I'm hearing that that House Democrats are beginning to resist H. Con. Res. 362 which demands that the President take a more militant approach to Iran (as if President Bush needs encouragement along those lines).

The resolution was sailing along, picking up 230 co-sponsors along the way, when suddenly the netroots and various interest groups got wind of the fact that the resolution, as written, could be read as calling for a naval blockade of Iran i.e. war. (The Senate bill, drafted by Evan Bayh, eliminates the blockade language).

Resistance is now growing in the House with two co-sponsors of the resolution -- Robert Wexler and Barney Frank --saying that either the blockade language goes, or they do.

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Senator Obama's decision to include Israel in his overseas tour makes a lot of sense. Although he has been there before, the ever-changing Israeli scene needs to be experienced first-hand. I only hope Obama is not going to Israel in order to impress a small but vocal minority of Jewish Democrats who are uncomfortable with his candidacy.

I say that because, from what I have heard from those voters, there is nothing Obama can say or do that will bring them around. They do not trust him not because of what he says but because of who he is. They suspect that, no matter what he says, his sympathy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not limited exclusively to Israelis but also extends to Palestinians. After all, how can an African-American whose father's people were African Muslims not have sympathy for Palestinians as well as for Jews?

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Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's spokesperson since her first Senate race, is moving over to Fox, following the appalling Lanny Davis.

Definitely a good move for Fox as it tries to appear not to be a non-stop Obama bashing machine during the fall. Davis, who makes Alan Dershowitz seem appealing, in no way enhances its creds. But Wolfson is solid.

So why would he do this. "I thought that Fox's coverage during the primary was comprehensive and fair and evenhanded," he said. Karl Rove is delighted. "The guy is very smart. [Wolfson] strikes me as a very able guy and surprisingly pleasant and amiable."

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As usual, one has to turn to the Israeli media for the kind of discussion of the Middle East that one can not find here.

In this piece, Ha'aretz columnist Gideon Levy argues that Israel cannot survive by bombing its antagonists into submission. "Israel never thinks in terms of beyond tomorrow. It acts like a person who puts buckets in a house with a leaky roof instead of thoroughly fixing the roof. So we bombard Iran, and even if it is successful and we do not have to pay a heavy price for it - a dubious scenario - what happens then? What will happen when Egypt wants a bomb? Will we bomb again? And Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iraq? And perhaps Hezbollah has some "dirty bomb" or other? And will we "allow" Turkey to go nuclear? Will we bombard and bombard, and live forever by bombardment?"

Read what Levy has to say. You won't find a column like this in the Washington Post or the New York Times.