One Good Reason Why Abbas Should Wipe Olmert's Kiss

The green thing in the man's right hand is his ID. The green thing in his left hand is a suspicious object

Remember how Omlete made a big deal of "easing" chocking points, a declaration he felt earned him the right to kiss Abbas in public?

Well, Haaretz decided to investigate. No, not the kiss, silly, but the "easing" part. You can find the detailed result here.

Among the conclusions:

Whenever the army "eased up its stranglehold at some "permanent" chocking points, it introduced "portable" chocking points, or what the Palestinians call "Mahsoum/Hajez tayyar" (flying checkpoint).

For those who are lucky enough not to know this invention, it is a roadblock that materializes out of thin air, as if manned by Djinn or Martians (depending on your political beliefs). All you need is a jeep or tank and a couple of soldiers, and voila! Your day is ruined. Although less imposing in appearance, they are as effective in disrupting your life as the "permanent" ones. Actually, they are more devastating psychologically: they often appear just when you start entertaining the hope that, after all, you might make it to your afternoon class (or doctor's appointment, or whatever perverse reason that got you out of the bloody house that day) having just cleared the mother-of-all- checkpoints in only a couple of hours.

Then, you hear the driver making his dreaded announcement: "Hajez tayyar. Hadru el Haweyyat, Shabab (Flying checkpoint; prepare IDs, folks).

Your heart sinks. You fumble for your ID and a cigarette (even though you are one of the nine Palestinians who don't smoke), wondering if Captain Shlomo or Danny called his men and said: "Go to the Birzeit-Surda road and just before the garbage dumb, down the hill, right after that nice house on the left, put "Another Day Down the Drain" makhsoum."

You think of asking the soldier. But you don't.

Some of you might remember this?