Josh Marshall points to coverage by The Politico of Howard Dean's comments addressing the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities:

In another statement likely to stir debate among the evangelical Christians his party is urgently trying to court, Dean also asserted “there are no bars to heaven for anybody,” according to the report by JTA, a 90-year-old non-profit organization which calls itself “the global news service of the Jewish people.”

While the comment section of The Politico's report on Dean's address contains admonitions of a presumption on the DNC Chair's part over who qualifies for entry within the pearly gates, Dean really adds nothing to, nor subtracts anything at all from, rabbinic orthodoxy.  Although Dean could have innoculated himself from impending GOP talking points now emanating from The Politico's peanut gallery by simply quoting from the Talmud saying, "the righteous of all nations have a share in the world to come," what Dean has ably done is to call into question the absurd notion of those good ol' mythologically hyphenated "Judeo-Christian values."

It needs to be said.  There are Christian values and there are Jewish values, and to conflate these in our political rhetoric is a cynical exercise in manipulation -- whether the intent is to contrive a more welcoming environment within the GOP for the intake of tradtionally Democratic Jewish voters, or to implicate American Jews' sympathies toward Israel and Zionism with the support by the Evangelical right for ongoing Israeli occupation and Jewish settlement expansion in Palestinian territories.  It needs to be said that there are diverse sets and systems of ethics and values among the American people, and that such diversity reflects the integrity of the Enlightenment principles that the founders and framers have bravely established here.  It needs to be said that the United States of America is a peculiar treasure in a human civilization otherwise divied up among competing ethnic and religious national interests, and that what we have here is both unique and fragile.

The OneVoice peace concerts in Jericho and Tel Aviv have been canceled and simultaneous international programs have been postponed.  This is truly sad and infuriating. 

Accounts of the unfortunate circumstances appear here, here and here.

OneVoice Statement:  Lies and Threats Savaging Truth, Palestinian Cause and Opportunity for Change

12 days ago a slanderous press release was launched by a fringe group that sparked rumors that OneVoice Palestine exists to negotiate away the rights of refugees and international law. OneVoice’s teams here come together to categorically deny this and expose the fact that some Palestinians have been misled by a sinister campaign of hate, coupled with vicious threats of violence from extremists that have spiraled out of control.

OneVoice is a civil society movement to empower the conflict resolution process from the grassroots. We have no power to affect the content of negotiations, but we do have the power to tell the leaders and international community that we will no longer accept a failure to deliver real progress. The OneVoice Mandate calls on our heads of State to commence immediate negotiations, uninterrupted until the conclusion of a vaiable Two State agreement in order to amplify moderate forces in the November negotiations. That is the power of the grassroots and without a mobilized grassroots constituency we leave our leaders open to attack and without the strength to deliver real answers.

Of course the people have demands, whether they be to end the occupation or to deliver security, OneVoice, however, does not have a political platform other than to endorse negotiations for a Two State solution and stands only to support the leaders and demand that the will of the people serve to energize the process. Its Palestinian offices in Gaza City and Ramallah, run by nationalist Palestinians for nationalist Palestinians, exist to do exactly this.

And so, an organization of around 600,000 Palestinian and Israeli signatories, board members from Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Jibril Rajoub, and Islamic Chief Justice Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi to Arab-American Institute President Dr Jim Zogby and Founder George Salem, is being targeted by absolutists with no intention of ending the conflict, who are defrauding the people out of their right to peace, and into being a part of their battle. They must not be tolerated and we implore all of you who are confused by the lies and seek further clarification to look at the OneVoice track record and materials yourselves.

The opportunity is not lost: 600,000 people have already spoken and will not lose the hope and momentum we are building in the wake of the Arab Peace Initiative and the upcoming November Summit.

We will stand by President Abbas and tell him that he can and must deliver something for the people and that we will support him every step of the way when he does because these enemies of peace will attack him too as they did attack Chairman Arafat’s ‘peace of the braves’ and all other efforts toward a just solution that will bring about Palestinian independence, an end to the occupation and peace with its neighbors including Israel based on the terms that he as the Palestinian head of state agrees upon.

These enemies who use intimidation, fear and manipulation to protract the conflict through absolutist ideologies do not have any actionable proposals that will fulfill the wish of the Palestinian people. They have enchained the people for far too long.

The Hebrew calendar (luach) reboots tonight, bringing us to the new moon of Tishrei and the year 5768.  Over the next two days, synagogues will feature readings of the story about Abraham reluctantly attempting to sacrifice his son Isaac (Akedah) for the sake of a divine test. 

Bob Dylan sets his midrash on the Akedah along the road that runs down the middle of mythical America, Highway 61, where by no small coincidence Robert Johnson dealt his soul to Satan for the greater good of The Blues....

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son,"

Abe said, "Man you must be putting me on." 

God said, "No," Abe said, "What?" 

God said, "You can do what you want to,

But the next time you see me coming you better run." 

Abe said, "Where you want this killing done?" 

God said, "Out on Highway 61."

Altogether a fine meditation on Life's great complementary polar opposites, free will and blind obedience.

Whatever calendar we follow, may we find something sweet to savor and share in the coming year.

The OneVoice Movement promotes negotiations toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  They are presently organizing a satelite linked teleconference summit to urge leadership toward such productive negotiations called One Million Voices.  

To support this summit, One Million Voices is looking for one million signatures on a petition affirming the OneVoice mandate:

To our leaders, our fellow citizens, our neighbors, and the world -

We demand in one voice that our elected representatives work to achieve the following demands:

• Recognize the right of both peoples to independence, sovereignty, freedom, justice, dignity, respect, national security, personal safety, and economic viability;

• Implement concrete confidence-building measures that will improve the lives of the Palestinian and Israeli people, including ensuring freedom of movement for ordinary civilians and fostering education against incitement on both sides.

• Immediately commence uninterrupted negotiations until reaching an agreement, no later than October 18, 2008, for a Two-State Solution, fulfilling the consistent will of the overwhelming majority of both populations.

As of this posting, they are nearly half the way there.  If you would like to add to it, the petition is here.

An awful lot of baggage that doesn't even necessarily belong to the one who wears the name, apparently.

For example, TMPCafe member Mark Weinberg said:

I guess the fact that she chooses to call herself Zionista is ample demonstration of where she is coming from. If I called myself "Anti-Zionisto," would anything I said be taken seriously?

Obviously, the subtle nod to the Clash's 1980 epic album Sandinista, and the satirical jab at rightwingnut radio rhetoric such as "Clintonista," and fashionista," are largely lost on my audience.  My socio-political sympathy with the Jewish national liberation movement seems to be the limit to have any subsequent perspective taken seriously.  That, as well as the mistaken certainty of my gender affiliation denote the difficulty I bring on myself by inviting others' baggage into my ability to sustain articulate ideas and advance reasonable arguments.

So, if anyone cares to indulge me this minor identity crisis, I humbly put forth the question whether or not to retire the Zionista brand and change my screenname.  While we're at it, I am open to suggestion for new ideas.

I appreciate your patience, and I apologize for any inconvenience that this self-indulgence may have caused.

In truth, while the Fatah-dominated government had serious corruption problems, the Hamas organization is morally corrupt. It used violence not as a weapon of resistance, although that is what they claimed, but as an immoral tool to block the very peace process that gave legitimacy to the election system that allowed Hamas to rise to "minority control" of the PA.

 

It is so important to understand that the peace process failed not solely because of the difficult hurdles on the Palestinian refugees and the City of Jerusalem that both Israeli and Palestinian negotiators failed to overcome, but because Hamas intentionally used suicide bombings at each and every junction where peace talks were poised to make headway.

Wow.  Which neocon Zionist thug could have come up with that assessment?  Avigdor Lieberman?  John Podhoretz?  Bibi Netanyahu?

Wrong, wrong and wrong.  It is Palestinian-Chicagoan Ray Hanania writing in Yediot Ahronot.  And he continues....

But their real goal is not the imposition of the Hijab on women, but the subjugation of women, Christian Palestinians and secular Muslims by denying them an equal voice in Palestinian society. Hamas terrorists firebombed symbols of secular lifestyle, including restaurants that have served alcohol, nightclubs that have permitted intermingling of young men with women and dancing.

 

Worse, though, Hamas has allowed their armed factions to act outside of the authority of the PA, firing Qassam rockets into Israel not as acts of defensive resistance but as a provocation to create increased conflict that allows their political counterparts to exploit the Palestinians who are then the victims of Israeli retaliation.

 

Hamas cannot claim they are both a resistance movement and the majority leadership of the secular Palestinian Democratic government.

 

They have played both sides not for the sake of achieving Palestinian goals of democratic statehood, but to strengthen their base as an Islamicist power that has exploded into a mini-Hamastan State....  

 

In the battle against religious fanaticism, secular forces always seek to compromise while the religious extremists, driven by faith, cannot compromise on their faith and continue to seek the destruction of the other side.

Marking the anniversary of the 1967 6-day war, about 200 demonstrators of the native Israeli peace movement Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) rallied today in Hebron to protest the ongoing settlement policy and occupation of the territories.

Ha'aretz reports,

At Tuesday's protest near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, demonstrators held
signs calling for the removal of the settlers. They faced off against 30
counter protesters nearby, who carried signs calling them traitors. Local
Palestinians peered out from the windows at the protesters, while dozens of soldiers - including troops on a nearby rooftop - stood guard....

David Wilder, a spokesman for the Hebron settlers, called the protest
incitement. "How can Jews support those trying to kill us?" he said.

Peace Now issued a statement, saying,

Peace Now believes that settlements undermine Israel's security, squander its financial resources, and endanger its future as a Jewish, democratic state. The Jewish settlement in Hebron, lying at the heart of a large Palestinian city, is comprised of some of the most violence-prone settlers.

No UN Security Council emergency sessions or General Assembly resolutions.  No statements from the Peace and Human Rights community.  Barely any fuss at all in the blogosphere.  Something must be different....

AP, 

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Under the cover of artillery barrages, dozens of Lebanese army tanks and armored carriers moved toward a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Friday in pursuit of Islamic militants holed up inside.

The artillery bombardment sent clouds of white smoke rising out of the Nahr el-Bared camp where Fatah Islam militants have been holed up in a 13-day siege by the Lebanese army. The shelling also ignited fires in the camp that spewed black smoke. The militants have barricaded themselves in residential neighborhoods of narrow, winding streets and apartment buildings.

About 50 armored carriers, battle tanks and military vehicles from elite units massed at the northern edge of the camp and drove toward the forwardmost positions, according to APTN television crew at the scene.

Think Progress has an item on Jim Hoagland's May 20 column in the Washington Post titled "Beyond Saber Rattling."  In his description of a potential Bush-Cheney administration "Plan B" for Iraq, Hoagland writes about,

"[...]strong-arming the admittedly faltering government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki out of office and replacing Maliki with a U.S.-anointed Iraqi savior.

Arab allies are urging such a course on Bush and would not object to U.S. military action against Iran."

I find this an alarmingly irresponsible assertion.  For this assertion to be at all credible, readers should have the specific knowledge of which Arab allies are urging such a course.  Without that specific knowledge enough readers may be led to believe that actually implementing such a course would be multilateral, possibly leading to support in Congress and the electorate, only to be greeted by rounds of condemnation among the Arab establishment and obligatory conspiracy theories revolving around the Zionist Entity and its manipulation of US foreign policy should such insanity become policy.

"We wouldn't have had to go through all this if we had done our job right in the first place. The media should have pressed harder for documentation and should not have allowed sources to remain anonymous. It's just amazing what we let people get away with saying" (Geneva Overholser, journalism professor at the University of Missouri).

"The problem is that follow-ups as a rule are treated like stepchildren. You go with the big story when you got it, and if it's contradicted later, you try to ignore the contradiction." (Marvin Kalb, executive director of the Washington office of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy). 

"Probably most papers are wishing they had paid a little bit more attention" (USA Today White House Editor Gwen Flanders).

What are these giants of journalism talking about?  Dick Cheney's energy policy?  The run up to the invasion of Iraq?  The Justice Department's purge of US Attorneys?

None of the above.  These are all quotes from an archival piece in the July/August 2001 issue of the American Journalism Review about the reporting of "Vandalgate."  We remember Vandalgate as the reports of outgoing Clinton administration's White House vandalism, planted by Ari Fleischer in the days following George W. Bush's first inauguration, and when the dynamics of the Bush White House-news industry relationship were established once and for all.  Unfortunately, about all that has apparently changed since then are the stakes.

In a Jewish Republicans forum directed by House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Deputy National Security Advisor and Bush administration Democracy Czar Elliott Abrams may have tipped the Oval Office's hand a bit too far regarding the efforts of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to establish standards of mutual accountability in the Israel-Palestinian peace process.  Rice's benchmarks are in synch with a report by Paul Wolfowitz's World Bank, stressing economic hardships imposed on Palestinians by Israel in the territories regarding the use of roads, freedom of movement, forbidding Palestinians from entering roads used by Jewish settlers and closing off areas around settlements.

As reported in the Forward on May 10, 

Abrams described President Bush as an “emergency brake” who would prevent Israel from being pressed into a deal; during the breakfast gathering, the White House official also said that a lot of what is done during Rice’s frequent trips to the region is “just process” — steps needed in order to keep the Europeans and moderate Arab countries “on the team” and to make sure they feel that the United States is promoting peace in the Middle East.

...Rice’s renewed drive to promote an Israeli-Palestinian settlement is seen in Washington not only as a desire to calm America’s allies in Europe and the Middle East but also as part of the new thinking within the State Department, which views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an obstacle that deters Arab countries from joining the United States in its attempts to stabilize Iraq.

This view was recently reinforced by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who in a conversation with nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak accused Abrams of preventing the administration from having a “coherent Middle East policy” which would engage Iran and Syria in an attempt to stabilize Iraq. “I do know that there are a number of Israelis who would like to engage Syria,” Hagel told Novak. “They have said that Elliott Abrams keeps pushing them back.”

Who do we trust in order to understand what is really going on?  Rice?  Abrams?  Hegel?  Novak?  It is a sorry state of affairs when these are the options dealt to us by the keepers of the common wisdom. 

But there are rays of light, if not encouraging signs, that there are some at important levels of leadership with a degree of sanity and vision.  Nancy Pelosi's delegation to the Middle East is promising, and hardly the harbinger of defeat and failure as declared in administration statements and beltway punditocracy circle jerks -- including, notably, Secretary Rice herself.

And there are signs of life among the leadership of the principal parties as well.  With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert making interested noises regarding the Arab League's Beirut/Riyadh initiative in Jordan ahead of the upcoming World Economic Forum, Ha'aretz reports,

Vice Premier Shimon Peres will meet with Jordan's king separately next Sunday during the World Economic Forum conference which will take place in Jordan. Peres will discuss with the king his plan to build a channel stretching from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and to establish economic and tourist enterprises along it, with the cooperation of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

 

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have agreed for Israel to host a delegation from the Arab League working group set up to promote the Beirut/Riyadh peace initiative.

From the Riyadh summit on March 27, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal stated that, "If Israel refuses, that means it doesn't want peace and it places everything back into the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war."  Common wisdom often asserts that Israel has rejected the Arab League's 2002 Beirut initiative "out of hand."  But what has been lacking since Beirut was exactly what has finally allowed Israel to reach this point -- namely, an Arab League diplomatic channel worthy of the name initiative.  What's different this time?  A way for the Arab League to actually initiate dialogue with Israel. 

Ha'aretz reports,

According to Livni, "the present situation in Gaza is unacceptable," and emphasized that Israel expects the Arab world to support and legitimize the moderate sides of the Palestinian Authority, so that these moderates will have more political flexibility.

She called the meeting an historic first between Israel and representatives of the Arab League, and said that the Arab world had a major role to play in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I do believe that the Arab world when it comes to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is important. It can support the process, it can give Israel a political horizon and it can help the Palestinians make further progress when it comes to future agreements between Israel and the Palestinians," she said....

An Arab League spokesman drew a distinction between contacts with the ministers and direct contact with the League.

"We have made clear that there are conditions for us sending a delegation to meet the Israelis," said spokesman Alaa Roushdy.

The Egyptian minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said: "We do not intend to negotiate with Israel on behalf of the parties. The parties concerned are the ones who will negotiate with Israel, whether Palestinians, or Syria or Lebanon."

"But the Arab League, by giving this group a mandate, is working to set the stage, preparing the right climate.... [and] then pushing the peace process forward," he added.

Pardon my pigeon Spanish. But it's very weird that between all the invokations of Ronald Reagan and the exhortations of Iran there isn't any mention of the Contras. Does the name Hassenfuss mean anything anymore?

Would all of this have been more or less likely without Nancy Pelosi's "treasonous" meeting in Damascus?

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a session of talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Thursday.

They met in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they are attending an international conference on stabilizing Iraq.

The meeting comes as a the U.S. military said Syria is doing more to stop the flow of foreign fighters coming across its border into Iraq.

U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said insurgents were still crossing the border into Iraq's vast western desert, where Sunni Islamist Al-Qaida in Iraq has influence, but numbers were slowing.

"There has been some movement by the Syrians ... there has been a reduction in the foreign fighter flow making their way into Iraq, as we have observed here over the last month," Caldwell told a news conference.

Arab League member nations Egypt and Jordan were the only delegations named to the working group established to promote the Beirut/Riyadh initiative.

Jordanian King Abdullah II met today in Amman with Israeli Knesset Speaker and Acting President Dahlia Itzik and seven other Knesset Ministers.  The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports,

An official statement from the royal court stressed that the Knesset delegation had been invited to Jordan as part of diplomatic activity that the king has taken upon himself in order to renew the peace process under the guidelines of the Arab peace plan.

Jordanian King Abdullah II wasted no time following up the establishment of the working group and its mission.  This is an encouraging, and long-overdue start toward establishing the diplomatic mechanism necessary to build upon the Arab League's initiative. 

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni issued a statement urging...,

"Those Arab countries, with whom we don't have relations, could be a party to such a process from the start, instead of setting conditions," Livni said, according to a statement issued by her office.

Livni is likely referencing comments issued from Cairo upon the establishment of Arab League initiative working groups by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal,

[Egypt and Jordan] would try to "initiate direct talks with Israel, call on the Israeli government and all Israelis to accept the Arab peace initiative and to take this chance to resume the direct and serious talks on all levels," al-Faisal later told a press conference.

But before critics of the Israeli position accuse Livni of stalling or, at worse, rejecting the initiative "out of hand," we should recall the statement of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana from the late-March Riyadh summit urging similar flexibility,

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, on Wednesday urged Arab states to be flexible in their land-for-peace offer to Israel, warning that without a solution to the conflict, the Middle East is at risk of missing the train of human and economic development....

"The important thing is to get the negotiations started. In any negotiations there are changes in positions, because negotiations are like that," Solana told reporters on the sidelines of the summit.

The Israeli response appears consistent with that of the EU, and US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack,

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the plan Israel a start.

"We've talked about it for some time, about the fact that, of course, we would like to see an initiative in which there were more participants in some form of direct dialogue, discussion with Israel," McCormack said.

"You want to get the point where you start expanding out that group of countries that can have some form of diplomatic interaction with Israel. So we would view this as a first step in that regard," he said.

Bottom line, the sooner Israelis and Arab League member nations are seated together at the negotiating table, the better.  And the more, the merrier.