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‘In the News’, Politics and Beyond

“In the News” is now its own blog, since our upgrade. You can tweet or FB any post there, too. Anyone can post or cross-post from his or her blog. It’s getting quite a lot of reader traffic. Give it a try! Post a news blurb about anything, including items non-political. I was pretty surprised [...]

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Knesset Outlaws Anti-Israel Boycotts, Threatens Democratic Status

Israel has just hoisted on itself the equivalence of a McCarthy-like witch hunt for those it feels might be traitors to the Greater Israel cause. These kinds of loyalty oath stunts and such government brittleness undermine democracy and narrow national debate during times when its smarter to keep the gates of ideas as widely open [...]

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Let’s Play ‘Who’s More Pro-Israel?’

Let’s see, Gaza or gossip, which shall it be? For almost every news outlet this week it was the latter, while the former is where the action is. From James Zogby writing over at Huffington Post: When it comes to issues involving Israel, politicians in Washington can become quite hysterical, making the dumbest remarks or [...]

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Tim Pawlenty’s Neoconservative Spring

It’s like the ghost of George W. Bush, but with smoother segues. …and so it begins: Now is not the time to retreat from freedom’s rise. [...] Yet at the same time, we know these revolutions can bring to power forces that are neither democratic nor forward-looking. Just as the people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, [...]

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Israel Drops Threats Against Journalists Covering Gaza Flotilla

If there was anything dumber for the Israeli government to do I don’t know what it could have been. Threatening journalists who are covering the Gaza flotilla backfired, as it should. Netanyahu said in a statement that the policy for journalists covering the flotilla should not be the same as against infiltrators and those who [...]

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Hillary Clinton & McConnell Illustrate the Worst Side of Foreign Policy Politics

When Sec. Clinton was first chosen for her job at State some were skeptical she’d have Pres. Obama’s back when it was needed. There was never a doubt in my mind, however, that she would not only be a team player, but one of Pres. Obama’s strongest advocates. It’s who she is, because she knows [...]

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‘I’m Jon Huntsman and I’m humbled.’

**UPDATED** jon2012 on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free …and he’s in. “We are about to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got. This is totally unacceptable and totally un-American,” Huntsman is expected to say in his speech. … “He [...]

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The Gentleman Candidate

From Jonathan Martin today: For now, though, the Republican is seeking the mantle of the civility candidate, and one of his top aides said the velvet hammer policy applies to not only Obama but the other GOP presidential hopefuls. “He’s not one to tear anyone down by name, whether that person is Gov. Tim Pawlenty, [...]

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Daniel Levy on Assad Brutality, Israel and Preferred Devils

Daniel Levy wrote a very important post for Foreign Policy yesterday, After Golan clashes, is Israel rethinking the Assad (or Palestine) file? Here’s a snippet: [...] And Israel is none-too-enamored of the alternatives in Damascus. One alternative to the Assad regime — a democratic Syria with greater soft power diplomatic heft and perhaps with Islamists [...]

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Yemen’s Saleh Reportedly Seriously Wounded

From the Washington Post: A U.S. government official said Saleh, who left Yemen on Sunday to seek medical care in Saudi Arabia, “sustained significant burn injuries and shrapnel wounds.” “His condition is serious, and it’s likely that it will take him a while to recover fully,” the official said. Saleh has burns covering about 40 [...]

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Assad’s Evil Regime, No One is Safe

Hamza al-Khateeb was 13 years-old. The details are horrifyingly shocking. From Al Jazeera and be prepared if you’re going to read on: Arrested during a protest in Saida, 10km east of Daraa, on April 29, Hamza’s body was returned to his family on Tuesday 24th May, horribly mutilated. The child had spent nearly a month [...]

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Netanyahu Dismisses Fatah & Hamas Deal

“You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Netanyahu said, in remarks directed at Abbas. “Choose peace with Israel.” – Fatah and Hamas agree to historic Palestinian reconciliation deal Haaretz (and Reuters) calls it “historic.” PM Netanyahu’s reaction proves he doesn’t want to deal with the Palestinians at all (as if we needed it). [...]

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Ryan Lizza: Obama is a ‘Consequentialist’

One reaction among liberals to the Bush years and to Iraq was to retreat from “idealism” toward “realism,” in which the United States would act cautiously and, above all, according to national interests rather than moral imperatives. The debate is rooted in the country’s early history. America, John Quincy Adams argued, “does not go abroad [...]

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War Hawks and Neocons

Security forces in Syria met thousands of demonstrators with fusillades of live ammunition after noon prayers on Friday, killing at least 81 people in the bloodiest day of the five-week-old Syrian uprising, according to protesters, witnesses and accounts on social networking sites. – Security Forces Kill Dozens in Uprisings Around Syria We will never be [...]

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PM Netanyahu Invited to Congress

The invitation came from Republicans, announced by Rep. Eric Cantor. “People seem to think that whoever goes first gets the upper hand,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and a director at the New America Foundation. Using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname, he said: “If Bibi went first and didn’t lay out a bold peace [...]

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