From Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons Repository.

One of the aims appeared to be pushing a slick vidcast ad about life under Hamas bombing in Sderot complete with petition – perhaps in the interests of global citizen’s democracy and balance, the Israelis will turn the power back on in Gaza so its hapless populace can prepare a glossy vid of their own.

Though one couldn’t say real twittering rapport was achieved, the flood of questions from round the planet kept the Consul’s fingers hopping! Twitter is probably not the best medium to conduct open press conferences that are likely to attract large numbers of participants – still, I gained a few interesting followers and was pleased some of my questions were answered, albeit with nothing particularly unpredictable – where information delivered was questionable, I took the trouble to reply with correct links where applicable.

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate what is your understanding of the word “apartheid“? [link]

IC:

@Jinjirrie: There are no Israelis are living in Gaza so there is no segregation. the only solution is a 2 state solution #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@israelconsulate gaza effectively occupied by israel , yet without rights enjoyed by israelis … justification? #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@israelconsulate why not aim for a wonderful 1 state solution? sooner or later demographic facts will make this inevitable surely #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate why did Israel break the ceasefire with Hamas with incursions in November? http://is.gd/e7c0 #AskIsrael [link]

IC:

@Jinjirrie: Hamas decided to break the CF: http://tinyurl.com/3v4gkl #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@israelconsulate better source for cf here http://is.gd/dTEH – hamas offered to renew truce, on very reasonable terms – comment? #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate why is Israel attacking a civilian mercy ship? #AskIsrael #gaza http://is.gd/e8n6 [link]

IC:

@jinjirrie During CF 3 ships were let in. Due to escalation, we have decided to keep the ships out of harms way 4 their safety.#askisrael [link]

JIN:

@israelconsulate how is ramming an aid ships & firing round it keeping ‘them out of harm’s way’? #askisrael [link]

SETH:

@israelconsulate Ur reply to @jinjirrie disingenuous.Aid ship blocked 4 its own safety? Imagine they know risks http://is.gd/eds8 #askisrael [link]

IC is now spinning the story on its site, saying the Dignity rammed an Israeli vessel. Those on the boat however say the Dignity was in fact rammed – three times.

The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities.

The captain and crew said their vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said, but Palmor called those allegations “absurd.”

“There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody,” Palmor said.

“I would call it ramming. Let’s just call it as it is,” McKinney said after the boat docked in Lebanon. “Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side”

“Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis — the aggressiveness of the Israeli military,” she said.

The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza.

Followup questions I asked pursuant to replies received by others:

IC:

@anotherpundit Isr. only targets mil. installations. Unfortunate damage 2 civ. targets occurs. Hamas purposely puts civ. at risk. #AskIsrael [link]

JIN:

@israelconsulate why does israel bomb civilian police stations & universities if it ‘only targets military installations?’ #askisrael [link]

IC:

@realprince IL is pro ceasefire, but due 2 R exp. these R used 2 strengthen Hamas. we’d rther negotiate than fight. #AskIsrael [link]

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate ‘rather negotiate than fight?’ why a different tune from you to israeli politicians http://is.gd/ediV #askisrael [link]

IC:

@jranck crossings r open. 2day 33 trucks of aid & 5 ambulances. Among them r: UNRAW, MSF, ICRC & WFP. In the last 6 mnts: 17,000 @askisrael [link]

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate UN says 600 lorry loads of food & medicine needed daily & israel allows in 33 .. discrepancy??? #askisrael [link]

IC:

@xylem we believe talking is the best way, but we’ll talk only to factions that accept our right to live. a right Hamas denies #AskIsrael\ [link]

JIN:

@israelconsulate http://is.gd/edAy hamas conditns for accptig israel were clear & reasonable esp. ending the illegal occupation #askisrael [link]

And lastly, my remaining unanswered questions, which I hope will be addressed at a later date:

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate when did the psyop warning phone calls to gazans start after the initial Cast Lead surprise? #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate how long before abbas stops being a suitable ‘partner for peace’ like all the others before? #askisrael [link]

JIN:

@IsraelConsulate 5000 palestinians koed by israel & 14 israelis koed by rockets in 7 yrs – when will the illegal occupation end? #askisrael [link]

A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity – Nelson Mandela

FirstDog inhabits the First Blog On The Moon, an inspired compendium of cheerful animal observations, biting(sic) political satire, cartoons and comics. His artwork can be found regularly elsewhere on Australia’s premier online news and commentary site, Crikey.com.au – don’t miss the hilarious FirstDogOnTheMoon Christmas Spectacular! And now, his precocious animalia has overrun the twitterverse.

Interlopers should note my delicious black cat avatar should not be copied or used elsewhere at the risk of deep doo doo – it belongs to the artist and is for *my* use.

Again thanks, FirstDog – your work is treasured!

Huffington Post’s 10 Best Youtube clips Someone pointed out there might be a problem – wonder which one?

Scott Bridges at New Matilda looks at Oz Political Wingnuts and Tragics for 2008.

On Freedom to Differ, Peter Black sports two lists – Best of TV and Best of the Web and he’s in line for a well-deserved 2008 Weblog Award – good luck! In mock pique, Stilgherrian, whom we’ve nominated for a Shorty Award for #irony, has objected to his elevation on Freedom to Differ.

All the best for 2009 folks, it’s going to be a great year!

The Invisible Shield can protect your iPhone 3G and its valuable contents from a range of disasters though perhaps not from intrusion by certain over-zealous members of the constabulary.

In honour of the New Year and recent initiation of consultations coordinated by Father Frank Brennan for (or not) of an Australian Charter / Bill of Rights, I’m putting the amazing Invisible Shield prize up for grabs again.

Though some, including Brennan, are sceptical about the value of such a Bill / Charter, this Australian thinks there would be tangible benefits provided by the invisible shield created from the explicit adoption of the rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Australia is the last country standing of all democracies in not having formal human rights protections.

I propose the next winner of the iPhone 3G Invisible Shield shall be chosen from convincing, uniquely ‘Australian’ flavoured submissions for the first clause to a potential antipodean Charter / Bill of Rights to be posted in the comments below. The use of wit, irony and satire as well as a fair command of Australian vernacular may assist. No serious argument will be entered into as the judges’ decision will be final.

Other Terms: You must be in Australia to enter.
Competition closes 9/01/09 11:59PM

To kick things off, we’ve delivered some hints on how to succeed with the new maths, and set up a mission seeking out the best dead blogs for recognition and preservation. So far, there have been some absolute corkers, from lyric poetry to humorous verse, exceptionally beautiful photoblogs to memoirs of a soldier killed in Iraq.

Don’t miss them!

We link out in the main to related sites … our interests are wide though, ranging from politics to humour to the environment to literature and so on.

Our corp is a new one, with little interlinking between its players on their blogs, yet our fighting team spirit and coordination has kept us up still in the top four regardless.

Linkfarming for game gain is very unappealing – aside from encouraging artificial link schemes per se, links looped amongst already privileged players have the net effect of feeding the wealth of the game back to those same self-congratulatory buffoons. The overall impact is to reduce players to clicking robots, reindexing blogs manually to shore up pathetic monopolies or to attack other players whilst seeking out unowned sources of treasure which die as quickly as they rise.

After the initial boom led by the old time player and knitting linkfarm circle jerk, came the crunch and current downturn. Blog behaviour has also been affected by the changes … a declining blog becomes a sick elephant, virtually impossible to elevate without a massive indexing of supporting links and a flurry of hypes. A rising blog rises slowly too. One pleasant effect is that there are more valuable blogs to ‘play’ with, though very quickly one tires of cycling endlessly to eke the last remaining shred of worth from a dog knitting stock.

So far, not good … with more changes to come, perhaps the game might improve. Otherwise, there’s always the funny Hobowars or more financially profitable Wall Street Survivor in which to spend one’s idle moments.

SIGN HERE!

For more pertinent background information, visit BlogShares’ premier corporation at The Untouchables Blog.

From our leader, MNO:

“The Untouchables had a really big weekend. But today was the best of all when the interest came out, UT was #1 in shareholdings! Congratulations to the entire team and to those who worked so very hard at this milestone achievement.”

After countering a severe war and developing a streamlined unique team approach to play, our corporation has bested all comers whilst injecting fun and renewed vigour into the Blogshares game itself.

Good work folks!

As AliG would say “Keep it real”.

RESPECTR.