Reads the headline in Today's Jerusalem Post

US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran in the upcoming months, before the end of his term, Army Radio quoted officials in Jerusalem as saying Tuesday.

The official claimed that a senior member of the president's entourage said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for.

However, the official continued, "the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic.

In Haaretz today, Rosner brings us this gem from the Wall Street Journal editorial page

For reasons both telling and mysterious, Israel has become unpopular among that segment of public opinion that calls itself progressive. This is the same progressive segment that believes in women's rights, gay rights, the rights to a fair trial and to appeal, freedom of speech and conscience, judicial checks on parliamentary authority. These are rights that exist in Israel and nowhere else in the Middle East. So why is it that the country that is most sympathetic to progressive values gets the least of progressive sympathies?

wsj

This is a first. A dozen political and military factions in Gaza have agreed to a cease fire with Israel.

Twelve Palestinian factions have accepted Cairo's proposal for a temporary truce with Israel, beginning in Gaza, Egypt announced on Wednesday, adding that it would press Israel to accept the deal.

JPost

The ball is now in Israel's court.

According to CNN:

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Hamas is prepared to accept peace with Israel if the Palestinians approve any agreement negotiated with Israel.

 CNN

In Haaretz:

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Monday that Hamas is prepared to accept the right of Israel to "live in peace" within 1967 borders. He also said the Islamist group would willing to accept a peace deal initiated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if it were favored in a national referendum.

"There's no doubt that both the Arab world and the Palestinians, including Hamas, will accept Israel's right to live in peace within the 1967 borders."

Haaretz

Is the headline of an article in the Jerusalem Post

According to Marcel Groen, the head of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, 17 percent of the 560,000 registered voters are Jewish, with the overwhelming majority registered as Democrats.

"We have a disproportionate say" in the outcome, said Groen, who is active in the Jewish community.

JPost

Peace Now, founded in 1978, celebrates its 30th anniversary on tuesday.  The group, founded by IDF reservists, seeks peace in Palestine through a two state solution.  Further, the group sees the settlements as a major obstacle to achieving peace.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Loathed or loved by many Israelis, Peace Now this week marks 30 years as a movement which has deeply influenced public opinion but not achieved its vision of peace with the Palestinians.

The group plans to celebrate three decades of activism and anti-settlement battles on Tuesday at a Tel Aviv square named after prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated after addressing a peace rally there in 1995

Yahoo

Much ink and angst has been expended on debating the extent of the influence American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobby group with the mission of strengthening the US-Israeli relationship.   For years they have been the "most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel  WWW.AIPAC.ORG">AIPAC  About a year ago we heard about an alternative to AIPAC, that would still promote Israel's interests, but would be more reflective of the movement within Israel and the United States to resolve peacefully the Arab-Israeli conflict.

More below the fold

Today, on Meet the Press, Nader was pressed by Timmeh on if he would be comfortable with Mccain as president.  Nader, in response, replied with a criticism of Senator Obama's "self-censorship", using the example of Obama's current and former positions on the I/P Conflict.

How should Obama respond to this?

More below the fold.

Sen. Obama's candidacy has been subject to scurrilous emails and whisper campaigns about his faith and fealty (and his middle name).  

what does the Israeli Press say?  Let's look, below the fold

What do you suppose this means?

UK energy firm BG Group has confirmed it is in talks to agree a contract to supply Palestinian gas to Israel.

BBC Business

Britain's second-largest trade union will soon debate an economic boycott of Israel, following on the heels of Wednesday's decision by the country's lecturers union to recommend an academic boycott.

UNISON, the civil servants union, is due to discuss the boycott measure at its annual conference June 19-22. If enacted, it could have serious economic consequences, as the 1.5 million-member union has considerable economic clout.

haaretz

UNISON is roughly equivalent to our SEIU.

This follows the vote last wednesday from the British Academic's Union, the UCU, to impose an Academic boycott:

On Wednesday Britain's largest academic trade union voted to endorse a boycott of universities in Israel because of the "Israeli academe's cooperation with the occupation."

Sun Times

on Thursday, District Court Judge T.S. Ellis rejected the government's plan to handle classified information in the Espionage Act case against Steven J. Rosen and Keith Wessman, former lobbyists for AIPAC.  Rosen and Weissman are charged with receiving classified information from Lawrence Franklin, formerly of Douglas Feith's Pentagon Office of Special Plans, and transmitting it to officials at the Israeli Consulate.  This decision will force the prosecution to come up with a better plan, or drop the case.

The government is in a bind.  More below the fold

The Palestinian Unity government has been sworn in.  Two of our regional allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are urging the United States to recognize the new government.  Norway and Ireland have already recognized the new government and are urging for a lifting of the economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority.  Great Britain, France and Germany have also signalled intentions to recognize the new government and ease the economic sanctions.  

Jury selection begins this wednesday in Chicago for Patrick Fitzgerald's next big trial.  Lord Conrad Black is being tried for defrauding shareholders of the Hollinger Corporation of over
$60 Million.  International Herald Tribune

Basically, among other things, he is accused of improperly diverting company funds for his personal use.  How could the board of directors allow this to happen?  

Let's ask  Richard Perle former member of Hollinger's executive committee and Chairman of Hollinger Digital.

The Independent reports today that the Iraq Oil Law is close to completion.  

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days

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The backstory to the Iraq debacle is the status of the known and supected Oil Reserves in Iraq.  

On Friday, Natan Sharansky will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, joining Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II, as the only non-Americans to be honored with both the Congressional and Presidential Medals of Freedom.  

The award recognizes individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Who is Natan Sharansky and why is he being so honored?

Today is International Human Rights Day, marking the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.  I didn't see much press on it here in the States.  Unsurprising, since the late intellectual luminary Jeane Kirkpatrick called it "a Letter to Santa Claus", I don't expect a commemorative Presidential statement.

Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council asked Human Rights icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu to lead a mission to Beit Hanoun in Northern Gaza to "assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors, and make recommendations on ways and means to protect Palestinians against further Israeli assaults."

Trouble is, Israel, hasn't iuued the visas necessary for Tutu to enter Gaza.

This appeared in Boston Globe last week.  It is a story of a Navy Corpsman and a bunch of Marines and a little girl.  Blood and treasure indeed.  Chris Walsh and his Marines are our treasure, not just blood.   I'd want Chris riding ambulances in my community.  I'd like to be his neighbor and friend.  Lift a beer and laugh with him.  And I'd like to tell him that he's the kind of man I'd like to be, were I a better man.

Semper fi, Doc Walsh.  

Saving Baby Mariam