AUTHOR:G.
DATE:4/04/2003 09:46:00 PM
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BODY: IDF ended its operation in Tul Karem, not a scratch for both sides

On Wednesday the IDF entered Tul Karem and ordered all men and boys aged 15-40 to their IDs and report to a compound in the center of the camp. After a few hours in which the men were checked to see if there are any wanted terrorists among them, they were released and were told to stay out of Tul Karem till the operation is over.

Sounds awful you probably think. Well it’s certainly not a pleasant thing. The usual criticizers of the Israel and the Israeli far left of course shouted against this barbaric move. But why did the IDF did that and what was achieved by that?

The operation ended today and the men were allowed to return to their homes after the Tanzim and Islamic Jihad heads were caught. Israeli intelligence suspect the perpetrator of this week suicide bombing in Netanya came from neighboring Tul Karem. So the IDF went in to find those terrorists. And indeed 2 major terrorists were arrested along with other 21 wanted Palestinians, some of them were supposed to drive a car bomb into an Israeli city. After interrogating the arrested terrorists the soldiers also found a bomb making workshop with tens of kg of explosives, they destroyed it.

After the mission was accomplished the IDF allowed the men to return to their homes. I bet they didn’t like it but the bottom line is that not a single human being was hurt during this 2.5 days operation, not one Israeli and not one Palestinian. Not even a scratch. So Yes this move isn’t nice but proves to be affective in its results.

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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:4/04/2003 09:13:00 PM
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BODY: Update on the planes flying constantly above my home

Today in the afternoon I noticed that at least some of the noise I’ve been hearing is coming from commercial airliners. That is also strange because they never use this route, it’s usually over Holon-south Tel Aviv in a direct line to Ben Gurion airport in Lod. Why did they change the flying route? Is the regular route being used for other flights?

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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:4/02/2003 09:19:00 PM
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BODY: It’s too hot to think

Today was the first Sharav (a wave of extremely hot and dry weather) of this spring. Temperatures in the costal areas were around 29 Celsius (that’s around 84 Fahrenheit for the Americans amongst you who use screwed up methods of measurements). That’s actually not so hot but you have to remember that exactly a week ago we were in a middle of a storm here with snow in the north and even a bit mixed with rain in Jerusalem and Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev. So I’m still not adjusted to summer mode.

This Sharav will continue for the next 3 days, it will get hotter and more dry till Saturday night. The forecast for Saturday: Heavy sharav will in all Israel till evening accompanied with strong winds and haze. In the south sandstorms are expected. At evening cool and humid air will enter the region.

The good thing is that this weekend I’m going to have this summer debut at the beach! Looks like Imshin and Allison are also pleased by this harbinger (had to look in Babylon for this term – hope it's correct) of the summer.

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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:3/31/2003 09:54:00 PM
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BODY: US flying over Israel and Jordan?

oth the Washington Post and the New York times reported about 2 weeks ago that the problems the Turks are giving the US may drive the Americans to enable its planes to reach targets in Western Iraq by flying over Israel and Jordan in a what was described as a “diplomatically provocative route”. Its provocative first because the Us doesn’t want any Israeli involvement in the war (for obvious reasons) and Jordan for its own reasons wants to stay out of the mess.

Since the war has begun I keep hearing planes flying over my home in Hod Hasharon. At first I thought it’s the Israeli Air Force that entered high alert in he beginning of the American attack. It was widely reported that IAF fighters are flying 24/7 to shoot down any attempt of an Iraqi plane to attack Israel. The airspace above Hod Hasharon is not a regular flight route to commercial flights and as far as I know usually not for IAF practice flights as well (I simply don’t hear them). A few years back when Israel was still in Lebanon and almost every day IAF planes were launched for immediate attack missions in South Lebanon they often flew over my home. That off course was when the jets took off from the Tel Nof and Hatzor bases south of Tel Aviv, thus passing above Hod Hasharon on their short way to the northern border. Since the pull out I rarely heard them till recent days.

In the last couple of days I’ve noticed some of the planes above are making different sounds, more like a big/heavy planes no fighters. The fighters that I hear could be Israeli ones but there is no reason for cargo planes (or big bombers, which Israel doesn’t have) to fly in this irregular route.

I think those are US planes on their way to or back from Iraq. Maybe it’s just cargo airplanes such as Galaxy or Hercules transporting soldiers and equipment to the H-2, H-3 seized Iraqi airfields in Western Iraq. It could also be that some of the fighters are American ones flying form and the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. It could also be to much imagination on my side.

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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:3/31/2003 08:48:00 PM
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BODY: Who said Israel is the 51 state of the US?

lobes: “Starbucks Coffee International and Israel’s Delek Group today announced they had reached an agreement to end their joint venture in Israel, and that the Starbucks chain in Israel would close. The decision to dissolve the joint venture has been due to on-going operational challenges in the market, the companies said in a statement. Israel is one of the few places in the world where Starbucks has failed to penetrate the market.” (continued)

Is this is the real sign for the end of American hegemony in the world?

Update: Allison explains why Starbucks failed here in Israel.

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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:3/30/2003 11:19:00 PM
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BODY: Don’t know if you heard

oday there was another suicide bombing in Israel, This time at a cafe in Netanya’s pedestrian mall. No one was killed but 58 people were wounded, 4 of them moderately injured another one seriously injured and one critically injured.

The critical injured is the hero who prevented the death of many. He is a soldier that apparently was on securing the street. He noticed a suspicious man, and prevented him from entering the cafe. The suicide bomber, pushed back by the soldier blew himself up. Later the soldier condition improved to seriously injured, I hope he’ll recover.

The story here is about a brave soldier, a damn ass cafe owner who didn’t employ a security guard a monstrous society that produces human bombs and a stupid country that still doesn’t have a goddamn security fence.

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