Welcome to another installation of the Weekend Holyland Update, where we talk tough and retreat on all fronts, shedding Crocodile (Rock) tears. Please take your seats. We regret the electrical outtages that are to be expected - this time it's not our fault. Your inflight entertainment will include a localized version of Brown v Board, a bit of diplomatic intrigue and a computer game for your clicking pleasure. Please fasten your seatbelts, the captain has turned on the No Rest For The Wicked sign.

The IDF, in its constant preparation for the next war (often expecting it to look like the last one) , is practicing for the next confrontation with Hizballah. As is its job. But they need to practice taking over a hostile village in a wooded setting. No problem! That's what we maintain an occupation for! And so the IDF is conducting its war game in an undisclosed Palestinian village in the Hebron mountain area. The bemused villagers were not asked permission , of course, nor offered any solutions to rectify the disruption of their daily life. They have no real recourse, as they are citizens of no sovereign nation, and they can only be thankful that the IDF won't constantly flood their village with tear gas, as it does when it takes over a village for an afternoon during the weekly Friday demonstrations.

Israel has conceded defeat in the battle of the Gaza flotilla. It has announced a significant easing of the blockade, agreeing to replace the short list of permissible imports into Gaza, with an even shorter list of forbidden ones - basically, only things that really can be used to make weapons that go boom. But the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, and days after these sweeping declerations, Gaza still hsa various shortages and only has electricity about half the day. That, however, appears not to be the fault of Israel, but a dispute between Hamas and the PA, or more precisely the PA electric utility, which claims Gaza owes it money. Now the Gazans say they transferred 22 million dollars and still aren't getting all-day juice.

Israel has also admitted that the siege wasn't helping at all with the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. So the family, and its slick PR team working to bring the boy home (and further other agendas along the way), have gone on the offensive, picking up an entire newspaper and parts of others. Last week they launched a march from Israel's north (where the parents live) to Jerusalem, where they'll call personally on the PM to make a deal already and bring the kid (now already 23) home.

The Maariv newspaper has signed up entirely to the cause, adorning their front page with a yellow ribbon and acting as coordinators of sorts of the whole effort. No paper has firmly positioned itself in the "No, one soldier is not worth hundreds of prisoners, and several dozen who personally participated in the preparation of multi-casualty suicide attacks" camp. Israel HaYom (Israel Today) comes closest, but only after Bibi paved the way with a speech outlining his red lines (No to releasing terrorists convicted of a double digit number of deaths, and no to releasing the prisoners into the West Bank, even if that's where they come from, so as not to endanger the Palestinian Authority or the fragile rest from terrorism Israel has been enjoying from that direction. Several former defense ministers and military bigwigs have signed up to the "make the deal" camp, and it has become the event to be seen at for leading celebrities, such as model Bar Refaeli, and singer/actress, national dahling and winner of the first Israeli Idol season, Ninet Tayeb .

The march got ten thousand participants to start, which is kind of a lot I guess, and is a large enough core to attract a big snowball in the several days or so march to Jerusalem.  The following two days the number of marchers had dropped, but then it mushroomed again, to the point where the organizers are boasting of "tens of thousands on aggregate". Notice the wording. I don't know that there were any more than 10 thousand marchers at any one point in time.

Meanwhile Hamas - which won, as we recall, in the whole Gaza showdown, is talking tough, saying that if Israel doesn't make a deal, a) there will be more kidnappings, and b) the price for Shalit and any other prisoners taken will grow. In Gaza a mirror march is taking place - by Gazan mothers of prisoners demanding that their leadership not relax its demands and bring home as many sons as possible.

On the same note, blogger and activist Ali Abu Nimah reports, relying on unnamed diplomatic sources (Abu Nimah is the son of Jordan's former ambassador to the UN and so can credibly claim access to such sources), reports that it was US special envoy George Mitchell who vetoed a prisoner swap.

I don't know if this is true, but assuming it is: Since the leading rationale for the US to veto such a deal is the desire not to strengthen Hamas at the expense of Abu Mazen and the PA, there's a very simple thing Israel can do: Release a large number of Fatah prisoners as a gesture to Abu Mazen, proving that Israel doesn't "understand only force", and that it rewards those who play ball, not those who play hardball. After all, Israel can always get more prisoners - it gets new ones every week. Of course, with the current government, no such reasonable act will be taken.

Staying with the flotilla - Israel's ludicrous inquiry committee was apparently too ludicrous, and even former Supreme Court Justice Yaacov Turkel, chairman of the committee, announced that he'd resign if another couple of members were not added to the committee and it's purview not expanded. Bibi, being the squeezable little toy he is, already announced that he is not averse to surrendering to this demand as well, as long as soldiers remain outside the purview of the committee's investigative abilities. This notwithstanding, it appears that the military's Chief of Staff, Commander of the Navy and Commander of the Navy Seals will be interviewed by the committee. Just not the grunts who were actually there and can actually, you know, shed light on matters.

_{Bibi and Barak get ambushed ("lynched", one might say) by the octogenerian+ committee members (one with philipino caretaker in tow).} 

In more flotilla followup, there was a intra-diplomatic mess this week. The US brokered a direct meeting for Israel with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. Problem is, Israel can't send its own FM to the meeting - Transfer supporting, race baiting Avigdor (Yvette) Lieberman is of course toxic and the Turks wouldn't meet with him. So Bibi sent jovial, Iraq-born and far more Mideast-attuned Trade Minister, Binyamin (Fouad) Ben Eliezer. The meeting was no great success - Dovatoglu boasted to his home press afterwards that "We told the Israelis to their faces what we demand" - an apology and damages to the wounded and the families of the dead. Bibi announced that such ain't happening. But the real fallout was that Lieberman of course finds out and gets all offended. He refused to take Bibi's frantic apologetic phonecalls for a morning, spoke to the press about how damaging the whole thing is to trust but that he isn't about to take his party out of the coalition (emphasizing, of course, that he can if he wants to). Eventually the two men met and it was all explained away as an error. Procedures will be updated to prevent recurrence. Eeeyup.

The big internal story the past couple of weeks was the Supreme Court verdict against a religious girls school in the religious settlement of Emannuel, which insisted on maintaining an internal segregation between students of Sephardic and Ashkenazee descent. The Sephardic students weren't allowed to choose the prestigious hassidic major. They tried to argue that it's not about racism but religious purism, that the Sephardic families are simply too lax in their observance, but it didn't fly. So the court orders the schools integrated. But the parents refuse to send their daughters to the same class as the darker girls. They are fully willing to go to jail for the "sanctity of their education". Court, not impressed, grants them their wish. Massive ultra-orthodox protests erupt, with demonstrators saying "The word of our rabbis trumps that of the state's law or its courts."

Now here comes the really stupid part: This all happens in the second half of June, which, like in the US and most of the western world, means two weeks before the school year ends anyway. What ensues was laughably predictable. The affair became a PR nightmare, some mothers went to jail, but that was put on hold, then one wife of a prisoner had a miscarriage...and a cockamamie compromise was reached.

But worry not for the dignity of the court! Remember the dude who threw a well-aimed shoe at Chief Justice Dorit Beinish? He got three years in the slammer - exactly what Zaid al-Muntari (the Iraqi who did the same to Bush, with lesser results) got for his stunt. Yay! We're like Iraq, and that'll surely teach the hoi polloi to respect the majesty of the court.

Elton John and Rod Stewart broke the growing cultural isolation of Israel, to a degree. Elton had a good gig, playing to the crowd by telling them "nothing could keep me away from you." Then again, Elton didn't boycott South Africa either, so one shouldn't have expected much. Poor Rod only got 6,000 people. Coulda done a large pub in England for that. Meanwhile, other acts are cancelling left and right, with many shows said to have been in the works not materializing, on top of the outright cancellations.

Occupation snapshots:

In the brave village of Bil'in, Adeeb Abu Rahme was sentenced to two years for "incitement," "activity against public order," and "being present in a closed military zone." The closed military zone being his own village, of course. The whole "incitement" thing rests on the testimony of four minors (14, 15 and two 16 year olds), who were snatched out of their beds at 3am, held for 11 hours without food or permission to relieve themselves, and then questioned - in gross violation of even the IDF's own rules - without the presence of either lawyer or kin. Despite all these minor faults, their testimony - which was of course freely given, and shame on you for thinking otherwise - was accepted at face value and the terrible inciter duly convicted and sentenced. Read about it here as well, with videos (he h/t's me there...).

In Hebron, the IDF is so concerned for the safety of Jewish worshipers, walking from the radical settlement of Kiryat Arba to the Cave of the Patriarchs, that it has concluded it had no other option but to board up the sides of the homes of Palestinians along the route. And get this - there's already a road from Kiryat Arba to the cave, but since it circumvents the Arab neighborhood, it is too long for jehovah fearing Jews to traverse on the Sabbath, they have to take this shortcut, and this is important enough to treat the local population worse than animals. You see, in Israel, when you want to pave a road, you have to make sure you offer the local fauna alternate routes. Here they just board them up. (video, Hebrew and Arabic)

In East Jerusalem, pyromaniac mayor Nir Barkat is insisting on demolishing the homes of 22 Palestinians. This time it's not in order to give their homes to Jews pursuant to pre-1948 deeds (It's funny how Israel thinks it can enforce Jewish pre-'48 deeds in East Jerusalem while systematically ignoring the very relevance, let alone the validity, of Arab pre-'48 deeds for property inside Israel. These 22 houses, btw, are mostly populated by families of refugees from 1948, who were settled there by the late King Hussein). Anyway, this time it's not to make way for the takeover of their homes by Jewish settlers. This time it's to make way for "The King's Garden". A tourism development. For the benefit of the residents, you see. Well, those of them not getting evicted. As for those who are getting evicted - check out this brilliant explanation of why they are, in fact, getting thrown into the street and why all pretense of a legitimate excersize of "eminent domain" is a cynical lie.

This happens even as in another neighborhood, in response to a demand for building permits, Barkat washes his hands and claims to have transfered those areas in Jerusalem (annexed by Israeli law) to the control of the military. The military, of course, punts the matter right back, and so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, in other realty disputes in the neighborhood of Silwan,  which like Sheikh Jarrah is being targetted for "judaification", settlers threatened to evict an Arab family from a disputed house if the cops don't do it themselves. This threat was joined in by various judo-nazi Knesset members. After a few days they were "persuaded" by the Minister of Homeland Security not to actually follow up on their threat, leaving the thug act to their followers, who made no such promise. 

Also in Jerusalem: Back in 2006, Israel arrested Hamas legislator Muhammad Abu Tir, as a "negotiating card" to get Gilad Shalit back. He was sentenced to four years, which he served. Israel had to release him, but revoked his citizenship and residency in Jerusalem (see, East Jerusalem is annexed, but its non-Jewish residents are subject to a revocation of residency at the whim of the government). Abu Tir refused to leave his home in Jerusalem within 30 days of his release, and was arrested again. Three other Hamas members also have taken refuge at the Internation Red Cross HQ, which has no legal immunity but which Israel can't be so stupid as to raid. Right? Right...? Um, I'll keep you posted on that.

In Hebron, Jewish protesters including an MK's entourage shouted at local residents "we'll get you like we did at Dir Yassin".

Speaking of Hebron, the commander of the Hebron brigade cancelled a trip to London for the purpose of studying, for fear of getting arrested on various war crimes (Hat Tip: Didi Remez) 

To wrap up this installment, undoubtedly leaving out a handful or two of stuff I wanted to mention, I invite you to play a little game, and learn about the impossibility of a dignified life in blockaded Gaza. Altogether now: Gaza is a game to you?!

And on that Seinfeldian note, the captain will now bring it in for landing, returning you to your local brands of crazy and stupid, which should be looking immensely preferable in comparison or you should seriously consider relocation (or revolution). On that note, Happy 4th of July to most of y'all, and to me as well. Many happy returns. WHU airlines is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your luggage and check your comments and thumbs. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.