Israeli police arrested 17-year-old Arab girl in Jerusalem who eyed suicide bomber’s laurels.

The first Grad-type Katyusha rocket from Gaza hit a home in Ashkelon; no injuries, 17 Jews treated for shock. Now, that’s a war. Israeli government could ignore the continuous terror in Sderot, a very poor town, but attacks on Ashkelon, a major city, will force it to act in Gaza.
Israel’s US masters gave a green light to invading Gaza: Rice declared that “rocket attacks must stop.”
Olmert needs a successful invasion of Gaza to absolve himself of the 2006 Lebanon war’ failures. Barak needs the invasion to show that he reformed the army, and is a better Mr. Security than Peretz. The left concur in the invasion as they need to counter Netanyahu’s critique of their inaction. The left also need to wipe out Hamas in order to sign a peace treaty with Abbas.
Abbas wants the invasion to get rid of Hamas. Hamas welcomes the invasion to stage an urban war and prove its military prowess.
Gazans attack Israeli with Iranian-made rockets now, but it is estimated that in a few months they will improve the Kassam rocket to 12-14-mile range to reliably target Ashkelon.
Temporary invasion of Gaza would solve nothing, just as in Lebanon. Interior Minister Sheetrit, others call for targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders which are not only costly and historically proven as inefficient, but entirely unreasonable as Hamas’ participation in the war of rockets is relatively minor, tha majority of rockets being launched by other militant group. Schizophrenically, Israel both refuses acknowledging Hamas as the legitimate power in Gaza and at the same time punishes Hamas as one punishes a legitimate government, for wrongdoings of its subjects.

Speaking to al-Dustur newspaper in Jordan, a country at peace with Israel, Abbas announced that his opposition to fighting Israel is temporary, because Palestinians cannot succeed now, and that in the future the situation will change.
It is unbelievable that Israeli government sees that gangster as a peace partner. As Rabbi Kahane remarked, moderate Arabs kill Jews moderately.

As a result of his indictment on less-than-rape charges, former Israeli president Katsav will lose about $300,000 of annual benefits. Top Israeli officials receive that much in pension benefits.

Financial Action Task Force, the official international money-laundering watchdog, declared that Iran is not engaged in money laundering and terrorist financing anymore. Oh yeah.

That’s how the UN envoy called Israeli blockade of Gaza in response to Kassam rocket barrages from there.

Lithuania is a pathetic country which calls itself a state. American heavily supports Lithuania against Russia. In the Holocaust, Lithuanians exterminated 98% of their 220,000-strong Jewish community, the largest percentage of all countries. Lithuanians rather than Nazis carried out hunts and shootings of Jews.
Dr. Arad, a former Soviet guerrilla in Lithuania and a director of Yad Vashem, published memoirs detailing him killing Lithuanians during the WWII. Based on his memoirs, Lithuania filed criminal charges against 81-year-old Arad and sought him in Israel.
Shimon Peres conducted a friendly meeting with Lithuanian foreign minister.

Transportation Ministry vetoed the decision by Dan bus lines to cancel Shabbat buses