Border Crisis Deepens

Let's see how Condoleezza Rice handles this one.

Tens of Thousands Cross Downed Gaza Wall
Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile wall dividing the border town of Rafah.

The Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or riding donkey carts to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Police from the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel has no forces on the Gaza-Egypt border and, "therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly, according to the signed agreements."

"We expect the Egyptians to solve the problem," Mekel said. "Obviously we are worried about the situation. It could potentially allow anybody to enter."

[...]

They have, dude. Our friend Carl in Jerusalem has the details, including some video.

Good News: IDF is Using Elite Female Stripper Death Squads

Nothing quite opens the eyes like seeing strippers and death squads in the same headline.

Maybe it's too good to be true, but who cares?

The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida carried a story this past week about IDF tactics that surpassed all previous accusations of supposed Israeli deviousness - poisoned candies, hormone-laced gum, poisoned wells, magnetized belts -in its bizarreness.

The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida carried a story this week about IDF tactics that surpassed all previous accusations of supposed Israeli deviousness - poisoned candies, hormone-laced gum, poisoned wells, magnetized belts -in its bizarreness.

According to an Al-Hayat Al-Jadida front page report, the IDF has turned to using armed, female strippers in its war on upstanding Palestinian boys. The newspaper reports that when the Arab rock-throwing begins, IDF soldiers run for cover. Then, the story continues, after some time of hiding, an Israeli woman stands up on top of a barricade and begins to perform an alluring strip tease. Innocent Arab teenage boys, distracted from the business of rioting, are enticed to approach, when, according to the newspaper, the woman -- an IDF soldier -- shoots them with a pistol she had hidden in her underwear.

Ben Hur gets the hat tip for this one, although I'm really annoyed at myself for not having had the radar up for this one.

Update: More from Hot Air.

The Perfidy Continues

This was originally posted by our friend, Carl in Jerusalem and provides further insight into our involvement in Israel. All text in bold is not part of Carl's original publication, but has been added for the purpose of highlighting US policy towards Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert has approved the construction of a new Arab town 20 kilometers south of Shchem (Nablus) and 35 kilometers north of Ramallah along Highway 505, the main east-west highway through Samaria. The town is to be located in 'Area B,' which is under Israeli security control and will house 30-40,000 hostile 'Palestinians' in its first phase and 70,000 within ten years. Olmert did not bring the plan to the cabinet for approval before committing to Secretary of State Rice last night that the town would be built. DEBKA is calling the plan a 'major strategic restructure' of Samaria:DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that the new town site will encompass the Palestinian villages of Qabalan, Oseria and Qudela and straddle Trans-Samaria Highway 505 opposite Tapuach junction. The US planners intend the new town to provide territorial contiguity between Nablus and Ramallah. At the same time, it will cut off Israeli villages in the Jordan Valley from the settlement blocs in Samaria.

The new Palestinian urban entity, which our sources reveal Olmert first learned about in his talks with President Bush on June 19, will be the first Arab town to go up in the region in 1,500 years, since the foundation of Ramleh. [I actually find that 1500 figure hard to believe. CiJ]

During his White House visit, Olmert learned that the Americans regard the Palestinian town as a primary project for consolidating Mahmoud Abbas’ government. It is designed to provide tens of thousands of jobs for West Bankers, whose unemployment rate has soared to 70 percent since the Palestinian uprising was launched against Israel in 2000.

American town planners and architects hired by the US government have prepared initial diagrams after secret visits to the site. During her current tour, Rice showed the plans to the Israeli prime minister, Abbas and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.

The problem still outstanding is financing. It was hoped that the Saudis would put up part of the initial investment for the foundations. When he brokered the Mecca accord for a Palestinian unity government earlier this year, the monarch pledged $250 million in aid to the Palestinians. However, this hope was dashed, when King Abdullah flatly refused to hear of aid to the Abbas regime in his talks with the US secretary in Jeddah Tuesday.

I'm surprised Olmert (apparently) hasn't pledged Israeli money to pay for it yet.

But the key to this story is that it means that the Jewish towns in the Jordan Valley are going to be cut off from the rest of the country except if they go south to Jericho or north to Beit She'an.

In the meantime, Olmert won't allow so much as a new caravan in the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria. He and his corrupt, Jew-hating government have to go, quickly, before they can do more permanent damage.

Carl in Jerusalem

Also at Israel Matzav

.

Israel Suicide Watch

You really must wonder what the thought process is here.

Prisoners released include members of Hamas, Jihad

Ziad Abu Ayn, director of prisoner affairs in the Palestinian Authority said Friday that among the 255 prisoners released are 30 members of Hamas and two members of the Islamic Jihad.

The Palestinian Authority, he told Ynet, does not distinguish between prisoners: "they are all our prisoners, all our sons." The PA, he added, is proud of the fact that prisoners affiliated with Hamas and Jihad are among the released.

Ayn's words are the first official statement made regarding the prisoners' affiliations. So far, the majority of prisoners were believed to be of Fatah, with about 15 percents of them of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democtaric Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

The prisoners, who left Ketziot prison in the early hours of Friday morning, have made there way to the Bitunia checkpoint, where – once over on the Palestinian side - they are to be greeted by top Palestinian officials, including president Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the guidelines approved earlier in the week by a special Israeli governmental committee headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the prisoners release [sic] do not have any "blood on their hands".

Give them time.