Today's peaceful PalArab news

An Islamic Jihad leader says that there are a large number of "human bombs" waiting for the "calm" to end so they can be sent into Israel for what Arabs refer to as "quality attacks." In this case, "quality" means "lots of women and children murdered."

The Arab media is upset over a story that a delegation of Arab students, as part of a young leadership program sponsored by the US government, went to the Israel embassy for a briefing - and then had the gall to take souvenirs and pose for photos with the Israeli speaker, saying that he is the first Israeli they have ever met.

Palestinian Arabs are starting a new lobbying and PR organization in the US today that is meant to battle the Israel lobby. Does this mean that they will try to influence American policy towards a foreign entity? I thought that was immoral!

A Sharia question was asked about whether it is permissible to drink soda daily. The fatwa in response was complex, but the gist seems to be that while carbonated drinks are not forbidden per se, one has to be mindful not to support Zionist soda companies. The question gets a little muddled, though, because the fatwa author realizes that one cannot boycott every Western company or else the Arab world would go back to living in tents in the desert (my phrase, not his!), so one needs to be wise as to when to avoid American and Zionist products and when to embrace them until the Arab world is strong enough to reject them and dictate its own terms to the West.

UPDATE (8/9): Clan clash in Hebron, one dead. The 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 142.

UPDATE(8/10): Another member of the Helles family succumbed to his injuries from Hamas' attack last week. 143.

Six dead in Gaza tunnel collapse. I'm including it in the death count unless there is any reason to think that Egypt caused the collapse. 149.