155mm artillery

Israel's current response to rocket attacks from Gaza is a volley of 155mm artillery fire on the launch sites and targeted attacks on the people who organise them. You won't have read it in the news but last week, a Kibbutz near Gaza asked the IDF not to fire for a hour or so because there was a wedding going in and the noise interfered with the dancing. I wonder if they asked Islamic Jihad as well.

These are all the rage here. I thought they were handed out by UNWRA. to impoverished refugees. To my amazement, people pay for them and wear them in public.

Customer non-service

Apropos of a phone conversation with a jobsworth local council employee regarding anti-social behaviour by our neighbours in the council-house bedsits across the road:

He: “No one else has complained.”

Me: “Well now you can never say that again.”

This quip also works well in similar circumstances eg enquiring about a new product or service or suggesting improvements.

Israel irate as Sweden quits NATO drill over IAF inclusion - Haaretz - Israel News

Sweden says no, Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar says bring us in. Perhaps we could join the CommonWealth as a starter. After all, we qualify.

Gov't slammed for lack of female representation - News from Israel, Ynetnews

I have no objection to Tzipi Livni being Foreign Minister or Yuli Tamir as Education Minister. The article here points out that this is a very low female representation compared to previous governments. I agree.

Lost in space

Something in the air at the moment seems to be making politicians lose things. Here in Britain Home Secretary Charles Clarke has managed to lose over 1000 serious criminals who as foreign nationals should have been deported after their prison sentence. Instead they have disappeared into the huge not-here-legally black hole and will just start again where they left off: thieving, assaulting, extorting, trafficking. Clarke may well lose his job as well.

Gorgeous has lost further respect, having just been rebuked by the House of Commons “sleazebusters” for ‘losing’ £41,000 in legal fund donations into his various bank accounts. He now has 7 days to declare details or face further disciplinary action and suspension. Small potatoes compared to the ongoing investigation into the £375,000 he has ‘lost’ into his accounts from Saddam Hussein.

Jordan Links Arrests to Hamas Official

What fun neighbours we have. Now Jordan seems to have found a Hamas weapons cache and an alleged plot to attack targets in Jordan and the P.A. Foreign Minister has 'misplaced' $450,000 in a Kuwait Hotel room. They must have very expensive hookers there.

Yet another bomb

Yesterday's bombing may not just be the usual suspects. Some years ago, after Israel withdrew from the Sinai, the coastline was owned by the local Bedouin, tribes who carved it up. As tourism grew, the big money in Cairo eyed this business and decided to move in. As a result, the locals have been edged out and relegated to bottle washing. With the constant flow of arms and explosives into Gaza, it's not hard to move some south and east and persuade disgruntled disaffected to make trouble.

Or so says my local Israeli intelligence guru. I shall call him Deep Falafel.

Your jihad news tonight

Today Iran’s president said: Jihad? Bring it on! President Badmood AhmMadindeHead managed a hat trick of provocations: Iran may withdraw from the global Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty; the UN will not impose sanctions in Iran so we will continue to enrich uranium; Israel is a fake regime that cannot continue to exist. There is no question he is cruisin’ for a bruisin’. But what purpose would that serve him or the Iranian people? I find myself asking the same question of the civilised Iranians now as I did of the civilised Iraqis from 1992-2003: why don’t you overthrow your tyrants?

Some pictures need no words.

Fences I have known and loved.

At home, I'm constructing my very own 'seperation fence'. No, not aimed at keeping terrorists out, more at the local dog population using our pond site as a toilet. It's not finished yet
The razor wire and guard towers are yet to be placed and the decision on the minefield is proving contentious with the family.

A day out

The Eggheads went up to the Hula valley to look at the birds. The cranes have long since gone but pelicans, waders and the coypu were all around. What a wonderful place.

Happy Birthday

Many happy returns to Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Queen of Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Canada, Barbados, Belize, Grenada and others.

Combatants for Peace

Midnight gardening in a balaclava not for you? How about Combatants for Peace. I found this story moving.

Guerrilla Gardening

Enjoy a spot of guerrilla gardening this weekend. More constructive than blowing people up.

British muslims potential danger to Israel

Note to you over there: please can you fix it so that anyone with a British passport who may be a muslim is not let into Israel without a Thorough Going Over. The mad mullahs of Farsee (shursly Farce) have spoken again.

Iranian group seeks British suicide bombers

“The first target is Israel. For us, that is the battlefield, All the Jews are targets, whether military or civilian. It's our land and they are in the wrong place. It's their duty to pay attention to safety of their own families and move them away from the battlefield”

“Britain and other European countries have a lot of disaffected Muslims who are ready. We understand the suspicion with which Britain, America and other western countries regard their Muslim populations. We don't condemn them for this because we believe every Muslim has the potential to turn into a bomb against the west.”

“With the exception of Israel, we do not target civilians. They would definitely not be sent to carry out an attack on London unless it was to kill Salman Rushdie."

US academics: Israel is Too Big

From Salon: here’s how the anti-Israel lobby and others of their ilk perceive Israel and its neighbours.

Another one...

Another suicide attack. Damn, I'd hoped we'd get through the holidays without one.

Non blogging

Perhaps I've stumbled across a meme here. I'm not going to blog about the formation of the new Israeli government because I agree with Imshin. In addition, I'm going to ignore the gentleman who speaks Persian. Lastly, I shall not comment on the raging controversy covered by AbbaGav. Nice to see Treppenwitz can bring himself to link to us no matter how briefly.

Instead, I shall write a Firefox extension.

Life in Israel

We decided to buy our next door neighbour a Pesach present. As she had expressed a desire for some very large garden pots, the Eggheads concluded that it would be better to take her to the pot yard rather than buy something that might not pass muster. We are talking a couple of hundred kilos here.

Anyway, Mrs E and Mrs B next door pile into the car and we set off for the Arab village next door. It turns out they know Mrs B from way back as her husband used to be somthing big in the area. He died ten years ago on the Seder night. As Mrs B is from an Arab country orginally, speaks fluent French and Hebrew the bargaining session for the pots was something to behold. At one point, all the males retreated to the coffee table and stared at the carpet until we were summoned.

Good coffee though. The final three females in this contest eventually sat down and in fluent Hebrew, damned all lazy males, the ineptitude of their children and a good time was had by all.

Except for the men trying to move pots around until they were in 'the right place'. All done now and we get to eat dinner with her. Good food except I can't get to grips with fried olives.

Science lines creationism up for a chinning | The Register

Good to see the Royal Society doing it's bit to slam Intelligent Design and the closet creationists. We need more of this now that the left pondian madness appears to be travelling.

Matza: what’s up with it?

Have a look at this hilarious and informative puppet-mentary on how KLP (kosher l’ pesach) traditional matza is made by hand…never mind the sponsor and the yank bias.

It's Pesach again..

Blogging will be light as Pesach rolls around again. Mrs Egghead spent yesterday in Jerusalem learning about Palm Sunday. I'm still working.

So Happy Holidays to you all.

Nazis planned Holocaust for pre-state Israel

I was sure that this wasn't news. There is a book I read covering the Desert War from the logistical viewpoint which mentioned a planned Einsatzgruppe Egypt whose task was to murder all the Jews in pre Israel Palestine. It's head spent a lot of time grumbling about transport to Egypt and complaining that Mussolini's horse for the triumphal parade was getting priorty.
Anyway, the Eight Army under Bernard Montgomery put paid to that idea (hug a Tommy if you can find one). The proposed use of Arab locals is chilling though. There would have been a queue.

Citrus fruits

We have been ignoring our unruly neighbours recently until they settle down. Here in Israel, my latest pet peeve is the difficulty of obtaining grapefruit juice. In a country full of the things, the local shops stock every possible variant except plain juice. I couldn't even get just orange juice. It was either some garbage called nectar or it had carrot juice with it.

We did collect seashells though. Very satisfying.

Squawk - bird flu

So the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has arrived in wild birds in Britain. Let’s hope the government handles the emerging situation and likely outbreak in poultry more competently than the foot and mouth fiasco a few years ago. I hope this time vaccination will be allowed in order to reduce the spectre of mass funeral pyres of preventively killed healthy animals followed by mass burials of the remains.

As we eat organic free-range chickens and eggs, Good Sport’s kitchen will not for the time being be serving mayonnaise, chocolate mousse, soft-boiled eggs or runny fried eggs.

Thanks to El Reg for the image of an alleged dyslexic e-bayer’s number plate sale.

Bellydancing out, cinema in, says Hamas

Some thoughts from Attallah Abu al-Sibbah, the culture minister of Hamasistan next door.

• Hamas is not the Taliban.
• We're not going to allow books with any pictures of Madonna in bed.
• "I would open cinemas. It could be an education and help people live better. Hollywood is not all bad. Titanic was a good film, a human film,"
• "We're not the Taliban. We love Jesus. We love Moses,"
• "People do it indoors, in secret. There's lots of it,"

He was referring to bellydancing in the last quote.

Citizenship tests planned for immigrants

A good idea to have some sort of test for new Israeli citizens. A quick poll of my fellow workers however, produced blank looks when the questions:

Who was the third Chief of Staff? and
What was the Lavon affair?

were asked.

Saudi ambassador salutes Israeli strike

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States Turki al-Faisal expressed support for Israel's strike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear facility in 1981.

Is this tacit support for a pre emptive strike on Iran?

Sinn Fein British agent shot dead

The news isn’t so much that Denis Donaldson has been killed but that he managed to stay alive this long without being killed.

This is the type of deeply embedded long-term intelligence agent which must be recruited and placed in the various islamist and jihadist cells around the world in order to help slowly but completely neutralise these barbarians. A tall order - lots of atrocities and barbaric acts no doubt lie ahead because this will also take decades - but I’m optimistic that it is eminently achievable.

Baghdad Burning

I seemed to have dropped RiverBend from the blogroll which is a shame. She'll be back. She's also on the short list for the Samuel Johnson award. Visit her blog ansd scroll down the March 28th. Read that entry and tell me things are OKish in Iraq.

The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area.

Haaretz - Israel News - Labor astir over Peretz bid to include right in bloc

It rained a bit in Northern Israel yesterday with more promised. When a say a bit, Jerusalem got 112 millimetres. This end of winter splurge caused me take 2.5 hours to get home rather than the normal 40 minutes. Five people never got home yesterday having drowned.

Next door, Hamastan continues on it's winding way to somewhere and here in Israel, we have very unpleasant party negotiations to form the next government. I don't want to watch it happen.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog.
Thanks to Winds of Change for the tip.

And more

I forgot to mention we had a birthday party for an active family senior as well. In the evening, Mrs E went to an Arab/Israeli group that examine better ways of living together. A concert is planned. One of the group members, a French lady is being deported this week. Apparently her conversion to Judaism in France with the signature of the Chief Rabbi is deemed insufficient to be Israeli. The deeper reason is her religious neighbours objecting to her holding yoga classes which equates to 'converting Jews to Buddism'.

We also found out that all the olive trees we planted a few weeks ago have been torn up. I will not say who did it as there's no proof. We'll do it all again at Pesach.