PROGRESSIVE ZIONIST FRY'DAZE

This first story saddens me a great deal. At first I was outraged... and honestly I still am but, there is more to this than meets the eye. Nothing in the vandals past excuses this action but it does place it in context of the conflict. Tel Aviv: 'Price Tag' in Rabin memorial

First reprisal following Shalit deal? The memorial for Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv was vandalized Thursday night. The words "Price Tag" and "Free Yigal Amir" were spray-painted on it.

Eye-witnesses reported that the perpetrator was arrested by Tel Aviv municipal guards. The suspect is Shvuel Schijveschuurder, 27, from Givat Shmuel whose parents were murdered in the Sbarro restaurant terror attack in Jerusalem in 2001.....

.....Nadav, an eye-witness, saw the man vandalizing the memorial. "I began crossing the junction towards him as he was finishing writing and pouring white paint. A municipal security guard chased after him. He entered a taxi and was forcefully taken out of it."

 According to the eye-witness, the guard asked the suspect "why did you do it?" and he replied: "You don't know who I am, my family was murdered." He was then taken into questioning.

This is part of the fall-out from the deal for Gilad Shalit. There are names on the list of freed prisoners who are mass murderers and people are rightly concerned about their release. However, the IDF and the Shin Bet say that they feel that this deal makes sense and that the security risks will not be increased with the prisoners who are slated for release.
These despicable "Price Tag" attacks have been on the rise with the recent vandalization of Arab cemeteries in Jaffa

Some 25 tombstones were vandalized at two Jaffa cemeteries belonging to Muslims and Christians. The messages “Death to Arabs” and “Price tag” were spray painted on the graves.

Police forces arrived at the site and launched an investigation into the incident, but no suspects had been arrested for the time being. The acts prompted Jaffa residents to hold an emotional rally on Jaffa's streets Saturday evening.

President Shimon Peres condemned the vandalism acts at Jaffa’s Christian and Muslim cemeteries, referring to them as “despicable acts that disgrace us and contradict the moral values of Israeli society.”

The hard right seems to now be expanding their hatred and trying to add "fuel to the fire" in an effort to forestall any efforts at peace.

But it is not only the Israeli right that is upset. According to German intelligence: Iran could try to sabotage Gilad Shalit swap deal, mediator says

Iran could still try and sabotage a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas that would set Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit free, top German intelligence officials said on Friday, adding that the situation will continue to remain "fragile" until Shalit's arrival in Israel.....

Speaking to reporters in the Berlin headquarters of German intelligence (Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND), the officials expressed their satisfaction with the completed deal, and from their contribution to its completion, adding, however that the situation was still "fragile" until the terms of the deal take place on the ground.

The German officials especially stressed their fear of an Iranian move to sabotage the deal's execution, claiming that Iran, who wields significant influence on Hamas, was not happy about the Israel-Hamas agreement.

Related to that: Haniyeh: Gaza paid 'dear price' to free prisoners

Ismail Haniyeh said Friday that "Our people today will harvest the fruit of one destination of Jihad and steadfastness. "Gaza has paid a dear price of blood and martyrs and agonies in actions the occupation had carried under the slogan of freeing Shalit," Haniyeh told a crowd of worshipers before prayers in a Gaza City mosque.

"The great Palestinian people paid all that price in order to free the prisoners because we believe that the value of man is derived from the value of the homeland."

Israel will release a list of prisoners to be released in the beginning stages on Saturday. The first part of the exchange is to happen on Tuesday... I think many on both sides will be waiting with "baited breath" to see how this works out.

The first part of the exchange is to happen on Tuesday... I think many on both sides will be waiting with "baited breath" to see how this works out.

Our second story: Palestinian Authority cuts ties with pro-Palestinian U.S. lobby over criticism of UN statehood bid

The Palestinian Authority has cut ties with a major U.S. pro-Palestinian lobby on Thursday, in what seemed to be continued fallout over the group's conspicuous criticism of a Palestinian move to gain recognition in the United Nations.

The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) had been a key link between the Palestinian leadership and the U.S. administration in recent years, especially due to the lobby's moderate political stance, and as a result of the friendship between the lobby's head, Dr. Ziad J. Asali, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad....

....However, the sound relationship between the PA and the ATFP began fraying over efforts by the head of the Palestinian delegation to the U.S., Ma'an Erekat, to distance the pro-Palestinian lobby.

Those tensions increased dramatically, additionally, over the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN late last month, a move Asali openly criticized for its potential to mire relations with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration.

Currently the Palestinian Authority is on the full diplomatic offensive with the U.N. after reports of Israeli continued building in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel has formally submitted plans for a new settlement neighborhood of 2,610 homes in annexed East Jerusalem, Peace Now said on Friday.

East Jerusalem's first new district in 14 years, Givat HaMatos, lies within Bethlehem's original municipal borders and will cut off the West Bank city from East Jerusalem, the group said.

Peace Now said building up the neighborhood, standing between Israeli settlements Gilo and Har Homa, was "a game changer that significantly changes the possible border between Israel and Palestine."

"Unlike recent plans that caused controversy in Gilo and Pisgat Zeev which expanded the footprint of existing neighborhoods, the new plan creates an entirely new footprint of a new Israeli neighborhood in East Jerusalem," Peace Now said in a statement.

The Palestinians have repeatedly said that they will NOT sitdown and negotiate with the Israelis as long as they Israelis continue to build in the West Bank.
SO rather than enter direct negotiations with the Israelis Official: PLO will apply to join UN agencies

RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- The PLO will apply for full membership of as many United Nations agencies as possible as part of push to advance national interests, an official said. The plan is likely to generate more criticism from the United States, which has pledged to veto a Palestinian request last month for full membership of the United Nations, if it comes to a vote in the Security Council.

The drive for membership of the UN agencies, prepared over the past two years, is part of a plan to get ready for statehood, said Omar Awadallah, who heads the UN department at the foreign ministry.

"Our policy is now towards gaining membership of all international organizations, and specialized organizations of the United Nations as a full member," he told Reuters in an interview. "We are not looking for confrontation, we are looking to secure our rights," he said.

Anyway, there is a lot here to discuss so please do and let's keep this substantive and productive.