A Peek into Others' mind » August 22, 2008

August 22, 2008

0:01
Image of the Week: Monju
» ‎ IMINT & Analysis

MONJU
The above image depicts the Monju experimental fast-breeder reactor situated near Shiraki, Japan. Monju was the site of a potentially catastrophic accident on December 8, 1995 when a leak developed in the cooling system. This leak allowed liquid sodium to escape and nearly caused an explosion which may have ruptured the reactor's core. Monju is scheduled to resume operations in October of 2008 following extended repairs and will continue to perform research under the banner of Japan's plutonium power program. Japan desires to use plutonium-fueled fast-breeder reactors to generate electricity to alleviate some of the need for imported oil and uranium. Fast-breeder reactors are an interesting energy solution as they produce more plutonium than they expend in generating electricity.

ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION

Feel free to discuss the current Image of the Week at the IMINT & Analysis Forum Image of the Week discussion thread found here.

SOURCES

-Satellite imagery provided courtesy of Google Earth

The Monju reactor
Monju to be reactivated
Japan's Plutonium Energy Program Authored by Sean O'Connor Visit geimint.blogspot.com for the article in its entirety.

August 22, 2008
23:58
Free Gaza: Report from S.S. Liberty
» ‎ PalCast

The Free Gaza Movement has set sail from Cyprus on their way to Gaza. Reports vary as to whether the Israeli government will allow the two boats, the S.S. Free Gaza and the S.S. Liberty, to pass through the naval blockade and reach the Gazan coast. The boats are sending out video updates periodically during their trip. This report was posted from the deck of the S.S. Liberty (named after the U.S.S. Liberty which was fired upon by Israel during the 1967 war killing scores of American crewman) at 7pm GMT on August 22, 2008.

For more information and to donate to the Free Gaza Movement, visit:
freegaza.org

23:56
The Return of Beauchamp
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

Fantasist Scott Beauchamp is back, sort of, with a fawning interview in Radar Online. Bob Owens has a post at PJ Media reminding us of a few facts: Infamous ‘Shock Troops’ Author Back in the News.

23:51
'We'll soon avenge Mughniyeh's death'
» ‎ JPost.com Front Page Top Stories

Top Hizbullah official warns of "shocking attack," says Israel won't be allowed "to enjoy stability."

22:53
Draft Accord With Iraq Sets Goal of 2011 Pullout
» ‎ NYT > Middle East

U.S. combat troops will leave Iraqi cities by next June and the rest of the country by the end of 2011 if conditions stay relatively stable, officials said.

22:45
Open Letter #19 on 9/11 to Attorney General of the USA, Michael B. Mukasey
» ‎ Wake Up From Your Slumber - The Truth Will Set You Free

Text of fax broadcast:

OPEN LETTER #19 ON 9/11 TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE USA MICHAEL B. MUKASEY

Mr. Attorney General,

read more

22:40
Russia-Georgia CyberWar Assessment
» ‎ Counterterrorism Blog

The Guardian Online just posted an assessment I co-wrote with my friend Jim Hendler (computer science professor at RPI) about the Georgia-Russia cyberwar.

The first modern cyberwar?

Aaron Mannes and James Hendler
Friday August 22 2008

The Russian-Georgian conflict is being described as the first time cyber-attacks have accompanied an actual war. Last year, the Russian-Estonian spat was described as the first modern cyber-war. These descriptions over dramatise events and are a distraction from the more prosaic, but more serious, danger these illicit cyber-actions represent. The technology used in these cyber-conflicts has only limited strategic impact, but represents a major threat to one of the most successful engines of human freedom and opportunity - the World Wide Web itself.

The strikes against Georgian government websites, along with last April's attacks against Estonian websites, were distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) where many computers simultaneously send messages to a website, preventing legitimate traffic from reaching the site. These attacks are relatively easy to launch, but taking a website down does not affect real world infrastructure and competent IT professionals can counter or at least mitigate DDoS attacks. The increasing volume and sophistication of these attacks is a subject much discussed among IT professionals, but its impact is to create an inconvenience.

Read the complete article here.

21:58
Iraq Takes Aim at U.S.-Tied Sunni Groups’ Leaders
» ‎ NYT > Middle East

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, which have been a major pillar in the decline in violence.

21:51
The New Big Caucasus
» ‎ Wake Up From Your Slumber - The Truth Will Set You Free

While it would be useful to improve on the translation of this article, it would be more appropriate to allow the reader to discern the ambiguous content.

read more

21:42
Cowboys and Palestinians
» ‎ Wake Up From Your Slumber - The Truth Will Set You Free

Arguing with Jewish Zionist Trolls

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21:28
Kevin Drum's new site. With ...
» ‎ War and Piece

Kevin Drum's new site. With cats....

21:21
Pat Buchanan's Fans
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

A fan praises Pat Buchanan’s new pro-Russia column for Townhall.com.

gus
Location: NM
Reply # 93
Date: Aug 22, 2008 - 10:53 AM EST

Surrounded by ENEMIES

Full disclosure is important in these discussions.

I’ll go first.

I"m not a Jew.

NEXT? — when we read the remarks on these threads, we ASSUME that we are all Americans.

We are NOT ALL AMERICANS... many many people who opine on these boards are Jews FIRST AND ONLY.

American Jews - many but not all - care only for what happens to JEWS and Israel.

Our government has been hijacked for 8 years by traitors called neocons... and yes that’s code for Jews.

Jew hatred is always borne of this kind of treachery.. .whether it’s in Berlin, Moscow or Warsaw and Budapest.... Jews create their own enemies by acting as a hive within a culture.

Until now, it has been considered politically incorrect to point out that Jews have a separate agenda from ours.

The guilt account is WAY overdrawn.. and the Palestinians are an example of how Americans will be treated if we allow this cancer to spread.

I am thankful to Pat for his vigilance. ditto for Mel Gibson AND his dad.

The enemy is here.. within... on this board and in our White House, every TV Station, and newspaper in America. IT’s time we had a talk with these enemies before they destroy the entire country, the constitution and the currency for their own ends.

21:07
Daniel Levy: "... Israel should be leading, ...
» ‎ War and Piece

Daniel Levy: "... Israel should be leading, or at least contributing to, rather than retarding, a policy re-think on Iran. Instead, when the U.S. sends Under-Secretary of State William Burns to sit in on talks with Iran in Geneva or...

20:54
In 2002, FEMA said that WTC 7 collapsed because of the diesel fed fire, now NIST says it did not
» ‎ Wake Up From Your Slumber - The Truth Will Set You Free

FEMA issued a report back in 2002 that said it was the diesel fed fire that caused the collapse, now the NIST is saying that fuel fed fires, like diesel, did NOT cause the collapse.

read more

20:40
Mapping the US's Global Bootprint. Mike Mechanic, ...
» ‎ War and Piece

Mapping the US's Global Bootprint. Mike Mechanic, Celia Perry and crew at Mother Jones spent months putting together a digital interactive map and an accompanying package of articles on the Pentagon's new global footprint. Start with Mike's post here ("Honey,...

20:37
US troops 'to quit Iraq by 2011'
» ‎ BBC News | Middle East | World Edition

US combat troops could leave Iraq by 2011 under a deal awaiting approval by Baghdad, a top Iraqi official says.

19:33
Veep Announcements Imminent
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

TIME’s Mark Halperin has “two Republican sources” who say John McCain has decided on Mitt Romney for veep.

On the Obama side, Politico’s Mike Allen says Hillary was never even vetted.

19:22
Michael Falcone: More Clues, Still No VP. ...
» ‎ War and Piece

Michael Falcone: More Clues, Still No VP. Update: Politico's Mike Allen says Hillary Clinton was never vetted. AP says one new name under VP consideration by Obama is Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Tx), a Pelosi ally. David Brooks says Obama should...

19:11
Gaza crossings partially open after two days of closure
» ‎ IMRA Middle East News Updates

Gaza crossings partially open after two days of closure
Date: 22 / 08 / 2008 Time: 16:05
www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=31457

Bethlehem - Gaza -Ma'an - A slow improvement in goods flowing through Gaza
crossings has been reported by both Israeli and Palestinian sources.

Forty-one truckloads of food supplies, stationary and wood will be allowed
into the Gaza Strip, said the head of the office the de facto minister of
economy, Hatem Iwiedah on Friday. Fruits and medical aids, he added, have
not been included in the supplies allowed in.

The goods are coming into the Gaza Strip through the Sufa and Karem Shalom
crossings in the south of the Gaza Strip, said Iweidah. He added that they
are "partially open," and not allowing all goods through, thought the flow
has after the crossings were closed for two days.

Israeli sources reported opening the two southern Gaza crossings Friday
morning after closing them in response to a shell fired from the Gaza Strip
into an uninhabited area of the western Negev.

18:58
“Jordan is a Palestinian state.”–David Horowitz
» ‎ Body on the Line

Where do I even begin? There is nothing like watching David Horowitz before one goes to sleep to nauseate and agitate you ad infinitum. But I subjected myself to this because when it comes to listening to Zionists I must be masochistic. Last night Horowitz was on Al Jazeera English’s “Riz Khan” program with Hussein [...]

18:48
Israel to pay 'Palestinians' to leave with Saudi approval?
» ‎ Israel Matzav

Get a load of this from an article in Friday's Haaretz by leftist writer Akiva Eldar: The next morning [Retired billionaire Daniel] Abrams [the founder of SlimFast. CiJ] meets me again, after examining Shai Agassi's electric car. He arrives at a cafe on Netanya's beach, wearing stylish jeans and a sports shirt. He asks one of his aides to show me two documents. One described a fascinating

18:22
IDF shuts down al-Beeb
» ‎ Israel Matzav

Acting on orders from the Communications Ministry, the IDF has shut down an illegal BBC transmitter in Hebron that was transmitting on a frequency allocated to it by the 'Palestinian Authority' that interfered with air traffic control at Ben Gurion Airport. Because this is al-Beeb and not the typical pirate radio station, the Communications Ministry is working on a solution that will allow the

18:19
Survey: More Americans Question Religion's Role In Politics
» ‎ Little Green Footballs

A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that a majority of conservatives now think religion should be kept out of politics.

Some Americans are having a change of heart about mixing religion and politics. A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center reveals that most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. Four years ago, just 30% of conservatives believed that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics. Today, 50% of conservatives express this view. ...

There are other signs in the new poll about a potential change in the climate of opinion about mixing religion and politics. First, the survey finds a small but significant increase since 2004 in the percentage of respondents saying that they are uncomfortable when they hear politicians talk about how religious they are - from 40% to 46%. Again, the increase in negative sentiment about religion and politics is much more apparent among Republicans than among Democrats.

Second, while the Republican Party is most often seen as the party friendly toward religion, the Democratic Party has made gains in this area. Nearly four-in-ten (38%) now say the Democratic Party is generally friendly toward religion, up from just 26% two years ago. Nevertheless, considerably more people (52%) continue to view the GOP as friendly toward religion.

(Hat tip: LGF readers.)

17:46
'Blockade-running' boats on their way
» ‎ Israel Matzav

The 'Free Gaza Movement's 'blockade running' boats left Cyprus at 10:00 AM on Friday and will be arriving here (unless they sink first - heh) around 4:00 PM Saturday. Yes, of course, in the middle of the Sabbath. Did you really think it would be any other time. They say that they are bringing with them 200 hearing aids and 5000 balloons - items that Israel surely would have delivered on its own

17:36
Swastickers?
» ‎ Israel Matzav

The SuperPharm drugstore chain in Tel Aviv removed a line of Dutch candies (which had a Kashruth certificate, no less) from its shelves on Friday after discovering that stick-on tattoos for children that come with the candies have swastickas and skulls (note especially the picture at top left of the four below). Children who bought the raspberry-flavored sour stick candies received tattoos

17:14
Palestinian Flour Power
» ‎ Israellycool

While the palestinians claim they do not have enough flour in Gaza, I am glad to see that not only do they have enough to subside on, but they even have extra for their recreational needs.

White flower (sic.), not explosives was packed in a plastic bottle and thrown towards Israeli soldiers by a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who turned up at the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus two weeks ago.

The boy, Ra’fat Obeid from the Askar refugee camp, was arrested by Israeli forces and taken into Israeli custody, and was released to Palestinian Authority (PA) police this week.

Details of the events are murky, and officials have bounced blame between poverty, Israel and internally divisive forces.

Details from Palestinian security sources say the Obeid told police that his friend had convinced him to take the bottles filled with flower to the Huwwara checkpoint and surrender himself to Israeli soldiers.

Sources told Ma’an’s Nablus correspondent that Obeid hoped that after his arrest his family would receive a small monthly sum of money from the Palestinian government in compensation for his loss to the family. The PA has a policy of supporting the families of those arrested by the Israeli army.

Security sources explained that Obeid was handed over to his family after they signed several pledges to Palestinian Security Services ensuring that the boy would not try the stunt again. They added, however, that they suspected there was a third party involved which had provided the boys with the flower-stuffed bottles and advised them on the time and place for the plan’s execution. Such a force, said Palestinian Security, was an attempt to corrupt the children of the area.

In other words, palestinian children are wasting flour - which they claim is in short supply - so they can receive money for being arrested. As Elder of Ziyon notes:

Which means that the world is funding the PA which takes a significant amount of its budget to effectively pay salaries to anyone who gets arrested, from terrorists to kids who want a free education in Israeli prison. (A WashPo article from 2006 says that the amount is $220 a month per prisoner, so families with lots of sons in prison can stand to make a pretty penny.)

Meanwhile, a Ma’an News article without the blaming of Israel is like Spain without the running of the bulls.

For his part, the Palestinian official accused Israeli intelligence agencies as being behind the incident. He said that it was a ploy to have vulnerable children arrested and to plant ideas and strategies into their heads.

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17:11
Excerpts: Israeli phone calls. Syria supports Russia on Georgia.No celebrations. Don't pin hopes on Obama 22 August 2008
» ‎ IMRA Middle East News Updates

Excerpts: Israeli phone calls. Syria supports Russia on Georgia.No
celebrations. Don't pin hopes on Obama 22 August 2008

+++Lebanese bombarded with more phone messages from 'Israel'
By The Daily Star
Friday, August 22, 2008
BEIRUT: Lebanese citizens on Thursday reported receiving recorded phone
messages asking for information about missing Israeli soldiers.
The message asks people to view an Israeli Web site or call a phone number
in the United Kingdom if they have any information on the whereabouts of the
missing troops.
The Web site, www.10million.org, belongs to a foundation set up by the
Israeli government, according to the Associated Press. The site pictures
five missing Israeli soldiers, including Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down
over Lebanon in 1986. The Web site, in English, Arabic and Farsi, offers a
$10 million reward for information on any of the missing troops.
One editor for The Daily Star and three Associated Press staffers were among
those who received the calls on their mobile telephones Thursday. A
foundation spokeswoman refused to say if it was behind the calls.
Last month, similar messages in Lebanon criticized Hizbullah's leader Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah and prompted Lebanese outrage over what some officials said
was the Jewish state's tampering with Lebanon's telecommunications system.

Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil said last month that he wrote a
letter of protest to United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon protesting over the
messages, calling them a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,
which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel.
Israel's Defense Ministry declined to comment on those claims. But an
Israeli official told AFP that Israel uses "all sorts of methods to weaken
Hizbullah" and that it was engaged in "intelligence and electronic warfare"
against the group.
Many Lebanese had received similar phone messages urging them not to support
Hizbullah during the course of the 2006 war, a conflict which killed more
than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians and more than 160 Israelis, mostly
soldiers. - The Daily Star, with agencies

+++JORDAN TIMES 22 Aug.'08:"Syria supports Russia on Georgia",Reuters
QUOTE:" Russia and Syria were preparing ... deals involving anti-aircraft
and anti-tank missile systems"
EXCERPTS:SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Syrian leader Bashar Assad backed Russia's
military action against Georgia at talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on
Thursday(21 Aug.) that were expected to cover purchases of Russian arms.
A diplomatic source in Moscow told Interfax news agency on Wednesday(20 Aug)
Russia and Syria were preparing a number of deals involving anti-aircraft
and anti-tank missile systems.
Syria, a foe of Israel in the Middle East which stands accused by the United
States of supporting international terrorism, become only the second country
after Belarus to voice public backing for Russia's operation in Georgia.
"We understand the essence of the Russian position and its military
response," Assad told Medvedev ... .Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem,
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cited Syria's links with Iran, the
Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon's Hizbollah, and said: "It is a mutual
interest of Russia, of Israel and of the pragmatic leaders and states in the
region not to send long-range missiles to Syria."

+++JORDAN TIMES 22 Aug.'08:"Birthday parties against Islam - Saudi cleric"
QUOTE:"celebrating...would make Muslims followers of other faiths including
Jews and Christians"
RIYADH (Reuters) - Celebrating anniversaries, birthdays or mother's day is
against Muslim "righteousness", Saudi Arabia's top cleric has said,... Grand
Mufti Abdul-Aziz Al Shaikh said celebrating such events would make Muslims
like followers of other faiths including Jews and Christians ... . Shaikh
embodies Wahhabism, the hardline Islamic doctrine that has ruled hand in
hand with the Saud family since the kingdom was founded some eight decades
ago.

+++AL-AHRAM WEEKLY 21-27 Aug.'08:"The Arabs and Obama",byAsmi Bishara
QUOTE: Vote Obama and win pain-free
change"

EXCERPTS:With Obama fully assimilated into the American machine, and with
Arab disunity as stark as ever, the region shouldn't expect change any time
soon.
The Obama phenomenon is a new and major development in US political life..
. .A major feature of this year's campaign season in the US is the American
public's thirst for settling scores with the Bush administration's deception
of the American people after 11 September . . . The Obama phenomenon feeds
this thirst, while the candidate himself ... benefits from this climate
without having to offer anything really new ... . He "sympathises" with
African Americans out of work and he "feels for" white women who feel
threatened by crime. He's smooth. He's very clever at sound bites. He
inspires admiration and threatens no one. Vote Obama and win pain-free
change. Vote Obama and ease your conscience without the trouble of
introspection. ... .The American public's ... fury is being vented and their
plagued consciences wrung, one senses a surge of self-purging reminiscent of
that which produced the John Kennedy phenomenon. On that occasion, the white
American conscience sought to purge its guilt for its racist past . . .. But
Obama is not a descendant of slaves; nor is he representative of the
suffering of African Americans. ...To mainstream whites in the US he is an
offer too good to refuse. With him they can ease their conscience ... all
they have to do is not vote for McCain. It's easy and cheap. ...On the
other hand, what the Obama campaign has stirred among American youth is
something new. ... Undoubtedly, too, it is one that the ruling
establishment will contain . . .As for Obama, the person, he is perfectly
contained in that establishment. In fact, he has fought for years to be
contained in it, and he has shown that he can be quite nimble at changing
his positions in order to facilitate the establishment's digestive process.
. . .In a sense, then, Obama is "less black" than Rice in that he is not
as representative of the African American experience . . ..Obama regarded
his Muslim parentage as a flaw, which is to say he failed in the racism test
with respect to Arabs and Muslims.
As a person Obama is certainly not new. He is an ambitious politician, a
young man who needed a huge amount of opportunism, thickness of skin and
very flexible principles to get where he is. In addition, all the emphasis
on how Christian he is makes a mockery of American secularism. ... .
Yet the Arabs have a persistent, ever regenerating Arab quirk that...
whenever an election year comes up they inevitably fall prey to the illusion
that it holds promise for the Palestinian cause.. . .
What is surprising, however, is that this quirk has latched on to Obama. ...
his parroting of the Bush administration's clich?s about terrorism and about
the Palestinians not only betray the extent of his opportunism but also the
magnitude of his disdain for the Arabs, regardless of whether he truly
believes what he says about Israel.
Not that he has encountered a unified Arab front to make him take heed or,
at least, to offer him some advice. . . ..
The Arabs' chief weakness is that they are disunited, fragmented, lacking a
common agenda and lacking the resolve and power to back any joint decision
or action they take. So even when propelled by some impending crisis to meet
and come up with a joint statement, they fail to back those words with
concrete action.
There are no shortcuts. The Arabs will not see change in their favour until
they do what is needed to make their presence felt as a cohesive and
forceful factor in the international arena. Meanwhile, as things stand,
there is, indeed, something new in the US. Sadly, there is nothing new with
the Arabs.
=============================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

16:49
שגריר ארה''ב במוסקבה גון ביירל John Beyrle: התגובה הצבאית הראשונה של הקרמלין (בגיאורגיה), הייתה לגיטימית. תיקדבקה: וושינגטון מכשירה את הקרקע לווע
» ‎ DEBKAfile

תיקדבקה: שגריר ארה''ב במוסקבה גון ביירל John Beyrle: התגובה הצבאית הראשונה של הקרמלין (בגיאורגיה), הייתה לגיטימית. תיקדבקה: וושינגטון מכשירה את הקרקע לוועידת פסגה בין הנשיא בוש, לראש ממשלת רוסיה פוטין.
השבועון המיוחד דבקה-נט-וויקלי DNW, דיווח במאמר הפותח של גיליון מס' 361, שיצא לאור ב-21.8, תחת הכותרת 'שתי המעצמות דוחפות לפסגת בוש-פוטין', Both Powers Push for a Bush-Putin Summit, כי מאחורי הקלעים של המתיחות בין ארצות הברית ורוסיה, מערכות בוושינגטון ובמוסקבה הכנות קדחתניות לוועידת פסגה כזו.
המאמר ב-DNW, דבקה-נט-וויקלי, מתאר ומנתח את המהלכים ואת הסיבות המובילות את האמריקנים והרוסים לקראת ועידת פסגה זו. דבריו של השגריר האמריקני במוסקבה, על כך כי מוסקבה צדקה בתגובה הצבאית הראשונה, דברים הנוגדים את העמדות שהשמיעו עד כה נשיא ארצות הברית ג'ורג בוש, שר ההגנה האמריקני רוברט גייטס, ושרת החוץ האמריקנית קונדוליסה רייס, הן הסימן הפומבי הראשון, שוושינגטון נתנה ביום ו' 22.8, כי היא מודה בטעויות שהיא עשתה במדיניותה כלפי גיאורגיה, ובמיוחד בתמיכתה, שעד כה הייתה בלתי מסויגת בנשיאה מיכאיל שאאשקבילי.

16:40
סוריה, הקובה של ישראל: אסד הציע למדבדב להציב טילים גרעיניים רוסיים בסוריה, בתגובה להצבת הטילים האמריקנים בפולין. רוסיה תקבל את ההצעה.
» ‎ DEBKAfile

תיקדבקה: ההכחשות בסוריה ביום ו' 21.8 בבוקר, ממקור עלום שם, כאילו אסד לא העלה את ההצעה להצבת טילים רוסיים בסוריה, נועדו לרצות את דעת הקהל הסורית הרוצה להתקרב למערב, ולא לחזור למטריה של מוסקבה . גם הלשון בה נוסחה ההודעה הסורית היא דו משמעותית, ומדברת כי סוריה תתמקד רק בקבלת נשק הגנתי. רוסיה תמיד טענה כי טילי 'האיסקנדר' הגרעיניים הם נשק הגנתי. אם הייתה הכחשה סורית רצינית, בנושא עקרוני כזה, היא הייתה צריכה לבוא מהמקור שהודיע על הצבת הטילים-כלומר מהנשיא אסד עצמו, או לפחות מאחד מעוזריו הראשיים, כמו שר החוץ ואליד מועלם הנמצא אתו ברוסיה. דברים כאלה לא נשמעו מפיהם.
היכן המדינות הישראלית, שלקחה על עצמה לקרב את סוריה לארצות הברית?
שנתיים לאחר מלחמת לבנון, וכמעט 10 חודשים, מאז ארצות הברית, צרפת, ישראל, החלו במדיניות ההתקרבות לאסד, כדי להוציאו מהגוש האיראני ולקרבו לארצות הברית, נוחלת ישראל, את אחד הכישלונות האסטרטגיים החמורים ביותר בתולדותיה, כאשר נשיא רוסיה דימטרי מדבדב, ונשיא סוריה באשר אסד, מחליטים ביום ה' 21.8, להציב טילים גרעיניים רוסיים על אדמת סוריה, כתגובה להצבת טילי היירוט האמריקנים בפולין. להלן הניתוח וההתפתחויות הצפויות:

16:35
Beirut to petition UN on J'lem 'threats'
» ‎ JPost.com Front Page Top Stories

Saniora: Judging by recent comments, one would think Israel showered Lebanon with roses in the war.

16:17
Olmert interrogated for sixth time
» ‎ JPost.com Front Page Top Stories

Detectives reportedly question PM for 3.5 hours on Talansky affair and Investment Center scandal.

15:54
Iran's Saei takes taekwondo gold
» ‎ BBC News | Middle East | World Edition

Hadi Saei of Iran takes gold in the men's 80kg taekwondo, his second gold medal in consecutive Olympic games.

14:51
sleepless nights
» ‎ Aliyah! Step-by-Step: Making a Life in Israel

I’m going to be putting up a picture of one of the cutest kittens in history (really quite literally, she looks like those cartoon pictures of cats with the super big eyes and little round faces) later in the hopes someone might know someone who would provide a good, safe, indoor-ONLY “she’s the only cat” home for little Muffin. My mother and I rescued her from the middle of traffic on Ben Yehuda street way back in July. Usually it takes only a maximum of 2 weeks for a kitten, particularly one as small as she is, to integrate into a multi-cat household. I’ve not had a problem integrating even much older cats with my crew.

But Muffin is different. Muffin is completely, beyond terrified of other cats. When one comes anywhere near her she begins a terrified growling. Sensing her vulnerability and terror, my normally sweet, loving, accepting crew goes into attack frenzy. Quite literally. It is beyond not a pretty sight –one will begin it and another 4 or 5 will join in, all trying basically, to harm her. Now I know what Buffy was like as a tiny kitten and what she went through.

The whole cat household is in a constant uproar. They are aggressing toward one another now as well as toward Muffin. Tinoket has had a complete personality change and swings wildly between hiding in fear herself and attacking the kitten and now Tzeekadah and even biting and growling at me. Gingi has also become far more aggressive but mostly it is the female cats that are out for little Muffin’s blood.

I can’t leave her out about about when I leave the house but have to lock her in a cat carrier for her own protection. Last night things had been going more smoothly so I tried leaving her loose while I slept, especially since she has been in the cat carrier during my long Beer Sheva day for more than 14 hours. Holy crap. I didn’t get to sleep until nearly 6 a.m., despite falling into the bed in an exhausted state at 11:30. Rather I was repeatedly awoken every few minutes as I tried one solution after another. The first solution was to bring her into my bedroom along with Tzeekadah. Sadly, I was unaware that Tinoket and Shakhori were hiding under the bed. *&&&%^$#@ POW. It took me nearly a half hour to get them out of the room. Then Arie began opening the closed door from the outside and more cats poured in. *&&^%%$#%$ SLAM. BAM. SCREAM. Another good while to get the ones that went under the bed out of the room.

So I got up and put him in the room (he is the only one, along with Mischa who totally ignores her existence thus far, who doesn’t scare her silly). This was fine for about another half hour until he decided that he wanted to let himself out of the room. SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH, WHEEEZ. So then I had to get up and lock him into a cat carrier for the rest of the night (or else he’d be opening that door from one side or the other again). Then Tzofia sat and screamed at the closed door but when I brought her inside she, who is terrified of Muffin, started screaming hysterically to get back outside. And so it went.

14:24
Protest boats sail for Gaza Strip
» ‎ BBC News | Middle East | World Edition

Two boats carrying members of a pro-Palestinian group leave Cyprus to try to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

14:03
Al-Qaeda 'claims Algeria bombs'
» ‎ BBC News | Middle East | World Edition

A message purported to be from al-Qaeda's North African wing claims responsibility for deadly Algeria bombs.

13:56
Aussie Dave on The Great Blogroll Controversy of 2008
» ‎ Israellycool

Frum Satire’s comments about me were in jest (and we had a very nice chat at the conference), but given that I am now officially known as a blogroll miser, I think I should explain where I’m coming from.

There are three types of requests to be added to your blogroll. They can be summarized as follows:

1. “Hey, I really love your blog and was wondering if you could add me to your blogroll!” (requester has you on their blogroll)

2. “Hey, I really love your blog and was wondering if you could add me to your blogroll!” (requester does not have you on their blogroll)

3. “If you add me to your blogroll, I’ll add you.”

Request type 1 is a no-brainer. I have no problem adding the requester’s blog to my blogroll, unless it’s someone like David Duke or Sheikh Hilali.

Request type 2 is from a no-brainer. Their chance of being added is somewhere south of none and north of Buckley’s.

Request type 3 is more common than you think, and is a bit like the blog equivalent of a prisoner exchange. If you give me what I want, I’ll give you something in return. Sorry, but homey don’t play dat. It makes me feel so used.

So there you have it, folks. If you want a spot on the apparently desirable space on my left sidebar, either dazzle me with your content (and I’ll become a reader), or let me know you like the blog, you have it blogrolled, and you’d appreciate some reciprocity.

On that note, if you already have Israellycool blogrolled and would appreciate some reciprocity, leave your URL in the comments and I’ll gladly add you.

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13:16
Haaretz on the JBlogger Convention
» ‎ The Muqata

Still reeling from the Anti-Haaretz backlash in the JBlogosphere over the previous smear piece on the JBlogger convention, Haaretz came clean and reported the convention AS IT WAS.
More than 200 Jewish bloggers, most of them immigrants from North America, attended the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem this past Wednesday. Attendees seemed as much if not more interested in meeting fellow bloggers than in panel discussions dedicated to the agenda of taking Jewish blogging to the next level. "Everybody knew already how to get traffic, so there was nothing new," said German-born Miriam Woelke, publisher of several blogs about Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel.

"It's kind of nice to see faces of people that I only read online," David Abitbol, one of the panelists and founder of Jewlicious, told Haaretz. The anonymous author of Chardal, who moved from Los Angeles to Yad Binyamin last year, said that putting faces to names was indeed his main reason for attending the conference. "I have conversations with these people all the time, but they are faceless people. It's nice to have a normal conversation."

While all blogs represented at the conference dealt in some way or another with life in Israel, the spectrum ranged from immigration through carrying guns in Israel to discussions of Jewish law, board games and interior design. Another 1,300 bloggers followed a live Web cast of the event on their computer screens.
While many were asked by the Haaretz reporter if they thought it was inappropriate for Netanyahu to be giving such a long speech, and to be present in the first place, the respectfully covered it as it was:
The keynote event of the half-day conference, which was organized by the pro-immigration group Nefesh B'Nefesh, was a speech by former prime minister and current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, which touched on his campaign more
than blogging. The Foreign Ministry also made a presentation on branding Israel in a better way.
Rounding off the article with my my new best friend, Benji Lovitt, I think Haaretz did a great job covering the convention.
The blogosphere gives everyone a voice and there's lots of great hasbara [public relations] we can do at a grassroots level," said Texas-born Benji Lovitt, a 33-year-old comedian and author of What War Zone???, a blog that takes a humorous look on everyday life in Israel. "My approach is to try to show that Israel is more than you see on CNN. It's actually not the scary, depressing place you think it might be but it's a place of vibrancy and fun and blogging is a way to spread the word about that."
See Haaretz? If you will it, it is no dream. And the conference was lots of fun. Thanks to Nefesh b'Nefesh for hosting it, to WebAds for Powering it, and to the sponsors IsraelMall [including the WaffleMaker raffle], Sun [with the fun t-shirts as well], and Office Depot. (And of course, DovBear and his parsha book raffle)
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

12:57
Joint Israeli, American and Turkish Naval Exercise Finishes as a
» ‎ IMRA Middle East News Updates

August 22nd, 2008 IDF Spokesperson's Office

Joint Israeli, American and Turkish Naval Exercise Finishes as a Success

A joint search and rescue (SAR) exercise took place this week with the
participation of the Turkish, American and Israeli Air and Naval Forces.
Israel was the event's host country, while the most of exercise was carried
out in international waters west of Israel.

The objective of this exercise was to practice and improve coordination and
cooperation between the forces. This was done by conducting practices of SAR
procedures and the provision of medical care at sea. The drill largely
contributed to the ability of the three forces' air and naval vessels to
respond faster and more efficiently to maritime emergencies in the future as
well as to provide humanitarian aid when required to.

Seven naval vessels, three helicopters and two SAR airplanes were engaged in
the various drills conducted during the exercise.

As part of the exercise, the forces held joint preparation discussions,
preliminary training on land, joint tours and more. The exercise was
announced a success by the three Naval Forces.

12:40
PM Olmert pushing for deal with Palestinians to impose on Israel
» ‎ IMRA Middle East News Updates

PM Olmert pushing for deal with Palestinians to impose on Israel
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 22 August 2008

Maariv correspondent Ben Caspit reports in today's edition that Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert is pushing hard to reach a deal with PA head Mahmoud
Abbas before he leaves office. American businessman Daniel Abram recently
met with Abbas a number of times to encourage Abbas to reach an agreement
with Olmert.

According to Caspit, Olmert tells his circle that if he reaches a deal with
Abbas "the president of the United States will adopt the wording, the world
with adopt it, the European Union, also the Arab world. We can tell the
Israeli People that this is what can be achieved after long years of
negotiations and the Nation will decide."

Put another way: Olmert intends to create a situation according to which
the Israeli public will be put in the situation that rejection of the deal
means rejection of a plan already embraced by the entire world - with all
the consequences.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

12:23
Panel poll: 67% Disengagement failure, 66%:29% Oppose disengagement in Judea and Samaria
» ‎ IMRA Middle East News Updates

Panel poll: 67% Disengagement failure, 66%:29% Oppose disengagement in Judea
and Samaria
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 22 August 2008

Panel poll of Israelis (including Israeli Arabs) carried out for the
Knesset Channel (99) as reported in the 22 August edition of Makor Rishon

Was the disengagement from the Gaza Strip a success or failure?
Failure 67% Partial success 25% Complete success 4%

Do you support an additional disengagement in Judea and Samaria?
Support 29% Oppose 66%

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

12:09
Dialog poll: Labor declined to 12-13 seats
» ‎ IMRA Middle East News Updates

Dialog poll: Labor declined to 12-13 seats
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 22 August 2008

[1] Dialog poll for Haaretz - 402 Israelis (including Israeli Arabs) 19
August
2008 Published in Haaretz 22 August 2008
[2] Dialog poll for Haaretz - 503 Israelis (including Israeli Arabs) 31 July
2008
Actual Knesset today in [brackets] published in Haaretz on 1 August.

[1] [2]
28 26 [29] Kadima headed by Livni
12 14 [19] Labor
28 25 [12] Likud
10 11 [12] Shas
10 11 [11] Yisrael Beteinu
05 06 [09] Nat'l Union/NRP
07 07 [06] Yahadut Hatorah
05 05 [05] Meretz
** 02 [00] Green Party
02 02 [00] Social Justice (Gaydamak Party)
02 ** [07] Retirees Party
11 11 [10] Arab parties
** does not get minimum votes for Knesset representation

[1] [2]
22 19 [29] Kadima headed by Mofaz
13 17 [19] Labor
30 29 [12] Likud
11 11 [12] Shas
11 11 [11] Yisrael Beteinu
05 06 [09] Nat'l Union/NRP
07 07 [06] Yahadut Hatorah
06 05 [05] Meretz
00 02 [00] Green Party
02 02 [00] Social Justice (Gaydamak Party)
02 ** [07] Retirees Party
11 11 [10] Arab parties
** does not get minimum votes for Knesset representation

Of the following who is most appropriate to be prime minister?
July poll: Netanyahu 29% Livni 22% Barak 8% Mofaz 8% None 29% All
same 4%
Of the following who do you count on more to run affairs of state?
August poll: Netanyahu 28% Livni 18% Barak 11% Mofaz 9% None 29% All
same 5%

If Livni loses the Kadima primaries and forms a new party would you vote for
it?
Certain no 53% Think no 14% Think yes 12% Certain yes 6% Don't know 15%

If Labor votes against the national budget should the prime minister fire DM
Barak?
Yes 32% No 44% Don't know 24%

Dialog poll for Haaretz - 460 registered Kadima members 19 August 2008
Published in Haaretz 22 August 2008

Who will you vote for to head Kadima?
Full sample: Livni 39% Mofaz 26% Dichter 7% Shetreet 5% Don't know/refuse
reply 21% None of them 2%
Certain voting: Livni 43% Mofaz 25% Dichter 8% Shetreet 5% Don't know/refuse
reply 18% None of them 1%

Will you vote in the primaries?
Certain yes 68% Think yes 25% Think no 3% Certain no 2% Don't know 2%

Did the claim by Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak that Livni is not
appropriate to be prim minister impact your decision to vote for Livni?
No effect 74% Strengthened 12% Weakened 7% Don't know 7%

If Livni loses the Kadima primaries and forms a new party would you vote for
it?
Certain no 37% Think no 12% Think yes 17% Certain yes 10% Don't know 24%

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

11:44
Israel 'to change barrier route'
» ‎ BBC News | Middle East | World Edition

The Israeli High Court orders that the route of the barrier in the West Bank be changed to give Palestinians more land.

11:38
Forty-six international human rights workers are now sailing to Gaza
» ‎ Sabbah's Blog

A Peek into Others' mind » August 22, 2008

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