Israel - Democracy, Super Models & Mossad Controlled Sharks

On Sunday Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of Israel's Islamic Movement, was released from prison after serving a five month sentence for assaulting and spitting at a police officer:

Speaking to supporters waiting outside the prison, Salah said, “In this welcoming I see confirmation of our eternal victory over occupied Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque.”

The Islamic leader added, “I want to stress that this celebration today is only one celebration on the road to the big celebration, which is the expulsion of the Israeli occupation from Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque.

“We are not afraid of prison in the cause of Jerusalem and al-Aksa. We will continue to cling to every piece of earth in Jerusalem and to every Jerusalem stone.”

The Islamic leader was found guilty of assaulting and spitting on a police officer who was providing security at a demonstration sponsored by Salah in 2007.

How interesting. It turns out that Israel, like most Western countries, permits opposing viewpoints to the degree that marches calling for its destruction, or at best subversion, are allowed to take place.

For all those who denounce Israel as an evil, racist, Nazi-like entity with no right to exist, can you imagine what would happen to protesters espousing equivalent pro-Israel views in Gaza? Or even supposedly friendly Arab countries such as Jordan?

I genuinely can't imagine the police providing security for them and tolerating being assaulted for their trouble, whatever else might happen.

In other news, apparently the lovely Bar Refaeli is in trouble for comments she made after a visit to Egypt:

Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli has managed to get in trouble with the Egyptians. Refaeli visited Egypt about two weeks ago with her boyfriend, Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Asked by Israeli reporters whether she would ever go back there, she replied that "Egypt is a very primitive place".

I imagine she is in trouble - most Muslims don't seem to appreciate any compulsion to tell the truth, it has to be said. Look at the reaction of the Islamic world to Fitna.

She's right though, that's what counts. My friends went on honeymoon there and recounted how in public places tourists are constantly being harassed for money, whilst many Western women have to put up with improper attention and sexual comments. My friend was made a serious offer of several camels for his new wife on two occasions - but still, all cultures are equal, right?

The Egyptian authorities responded with their characteristic restraint and good humour to Refaeli's remarks:

On Monday, Egyptian newspaper al-Dustur published a harsh editorial against Refaeli, claiming that her remarks were part of an Israeli attack on tourism to Egypt. The article was titled: "An Israeli plan to harm Egyptian tourism through a supermodel."

"It's part of Israel's constant efforts to attack tourism in Sinai in a bid to make the tourists move from the Egyptian beaches to the Israeli beaches. The Israeli press has taken advantage of the shark attacks on European tourists off the Sharm coast in order to convey in different languages the fear of the tourists visiting Egypt," the article claimed.

In the same context, another Egyptian paper presented a conspiracy theory that the Israeli secret service Mossad released the killer shark near Sharm el-Sheikh.

Is there anything those men from Mossad won't do in their dastardly desire to undermine the glories of the Arab world?

Meanwhile, the BBC's allegedly incarcerated friends in Hamas were busy again over the weekend, seriously wounding an IDF soldier and firing a rocket into the Negev; two of them were sent to meet Allah for their trouble.

I personally feel this small nation, surrounded by hostility and aggression on all sides, daily shows great restraint, as these stories illustrate.