Here's a TomDispatch post that is about questions for George Mitchell as he attempts to find a way out of this mess, but it also gives a look at the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175026/sandy_tolan_five_questions_for_george_mitchell

Jonathan in Tel Aviv -- do you feel no sense of irony that you are an immigrant but are claiming the land of people whose families have lived there for generations? Not even a slight recognition that those people might resent that you can go places in that land, send your children to college, vote, when they can do none of those things?

There are two schools of thought in the Fundie Christian approach to the status of Jews. This is greatly over simplified, but basically it is this:

1) School 1 -- Israel is where the 2nd coming of the Christ will be. At that point, any Jews who do not recognize the lordship of Jesus Christ will, with all other unbelievers, be lost (or go to hell, depends on the interpretation). Believers will become citizens of the Kingdom.

2) School 2 -- Israel is where Christ will come again. Because the Jews were the first covenanted people, even Jews who refuse to recognize the lordship of Jesus will be saved and become members of the Kingdom. Gentile non-believers will be lost.

Both groups believe that the resurgence of Israel as a nation is critical for the 2nd coming. Some believe that if they "help" Israel evict the non-Jewish non-believers and expand rapidly, that Christ will come more quickly.

Mainstream Christianity does not believe either of these, and considers them uneducated interpretations of the Book of Revelations. (The general belief is the "Israel" rising up before the 2nd coming is a metaphor for a community of believers -- not a physical place -- and that non-believers, no matter their ethnicity or religion, will be judged separately from believers. And since no human can presume to know God's judgment, we do not how anyone will fair.)

All vastly oversimplified. And since there are about 899 different Christian denominations, each with its own spin on the text, really vastly oversimplified.

GAFFNEY: Well, I think it would reduce us to sort of banana republic territory, and it would almost certainly be the end of the Barack Obama honeymoon, at the very least, if not of the administration.>

Interesting. Rush Limbaugh said the same thing (is this a new talking point?). These clowns seem to think REVEALING torture, suspending habeas, spying on all our citizens, and having a multi-tiered justice system makes us banana republic. The fact that we actually DO this stuff doesn't seem to bother them.

Like Bush, they think the appearance is much more important than the reality.

I hope and pray that you're wrong, Omooex, and that George Mitchell and Obama can somehow have the balls and the will to really deal with this situation, but I don't believe they do.

Unfortunately for those Palestinians living now, it seems that situation is deteriorating rapidly. (See Jonathan Schwarz today, in which he recounts this: Israeli soccer matches were suspended during the assault on Gaza. When the games resumed last week, the fans had come up with a new chant: "Why have the schools in Gaza been shut down?" sang the crowd. "Because all the children were gunned down!" came the answer. http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/) The only light at the end of the tunnel is that the Israelis have exposed their madness for the world to see now, which I think will eventually lead to a solution being forced upon them. I'm afraid many Palestinians will have to pay dearly before that day comes, however.

I'm so sorry.

In re the Israelis chanting about dead Gazan kids, the source was Jonathan Schwartz at A Tiny Revolution, which was linked in the article. In HIS article, he links to this:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/27-4

This article, which I believe reports the incident first hand, was written by an Israeli professor in conjunction with a U. of Chicago professor.

Perhaps the two professors were engaging in mindless propaganda. I don't think so, but that's just me.

Hope all goes well -- that's simply horrible.

Please report back.

I'm as serious as Glenn is. He wants to get out of ME politics because he thinks the world will love us for it.

I doubt Glenn ever said that. I believe he said that a side benefit of our minding our own business -- in the Middle East and elsewhere -- is that people would have less reason to hate us.

Do you think that there are no consequences of our foreign policies? That we can do whatever we want -- for good or for ill -- and that foreigners will have the same view of us, no matter what we do? If so, you must have some pretty strange relationships.

Do you also not understand the difference between not giving people a reason to hate you, and trying to get people to love you? There IS a big difference. Maybe authoritarians don't see that...

...seems to be that Israel did some bad stuff, but other people have done worse, so therefore...um...well, that is all. You're all anti-semites!

Does that pretty much sum it up?

What are the differences between rendition and extradition? Is rendition simply kidnapping, but made okey-dokey because it's done by the U.S. government? If Lebanon decided Dubya had been complicit in war crimes perpetrated against it and the U.S. refused to hand him over, would the Lebanese government be OK with international law to go to Texas and kidnap his sorry behind?

I'm not getting this.