So it's Friday, and it's been a busy week.
On Sunday, the EU announced that it's simply unacceptable for Israel to set its own borders without the permission and blessing of the Palestinian Authority, a/k/a Hamas, unless, of course, it retreats back to the 1967 lines. Thank you very much.
On Monday, two more Qassams landed in Sderot during President Katzav and Defense Minister Amir Peretz's visit, which elicited yet more promises and still no action.
On Tuesday, PM Abbas told "the factions" to stop with the Qassams, already, and honor the "truce." I think we've heard this before. (And they didn't.)
On Wednesday, Abbas had an exchange with Elie Wiesel at the Nobel Laureates' Conference in Petra. Abbas claimed that suicide bombings are crimes because of the Muslim prohibition against commiting suicide. This is semantic misdirection. "Suicide," which is in fact condemned, is clearly distinguishable in Islamic tradition from "martyrdom" in the pursuit of Jihad, which is exalted. The Economist, of all places, published this in-depth look at the issue a while back.
Meanwhile, on a positive note, the Presbyterian Church USA reversed its anti-Israel divestment policy by a vote of 483-28.
On Thursday, the 29th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRCRC?) a/k/a the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (there's actually a distinction there, but I'm not quite getting it) formally admitted Israel's Magen David Adom, sans its own symbol. Or, as the headline says, incorporated the use of the Red Crystal. As mentioned below, I'm rather underwhelmed.
And Roger Waters used his celebrity status and his Pink Floyd credentials (they did, after all, write a song about a wall) to attack Israel's security fence at a concert in Israel's "peace village" of Neve Shalom. Waters says the Israelis need to "tear down the walls and make peace with their neighbours." Now there's a novel idea. Too bad the neighbours don't agree -- to the "peace" part.
Today, well, today Hamas supposedly offered Israel a conditional ceasefire. I guess they need a time out to reload.
And seven homegrown jihadis were indicted for planning major terrorist attacks in the U.S. It's a step.
And it's a week.
Shabbat Shalom.
