Some may say this first video belongs out there with the folks who think we let 9/11 happen so we could go to war or that we knew the Emperor was planning an attack on Pearl Harbor. But the performance is solid.

The next one – I don’t know if I would give Helen a ten for danceability for this, but it is her point of view.

Most folks can agree that everyone is entitled to their opinions and, just like the terminal portion of the large intestine, almost everyone has one.

Con the World? The Greatest Bluff of All? Or go back to Europe, Helen – or wherever your bloody family came from generations ago. Abandon reason. The truth will never find its way to your TV.

Here is another view: ..the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal.

We are. Therefore we think.. that understanding this event, the events leading to this event and the cascading events that may follow is a little more complicated than knowing where at the waist to bow. Grownups, who don’t have to count to ten before farting from the mouth, need to deliberate before punk politicians junk shoot this event into another holocaust. The Final Solution Charles talks about above is just that. That is his point of view.

Knee Jerk, both. Oh, yea. Float your mouse over the red Obama.

Rasha took us to some amazing places, including the national museum, which houses an unbelievable collection of antiquities – one could easily spend an entire month in there, though we had but a few hours. We did get to see ALL of King Tut’s burial chamber, though, so that was pretty cool. And Rasha, a thoroughly knowledgeable guide, took us to the Great Pyramids (as well as other places). And it was in National Museum that we saw women dressed in full burkas – it was startling, to tell you the truth. Wow.

And so it was, that when I saw the following video, I wanted to share it with you since I developed a soft spot for Rasha, and her country. Secretary Clinton is hosting a group of young people from Egypt. Their goal is to improve the lives of people in their country, including the area of human rights:

What an amazing trip this must be for these young people, many of whom have never left Egypt, either. And how fortunate that they get to spend some of that time with this remarkable woman, the one capable of listening to a multi-part question, and answering it in full (without notes or a teleprompter). How wonderful that she is the one with whom they get to meet as they work on the issue of human rights, an issue near and dear to Secretary Clinton’s heart. What a great start they are getting, and no doubt, it will help them when they return to their country to work to implement those changes (and hopefully, this will extend to the treatment of animals in Egypt – that’s a story for another day). How fortunate are we to have a Secretary of State who is so gracious, generous of time, spirit, and knowledge. One can only imagine what she would do as president …

In the meantime, here are a few photographs of Secretary Clinton in Jerusalem:

Secretary Clinton lays a wreath in memory of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. This memorial took place at the Yad Vashem Memorial Hall of Remembrances.

Secretary Clinton signs the Guest Book.

Chairman of Yad Vashem Memorial Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and Secretary Clinton viewing “Wall Painting Under Duress” by Jewish artist Bruno Schultz who was shot afterward by the SS.

I have hope that if anyone can make headway in pursuit of peace in this region, Hillary Clinton can, and I pray she does.

And now, for the puppy update: the puppies and Lucy went to the vet today for their first visit. Everyone was healthy, according to the vet. And, all of the vet techs oohed and ahhed over them all. Several want to adopt puppies and another client there fell in love with one of the puppies. That’s what I want for these puppies – people who take good care of their animals, and use good veterinarians (my vet clinic is an AAHA – American Animal Hospital Association – clinic). Here are the puppies after their first big outing (their mom was outside for a moment):

Aren’t they just break-our-heart cute?? They weigh about one pound each right now. Still not sure who the baby daddy was, but hopefully NOT a St. Bernard as someone suggested! Everyone is doing well. Thank heavens.

Peter Berkowitz‘s essay in the latest issue of the Weekly Standard provides good insight into what I think is the strategic irresponsibility of those in Israel’s leadership who think that they can hold steady on a course that justifies failure on an a Palestine-Israel deal using Hamas and Iran as excuses.

As things look today, the Likud Party and its chief, Benjamin Netanyahu, look like they are about to be given a stronger hand in the coming elections. And Netanyahu is pro-settlement, and in my view the continued expansion of settlements is the most toxic activity that is undermining the negotiations process and actually, in the long term, will assure a deterioration in America’s support for Israel.

Berkowitz points out:

The major difference between the candidates went unaddressed at Herzliya. It concerns the future of Israeli settlements, the towns and cities built and populated by Israel in the territories it gained control over in 1967 in the Six Day War. While he almost certainly would not build new settlements, Netanyahu remains unlikely, without pressure from the United States, to freeze the natural growth of existing settlements. In contrast, both Livni and Barak would probably impose a freeze on all new building beyond the Green Line. Livni and Barak recognize, however, along with Netanyahu, that the settlements are far from the fundamental obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

Indeed, the journalists, political analysts, and current and former national security officials to whom I spoke were in striking agreement that Livni and Barak as well as Netanyahu all see that the fundamental obstacle to progress in resolving the conflict with the Palestinians is Iran. Indeed, the case for Iran’s centrality is convincing.

I respect Peter Berkowitz but disagree with his take on things — and find the perspective of many he is interacting with strikingly narrow when it comes to a serious strategy that will secure Israeli democracy and security in the coming years.

I share Zbigniew Brzezinski’s view that both sides of the Israel-Palestine divide have proven themselves completely unable to solve an arrangement on their own. A Palestinian state is still possible — and Israel democracy without apartheid within its borders is also still possible.

However, it is time to move negotiations out of the weeds and re-engage various stakeholders on all sides of the equation – including the U.S., Europe, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Syria, and the United Nations.

Israel’s bravado over Gaza and the massively disproportionate deployment of force in which so many innocents were killed or injured — and lives seriously disrupted on so many levels — is the type of potentially transformative act that can either radicalize a great many more Arabs against the current equations of power in the region or more optimistically, could transform the perspective of the White House to finally realize that Israel’s zero-sum game approach in the region is something that needs to be curtailed and changed.

Folks in the U.S. are hoping for centrists, reasonable, rational negotiators to emerge. Some on Obama’s National Security Council team think that if they only can now. . .finally. . .make Abbas and Fatah the winners in the eyes of Palestinians by showering on them goodies to deliver to their constituents, all will be well. This is well meaning “earnestness.” But it is flawed sentimentalism. Taking this approach with Abbas is “too much, too late.” I think that despite recent drama, Tzipi Livni falls into this “earnestness” hope — though she has a class of detractors larger than Maureen Dowd has.

But “earnestness” in trying to move the Rubik’s Cube of the region into alignment is flawed. Israel and Palestine together don’t work. They can’t come to a responsible deal on their own.

It doesn’t matter if Livni is Prime Minister, or Ehud Barak — who I think is the most monstrous of recent Israeli political players for his role in tightening the noose around Palestinian mobility and movement after the Annapolis process started. And yes, I said monstrous – to borrow a term from Samantha Power. And it doesn’t matter if Netanyahu is PM.

Likewise, Mahmoud Abbas is essentially irrelevant at this point — and all leaders in Palestine are with the exception of those who might be able to think strategically in a Gandhi-esque way and match the flamboyant absolutism and inhumanity of Israel’s occuptation behaviors with non-violent civil disobedience on a communications scale that Gandhi achieved. Mustafa Barghouti comes to mind. . .possibly.

In fact, the more irresponsible both sides are about their situation, the more achievable a “new equilibrium arrangement” may be — because the US and other regional stakeholders simply can’t afford for the recklessness, immaturity, and sheer stupidity of leadership on all sides of the conflict to continue.

Given that. Give us Netanyahu. Please.

His re-ascension will help Americans realize that the false choice approach the Bush administration has been taking in Israel-Palestine affairs was flawed — and that Obama’s team must change the game or face a serious rebuke from Middle East watchers in the US and around the world.

– Steve Clemons

More about Steve Clemons:

Steve’s blog was one of the finalists for “The Best Very Large Blog” in the 2008 Weblog Awards. Steve Clemons serves as Senior Fellow & Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation and, in his spare time, as Director of the Japan Policy Research Institute.)

"A think tank founded recently by The Jewish Agency.

The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute was established in 2002 by the Jewish Agency for Israel to be an independent professional policy planning think tank entrusted with the mission of promoting the identity, culture, prosperity, and continuity of the Jewish People. Every year, leaders of the Jewish world including such distinguished personalities as Dennis Ross, Shimon Peres, Natan Sharansky, Malcolm Hoenlein, Tzipi Livni, participate in JPPPI’s conferences and meetings that forecast the Jewish condition. The Institute conducts meetings, publishes reports and position papers, and produce contingency plans that help shape the future course of the global Jewish community.  Wiki

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This is undoubtedly a laudable institution, but is it an institution that should be the "day job" of the US presidential envoy to and for Iran?  Should we be surprised if Muslims do not think Dennis Ross an unbiased American negotiator?

Dennis Ross is the Chairman of the Board of this group and a former head and present counselor of the "Washington Institute for Near East Policy."  (WINEP)  For those who know not, WINEP is one of a galaxy of Washington groups that exist within the orbit of AIPAC, the Zionist lobby.  There are others;  the "Jewish Institute for National Security," (JINSA), "Business Executives for National Security" (BENS), etc.

Ross served as a presidential envoy in the Clinton Administration negotiations with the Palestinians.  His role in the catastrophic failure of the Camp David 2 talks has yet to be fully appreciated by the general public.  In essence, he brought together Ehud Barak (Israeli PM) and Yasser Arafat (PLO chief) in an isolated location for the purpose of "pressure cooker" negotiations with the Palestinians to forge a final, end state solution for the Palestine problem.  This process failed when the Palestinians could not or would not carry the negotiations into areas for which they felt that they had no prior agreement among the various Arab governments that had met at Rabat on the subject.  What Ross did not comprehend or accept before Camp David 2 was that the Palestinian delegation did not have a "blank check" to negotiate outside the Arab consensus and that the enforced isolation at Camp David kept them from the possibility of achieving a new consensus while the talks were underway.  Failure inevitably ensued and the situation has continued to deteriorate ever since.

As I have written before, the assumption that Iran is an implacable enemy of the United States, and a country that is not accessible by reason on the basis of its national interest is a self fulfilling policy position.

If Dennis Ross is made the US special envoy to Iran there is every reason to believe from his prior statements and actions that he will proceed on the basis of that flawed assumption.  pl

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Ed. Note: As Larry Johnson wrote about Pat Lang’s other recent post on “Israel’s Gaza Misadventure,” “Pat Lang is a dear friend and a brilliant scholar. He established the Arabic program at West Point, he headed up the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Middle East Division in the 1989-1991 timeframe, and he fought in combat in Vietnam. He is steeped in both politics and military strategies and tactics. When he writes (or speaks) one ought to listen.” Pat’s thought-provoking blog is Sic Semper Tyrannis, and includes his biography.

Jake Tapper has the lead print story on-line, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper is covering the breaking story as well as showing snippets of Obama’s first interview as president, made to the MidEast popular television outlet. Updates:

(1) This ties in, of course, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s naming of George Mitchell as special envoy for the Middle East, and her immediate order that Mitchell depart immediately on an extensive tour of the region — which signals, to me, that Secretary Clinton and President Obama have decided to immediately target the region’s plethora of problems and extremist influences; and

(2) The Washington Post story, “Obama Voices Hope for Mideast Peace in Talk With Al-Arabiya TV” emphasizes Obama’s “expressed optimism yesterday about the prospect of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but he said a peace accord will take time and require new thinking about the problems of the Middle East as a whole.” From the WaPo:

“All too often the United States starts by dictating — in the past on some of these issues — and we don’t always know all the factors that are involved,” Obama told al-Arabiya. “So let’s listen. [Mitchell is] going to be speaking to all the major parties involved. And he will then report back to me. From there we will formulate a specific response.”

Mitchell will be on the road until Feb. 3, according to the State Department. He will travel to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, France and England. He also hopes to go to Istanbul, the site of talks between Israel and Syria. …

[..]

[Obama's] comments were a stark departure from those of former president George W. Bush, who often described the Middle East conflict in terms that drew criticism from Palestinians.

By contrast, Obama went out of his way to say that if America is “ready to initiate a new partnership [with the Muslim world] based on mutual respect and mutual interest, then I think that we can make significant progress.”

The president declined to reveal where he plans to give his first major speech in a foreign country. In the past he had said he would speak in a Muslim capital sometime within the first 100 days of his administration.

And he reiterated a point from his inaugural address: He plans to reach out to Muslims around the world who are willing to “unclench your fist” but will go after terrorists who continue to be bent on destruction. …

“Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries,” Obama said in the interview.

He said that the United States must be “willing to talk to Iran” and that he would lay out a “framework” for those discussions over the next several months.

Wood said Mitchell will not have contact with Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, but he did not rule out the possibility that Mitchell would also visit Syria or travel to Gaza. … READ ALL.

I tuned in just as Cooper was referring to the pleas of Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia, former head of intelligencce in Saudi Arabia and briefly Ambassador to the U.S., telling President Obama that the Arab countries couldn’t sustain their relationships with the U.S. as long as there was so much bloodshed and violence pouring out of the Gaza area. The heavy onslaught by Israeli military forces has enraged Muslims across the entire MidEast and Asian regions. [IMAGE: The photo of a Palestinian whose face has been gravely disfigured by shrapnel. The man's legs were also crushed. It is critical to understand that the peoples of the Middle East are seeing far too many of these photos and videos, including those of dead children which Larry Johnson posted last week. These images have a profound effect and it is natural for people in the region to assume that the U.S. is as responsible as Israel for these maimings and killings.]

As Cooper pointed out, it is highly signficant that in this interview, Obama mentioned that many members of his famiy are Muslims and that he spent part of his youth in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country. He is certainly the first U.S. president to be able to make that claim, and — who knows — it may help.

It is notable that, during the election cycles, Obama never brought up his familial ties to the Muslim faith because he knew that that would alienate voters. Perhaps now that he is president, and he is also worried that his standing in the Middle East is that he won’t be any different than George Bush, he feels compelled to risk discussing his background more frankly. (With the immediate dispatch of George Mitchell and this TV interview tonight, it sounds as if there is a lot of intelligence “rumblings” being heard, and that the administration feels it must act, and act quickly to change the mindset of ME and European Muslims.

Here is Jake Tapper‘s initial report:

As special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell heads off to the region to begin work on negotiating a cease fire between Israel and the Palestinians, President Obama has sat for his first formal TV interview with the Arabic cable TV network Al-Arabiya, ABC News has learned.

The interview was taped this evening and is set to air at 11 pm ET, as Mitchell is in the air and on his way to the region.

Based in Dubai, Al-Arabiya estimates that it has a potential audience exceeding 23 million in the Gulf region.

I remember Prince Turki vividly from the great book and winner of the Pulitzer non-fiction prize, The Looming Tower. (I can’t recommend this book enough; there are sections of the book that describe in detail how Turki handled grave crises within Saudi Arabia, including the near destruction of Mecca by a group of extremists.] Turki is portrayed in such a way in that book that I would regard his warnings as critical for the U.S. to heed, particularly if he issued a stern warning to the U.S. I am hopeful that both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have heeded his admonitions that something must be done to change the course of events, and the reactions of the Israelis.

By the way, I checked Al-Arabayi’s Web site but don’t see any reports or video yet.

I must say that, from what I’m hearing, Obama is doing a great job.

“Hamas officials were set to hold talks in Cairo with Egyptian mediators to hear the Israeli response to proposals put forward by the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has offered a one-year, renewable truce on condition that all Israeli forces leave Gaza within a week and that all the border crossings with Israel and Egypt are opened.

A senior Israeli official said on Saturday the Jewish state planned to halt its offensive in Gaza without any agreement with Hamas. A Hamas official has vowed the group would fight on.

Mubarak also said Egypt would call for an international meeting to discuss post-war reconstruction in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

He said his country would not agree to the presence of foreign observers on its soil to monitor the border with Gaza.

“I say that this is a red line and I will not allow it,” he said in the speech.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said earlier in the day Egypt was not committed to a U.S.-Israeli deal, signed on Friday, to halt arms smuggling into Gaza.”  Reuters

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If I remember correctly, this outcome was predicted here.

If it was that evident, then why did Israel begin such an operation?

The Israelis have failed to humble Hamas. Rockets still arrive in Israel.  This failure in their self-declared war aim will cost them dearly in the strategic contest.  They are going to halt their “offensive without any sort of concession from Hamas?”  I suppose that they do not want the burden of this ongoing action to be carried forward into their relations with the Obama Administration.  The futility of what they have done in Gaza will be burden enough.

It is claimed by the agitpropers that Hamas is a satellite organization of Iran.  If that is so, then Iran has done a poor job of supplying their Palestinian subsidiary.  Where are the Iranian product improved and manufactured weapons that Hizbullah possessed in numbers in ’06?  Where are they?  Impossible to deliver? All of them?

It would seem that political support and encouragement is one thing.  Supply is another.

This summons from Mubarak indicates a need to placate the Cairo mob.  No foreign inspectors on Egyptian soil?  That means that Egypt will not make a serious attempt to halt smuggling into Gaza.

Not a good outcome for Israel.

Perhaps a truce with Hamas would not be a bad idea.  pl

We present it solely because it is a remarkable statement. We hope to stimulate thought and discussion of critical issues. This is interesting, especially since it comes from a top foreign policy expert in the UK Labour Party whose own grandmother was murdered in her bed by the Nazis. We can discuss if Sir Gerald is right or wrong, and which parts he has right or wrong.
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This YouTube was spotted by a NoQuarter reader. The indented statements below come from the YouTube channel. The speaker in the British House of Parliament is Sir Gerald Kaufman, “who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist” and says in the video below, “My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town a German soldier shot her dead in her bed.” From Answer.com:

“A foreign policy spokesman of the British Labour Party, Gerald Bernard Kaufman (born 1930) became a member of Parliament in 1970″ (See Sir Gerald Kaufman’s full biography at Answers.com).

Here is the accompanying text to the YouTube video:

[These are] astonishing claims in the House of Parliament. Sir Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour MP, yesterday compared the actions of Israeli troops in Gaza to the Nazis who forced his family to flee Poland.

During a Commons debate on the fighting in Gaza, he urged the government to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, said: “My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town a German soldier shot her dead in her bed.

“My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. …

“The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.”

He said the claim that many of the Palestinian victims were militants “was the reply of the Nazi” and added: “I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.”

He accused the Israeli government of seeking “conquest” and added: “They are not simply war criminals, they are fools.”