues to deteriorate and I need prolonged hospitalization.
'I am sorry at the lack of interest of the Israeli government and the IDF in my case and their failure to heed the demands of the martyr al-Qassam.
'It is clear that they must heed these demands to free me from my prison, and especially since I was on a military mission under military order and I was not a drug dealer. (Eds: reference to Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum who
was freed from four years of captivity by the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in a 2004 mass prisoners swap. He has since admitted that he had been dealing drugs at the time of his abduction.)
'And just as I have parents, a mom and a dad, so the thousands of Palestinian prisoners have mothers and fathers whose sons must be returned to them.
'I have great hope in my government that it will take a greater interest in me and will respond to the demands of the Mujahideen.
Corporal Gilad Shalit.'

This is a whirlwind of emotions for me. Gilad is alive. He needs help. Amnesty is completely silent about this (last news report on Amnesty's site with Shalit's name dates from June 2006). The ADL isn't silent about this (kudos to them, as usual).

In exchange for Gilad they ask that we release thousands of terrorists with blood on their hands.
I ask you, what is a tormented country to do in the face of this? For a parent there is nothing worse than to have a child held in captivity. Yes, it is worse than death. Because there is always the hope of seeing him again living side by side with the terror of what is happening to him every single second. But how can Israel release murderers who openly admit they'll go right back to doing what they were doing? They won't see this as a sign of peace offering. It will be a sign of weakness. And that means there will be more kidnappings of soldiers. And more terror.

Dan Gillerman said it very well: "These people are not in jail for some minor traffic violation. They are in jail because they planned, helped or participated in terror attacks on Israelis."

Israel is a country that is subjected to harsh criticism from organizations like Amnesty and the Red Cross and the UN. We get complaints that it's so hard for a terrorist's wife to come visit her murdering husband because he's in a jail 5 hours away from her. We get complaints that their cell phones are confiscated. No praise for Israel's doctors who take care of those terrorists. No word of praise for the normal jail conditions they receive. And what else? No criticism for Gilad's harsh conditions. He says he needs medical attention. This is the first time we've heard his voice, and look what they're making him say. An Israeli soldier would not say that of his free will.

Where's the balance? What did Gilad Shalit do that the world isn't outraged that anyone in the world might suggest that his freedom is equivalent to the freedom of thousands of terrorists??

Update: Here's a clearer video on youtube. You can tell he's being told what to say.