What Netanyahu of course left out is that the burden of war crimes committed in Gaza in 2008-09 is Israel's not Hamas's. That's not an excuse for Hamas, but rather it is to say that "balance" is not the same thing as truth.

The truth of the Goldstone Report that Netanyahu does not acknowledge is that Israel was guilty of war crimes, and that it bears a particular burden due to the fact that it is the occupying power. Since Israel has already changed the definition of occupation, at least in Israel's and the US's mind, it is emboldened to change the rules of war. It's "defense" is that standards of war need adjusting, since we broke them and we're innocent of any wrong doing.

Israel's strategy vis a vis international law is to keep moving the goal post. And the US is entirely with Israel, to a great extent, because they are both part of the globalization of "security" in which the nation-state's sovereignty is frayed.

That fraying leaves citizenship frayed as well.

"Other than for people with fully functioning crystal balls and Ouija boards, predictions are inherently speculative."

More words to remember. I wish that some of the scientists and administrators on my campus were more open to the spirit of those words.

"But it's one thing for us to accept that necessity when having nice little discussions among ourselves. It's quite another to demand that the VICTIMS of our little necessities high-five us for them."

Words to remember.

I guess I read too much renegade psychoanalysis in graduate school and have been driven to cynicism (but not despair) by the ongoing "state of exception" that our government engages in, and thus cannot help but see satire in Clinton's efforts to cover up torture involving the male genitalia. Given her own close encounter with another man's you know what and Monica Lewinski. I know, I shouldn't even allow my mind to go there, but there's something so psychotic about the way the White House thinks of its "sovereignty" that it just cries out for mocking satire.

Thanks very much for this update. And hooray for the British courts for acting like courts rather than a wing of some department of political hysteria. And mostly for Binyam Mohamed, I bow down in gratitude for his perseverance and willingness to stand up for himself.

glad you got on msnbc, and it really is amazing to see the "liberal" mainstream jump. Arianna Huffington is not a progressive, especially on Israel. And that in turn impacts her rhetoric on Iran.

"But isn't it naïve for the U.S. president to hold out the prospect of a peace treaty in two years, in a region where radical Islamists remain determined to destroy Israel and radical Zionists create new provocations every day by expanding the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories?"

Here is the problem of the way a certain Western intelligentsia thinks of Palestine in a nutshell--there are two sides who are in a conflict where each will have to make painful compromises.

As long as there is no way to acknowledge that what happened to Palestine had anything to do with colonialism which is not a conflict between two sides there will not be peace.

One would think after years of zombie-like continuity from US administation to US administration (since the US now monopolizes the entire question of Palestine) and failure to produce peace, that someone, somewhere would want to look at why their efforts failed. Instead, resorting to scapegoating and murdering Palestinian leaders is the usual way of dealing with narcissistic wounding whenever that leader doesn't do what's demanded by the US and Israel. The same will happen to Barghouti as happened to any number of Palestinian leaders. The minute he doesn't do as he's told, he'll immediately be moved from being a "statesman" or a "Palestinian Mandela" to a "terrorist."

Until the US and its allies come to terms with the history of Palestine and stop talking about two states that they have no intention or will to see exist, there will be no peace. Least of all for the Palestinian people who, as the authors make clear, are disposable in the great drama with Iran.

I was impressed by Moyers last night in ways that I'm sometimes not, because he was so clear in his criticism of the Democratic Party and so rhetorically powerful. If someone running for office could put it as he did, succinctly and in a way that people can understand, they'd garner support. The problem is indeed the White House and Obama's advisors who only care about his next campaign.

you rock on this one, Joan.

I'm sending this to everyone I know. Thanks.

Anyone who thinks this is really about hygiene or cleanliness is kidding him or herself. This is about what counts as "French," and the colon mentality that still exists in that country vis a vis Algerians and "Islam." If the woman were Jewish and wearing something similar (and there are PLENTY of Jewish women whose dress is very very similar to Muslim women) there would not be an effort to ban the dress. And if there was, plenty of French people who aren't Jewish would say it was anti-Semitic. It's just that Muslims have become the Jews of Europe today.