Interview with Saeb Erekat on TV's "Conflict Zone"

PLO Secretary General/Chief Palestinian Authority Negotiator

We couldn't not show you this video. Tim Sebastian, host of "Conflict Zone" - a one-on-one interview show on Deutsche Welle's international English-language channel - interviews Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's Chief Negotiator, and hilarity ensues. And by hilarity, we mean the desperate (and failed) attempts of Erekat to adequately respond to even one of the several accusations of human rights abuses, corruption, and political impotency that Sebastian throws at him.

Click the 5 1/2 minute video below to make your day.

P.S. The best part is between 01:42-01:58

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Israel News Analysis: Tumultuous election campaign ahead!

[Based on articles that originally appeared in Hebrew in Israel HaYom and Yeshemda, and translated by Hillel Fendel

Two major bombshells have hit the Israeli electoral arena over the last two weeks. Frankly, despite all the ink being spilled nationwide on analysis, no one really knows what to make of them. The nationalist-religious camp has been particularly taken by surprise.

First was the abrupt announcement of new national elections. A sample of the drama felt across the nation occurred in the middle of a special gathering of the Knesset's Land of Israel lobby dedicated to the Jewish Community of Hevron. All of a sudden, a hush came over the room – for everyone's cell phone had just received the same, unexpected message: The coalition heads had decided to dissolve the Knesset and hold new elections.

The surprise was not the very fact of the new elections, for everyone knew that what had become a narrow 61-MK government coalition had barely been hobbling along. But no one expected it to happen quite so quickly and suddenly. Everyone in the room – Knesset Members, reporters, and other conference participants – were equally taken by surprise.