From today's Ha'aretz: "Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office. Two months after his visit to Washington, he is still finding it difficult to communicate normally with the White House. To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama's senior aides: as "self-hating Jews."

Apparently, the pressure from the United States is getting to Bibi. I guess he got used to the idea of an Elliot Abrams who, while working in the White House, sabotaged every Bush policy he could on behalf of the Greater Israel concept. He literally called the Israelis and told them not to pay attention to Secretary of State Colin Powell when the General went to the region to promote an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

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This just makes me ill (almost literally).

I am posting this video because those of us who cannot imagine such things need to know they still exist. The faces of those kids....

GOOD NEWS: Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has stepped up to confront the club and the ugly racism demonstrated by its actions. Go, Arlen!

I can't say that I'm surprised that Russians don't share the global excitement about President Obama. As anyone at all familiar with Russia knows, it is a pretty racist place. The Times today quotes a Russian about why the average Russian is unimpressed with Obama. He's black.

"Many young Russians, like David Zokhrabian, 21, who recently received a graduate degree in international relations from Moscow State University, said Mr. Obama's race cut both ways. "Students in Moscow, they are pretty positive about this," he said.....But the same cannot be said for average Russians, he said, adding: 'It looks weird to them. They just think that America has gone crazy.' "

Israel is now the home to a million recently arrived Russian Jews and they are, to put it mildly, obsessed with Obama's race (not in a good way). Check out this Ha'aretz article about how the mainstream Russian media in Israel is convening television panels on whether or not Obama can overcome the "curse" God put on those with black skins. Bottom line: blacks are meant to be slaves. Why doesn't Obama know that?

None of this should be a big surprise. Just as we'd expect the EU and (all but one) Middle Eastern countries to be excited by what Obama signifies, we should expect others to be repelled. Fortunately, it doesn't matter. It is just ugly.

So much for that.

The President said today that he has "absolutely not" given Israel a "green light" to attack Iran.

So Biden either misspoke, was misinterpreted, or has just been corrected by his boss. Israel will get no green light to attack. We will, as Obama said all along, rely on diplomacy to solve the Iran problem.

Good. But we need to do something. I think the mullahs have demonstrated that they are capable of absolutely anything -- including nuking Israel despite the cost to their own people (about whom they care not at all).

But an Israeli attack would not solve anything; on the contrary it would create the havoc in the Middle East like nothing we've experienced yet (and jeopardize the lives of 120,000 American troops next door).

Obama knows that. And if anyone can unravel this knot, it's him.

Poor Carolyn Maloney. She thinks she has the right to challenge New York's appointed senator, Kristin Gillibrand, in a primary because she dislikes Gillibrand's record and thinks she, Maloney, would be a better senator.

Well, as the Beatles song goes, she "didn't notice that the lights had changed." And the light is bright red when it comes to challenging Congressional incumbents in primaries unless the incumbent is caught up in a major scandal or egregiously disses the party (i.e., Joe Lieberman). Democrats no longer believe in challenging incumbents over issues.

It wasn't that way when I was a kid. In New York, the best House Members in the delegation had knocked off fellow liberal Democrats in primaries. Jonathan Bingham, Liz Holtzman, Steve Solarz, Jim Scheuer and Bella Abzug all knocked off long time Democratic incumbents (mostly over the issue of the Vietnam war). Holtzman defeated the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. On the Republican side Alfonse D'Amato beat Senator Jacob Javits (that one was no improvement, obviously).

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This is credible.

There clearly is a story here and it is not that Palin can do more for Alaska NOT as governor.

Anyone who missed the announcement, check it out on TPM or wherever. It was incoherent, even scary. Obviously something is about to hit the fan and she is bailing.

She clearly is not running for President. A governor or senator who is running for President delivers some kind of policy address. Palin ignored policy, limiting herself to whining about media scrutiny.

She's done. My only hope is that she doesn't ruin Levi Johnston's career before it starts. I was so looking forward to his book. Actually, this craziness may increase interest in the book and the true story behind the Palin family follies.

What a fun 4th. Sanford, Ensign and now Palin gone. Three candidates, three scandals. Bring em on. The new GOP is delightful.

And check out this Alaska website which has done great work in uncovering the mystery called "Who Is Trig's Mom." Or dad.

Also, check out what the crazy right is saying. I love these automatons. Whatever they are fed, they swallow.

Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly keeps doing the best reporting on the continuing story. I assume we can expect more including from AIPAC as it fights off Steve Rosen's claim that alleged violations of the Espionage Act is just business as usual for the lobby (it isn't) and that therefore AIPAC owes him gazillions in damages for firing him and further damaging his reputation.

Also this from Natan Guttman, the ace Forward reporter.

Good reading for the Fourth of July.

Parting thought: Al Smith once said that the "only cure for democracy is more democracy." If he were alive today, he'd add "and by that I mean getting all money out of politics through 100% public financing."

Max Blumenthal writes that it is wonderful that we all empathize with Iranians killed or wounded in the struggle for freedom but points out America's utter indifference to identical tragedies in the West Bank and Gaza.

Of course, as Max explains, it is hard for Americans to become outraged by events they rarely see. The American media decided long ago that reporting honestly on the occupation was dangerous. Advertisers and pressure groups don't much care about Iran but they do care about anything related to Israel.

Fortunately, the public mood is changing. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are changing our ridiculously one-sided Middle East policies. And, according to the polls, the public at large agrees with them.

But the media lags behind and no wonder with the MSM in such financial problems. Not so the blogosphere which is entirely (with the exception of the crazy right) opposed to Israel's current policies. It is no coincidence that the blogosphere is immune to pressure from big advertisers and from highly paid lobbyists. That may be one reason an Andrew Sullivan can move from being a typical New Republic type friend of the occupation to its most powerful and persuasive internet opponent.

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At the daily briefing today, State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, was asked if there was room for compromise on the issue of a settlement freeze.

Here is Kelly's response. "We look forward to sitting down and talking about what can we do to move this process forward. In order to create this environment that will be conducive to resumptions of the negotiations, both sides need to comply with road map commitments....Freeze on all activity relating to settlements including natural growth is laid out very clearly. Working out the way to our resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to compromise; we'll see what happens."

Note that last part. "Working out the way to resolution, I'm not going to say we're not going to compromise; we'll see what happens."

He seems to be saying that the US will compromise on settlements or "natural growth," but, in fact, he is saying the opposite. He says that first the freeze goes into effect, the Roadmap is complied with, and then "working our way to a resolution....we'll see what happens."

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The New York Times is reporting that the Netanyahu-Barak government may do us a big favor and accept a 3-6 month ceasefire.

Basically that offer means nothing. The status quo will be frozen for a few months (except where "construction is underway" and in East Jerusalem). And then, when the heat is off, there will, as always, be a huge explosion in settlement building. By the end of the year there will be more settlers and more land expropriated for settlements than now.

The Jerusalem and "construction underway" exemptions are typical. With these exemptions, the Israelis are rejecting Obama's demand. He said no exceptions and Clinton reiterated it. But here they "accept" with gigantic holes. Jerusalem, come on! Only a credulous press will call this acceptance. Rest assured it will.

Nonetheless, this offer -- if it pans out -- is good news. It means that the pressure is working. The administration should just pocket this offer and keep the heat on. Our goal must remain, in Secretary Clinton's words, "stopping the settlements."

Three to six months is a nice start to forever. But you can be sure that Netanyahu and Barak do not intend it that way. It's up to the President to ensure that is how it plays out.

From Reuters today: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ruth Madoff, the wife of epic swindler Bernard Madoff who reaped billions and a lavish family lifestyle, will be left with $2.5 million and have to look for a new home as she forfeits claim to some $80 million in assets."

I read this item after coming in from a walk. Five houses away from my house, there is a sign in front of the nicest house on the street. "FOR SALE BY THE BANK."

I live in Chevy Chase, Maryland and, no surprise, I don't see many of these.

As for this house, it was pretty gorgeous. It was owned by a very old couple who kept the house immaculate. We didn't know them but saw them around. And we knew their name because it was affixed to the house on a beautiful mosaic sign. They obviously were proud people.

Now they are in foreclosure. The spot where their name was is mangy looking and, believe it or not, the house is already looking shaggy.

So what happened?

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There is considerable discussion in Washington about whether President Obama is maintaining or easing the pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu. There is no real evidence pointing to the latter other than the silence from the administration on the just-announced plan to expand the Talmon settlement by some 300 units, a provocation and a test of Obama's resolve. Beyond that is the general fear that the Israeli government has invariably won these battles with previous administrations and the feeling that Obama will, like his predecessors, blink as the lobby quietly (or loudly) pushes back.

Only time will tell whether Obama will choose to prevail; I say "choose" because he holds all the cards in the U.S.-Israel relationship. If he wants an end to settlements, he can make it happen. Beyond that is the simple fact that the largest foreign policy challenge he faces, Iran, is directly linked to Israel-Palestine. Although the usual suspects say that the Iran crisis is a reason to turn away from pressuring Israel over settlements, more fair-minded observers take the opposite approach.

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I know this is not the most important issue in the world but keeping our President's poll numbers up is very important. That is why I think we need to turn the issue of his smoking into a net plus.

It's clear that President Obama does not like to be reminded that he is a struggling smoker. (I know this from personal experience).

It's obvious why. His inability to quit could be considered a chink in his armor. The world's most self-disciplined man can't lick the evil weed.

But this character defect -- such as it is --- is a political plus. No, Americans don't want their Presidents to smoke (bad example, etc).

But they do want to view their President as human. And Obama fails in that department. The guy is perfect or damn close to it.

He is brilliant, handsome, athletic, disciplined -- too wonderful in every way to be perceived as one of us in a country in which almost everyone is struggling to overcome something. Most Americans are not terribly happy with who they are and how they behave and could start resenting a President who clearly is.

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Moshe Yaroni is doing the best writing I've seen lately on President Obama's call for a settlement freeze.

In this piece in Jewcy, Dr. Yaroni debunks the whole natural increase myth (the argument that a settlement freeze will prevent settler families from having kids) and explains why a freeze is worth the political capital it will cost Obama to achieve it.

It is worth a read. Obama is under pressure from the Likudniks in Israel and the neocons here. Here are the facts.

And here is an amazing video from Israel that shows that Palestinians are Jews who stayed put when the other Jews went into diaspora. It is definitely worth watching especially for those who might doubt how utterly absurd the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Note: the film can easily be used by those who argue that all of Israel-Palestine should be one state. But whose?)

Here is some good reporting on Prime Minuster Netanyahu's demand that Israel be recognized as a Jewish state.

It is, as I've written all along, a new demand designed only to torpedo negotiations.

From the fine piece by Howard Schneider.

"It has never been an Israeli demand," said Ron Pundak, a member of Israel's negotiating team in Norway and now director of the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv. "When we negotiated Oslo, the issue of the characteristics of our state was never an issue."