In yet another case of some Haredim having way too much time on their hands, the latest crusade has been against MP4 players that are pre-loaded with content being sold in Mea Shearim. There was a discussion/ruling on this at and by the ‘Orthodox Righteous Court of Law’ Read more »

I don’t think anyone expected the cease-fire that went into effect recently to last very long, so we can do away with pretending to be surprised that Qassams are being launched into Israel. How long did that take…72 hours? 96 hours?  As I said in this post:

…the ‘truce’ will be short lived. Someone in Gaza won’t be able to stop themselves from firing a Qassam or a GRAD rocket that will hurt or kill an Israeli or a foreign worker.

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Reading the news today garnered one interesting story about what’s going on in Israel. More specifically with the deal Israel is trying to complete with Hizbullah for the return of Goldwasser and Regev for Kuntar and others.

There is an apparent push by the IDF Chief Rabbi to declare the soldiers missing in action and dead. Why this comes up right now seems to be a mystery as there has been plenty of time to do so beforehand. My guess? Israel didn’t want to prejudice the negotiations with Hizbullah and set the bar too low in terms of what Nasrallah would ask as his price for their return. At least if they gave Nasrallah hope, Israel might have hope to regain their stolen sons. Read more »

Ah, sweet surrender. No, not to love or to the beautiful weather we’ve been having. This is what Hamas must be thinking today now that the Defense Minister Ehud Barak seems to have caved on pretty much everything Hamas demanded. Israel basically asked them to “pretty please” not smuggle in arms, and agreed to hand back most of the 450 prisoners Hamas has been demanding, many with blood on their hands. Israel will also have to stop monitoring the Rafah crossing. Egypt will. I’m sure they’ll do as good a job at that as they have preventing smuggling.

Quiet is supposed to come first and if the truce holds, I can’t imagine Gilad Shalit won’t come back for those 450 scumbags. To be fair, since we are all not a fly on the wall to all the security discussions, perhaps after almost 2 years of deliberation, this is the ONLY way to get Shalit back safely.

Yes, I’m sure that those 450 prisoners will return to their bombing ways. But, the ‘truce’ will be short lived. Someone in Gaza won’t be able to stop themselves from firing a Qassam or a GRAD rocket that will hurt or kill an Israeli or a foreign worker. I can’t image at least some of the murderers won’t meet their end in a ‘work accident’ or in a fireball sent to them courtesy of the IDF. They wont be returning to Gaza to become Rhodes scholars, that’s for sure. Read more »

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve heard the drum-beat growing louder. A deal is in the works: Goldwasser and Regev, two IDF soldiers who’s kidnapping across the Lebenese border by Hizbullah sparked the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel may be on their way back to Israel in a deal with Hizbullah brokered by Germany.

There is no way anyone anywhere doesn’t want to see these soldiers returned back home. The only thing that’s going to leave a sour taste in everyones mouth is what its going to cost to get them back. In addition to a bunch of no-name Hizbullah grunts and possibly a few bodies, Israel is more than likely going to have to give up Samir Kuntar. Who is Kuntar, do you ask? Read more »

I’m sure everyone read about the crazy Qassam and mortar salvo fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip the other day. The initial reason for this salvo given was it was ‘retaliation’ for an explosion in Beit Lahiya yesterday that killed about 7 people and wounded about 40. Of course the first reaction to all this was that it was due to Israeli tank fire….I mean in Gaza what isn’t these days?

“The Beit Lahiya massacre was caused by an Israeli strike that targeted a Qassam leader,” Hamas said in a statement, referring to its armed wing.

An IDF spokeswoman denied any Israeli involvement.

“It was not related to the IDF. There were no IDF operations. It was an internal explosion,” an IDF spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv.

You read these quotes every time there’s a ‘work accident’, and they get picked up immediately by all the news services. If it rained in Gaza, it’d be blamed on Israeli tank shells destroying ‘Palestinian’ clouds. Read more »