Political Insider

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Was that the sound of a dull thud I heard?

For two weeks before their critical getting-to-know-you meeting in Washington on Monday, newspapers and blogs were full of stories about how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama were likely to clash, and how their meeting would be a watershed in Mideast diplomacy and U.S.-Israel relations.

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Did you think the issue of Christian evangelizing in the U.S. military has gone away, now that the controversy over proselytization at the Air Force Academy has died down?

Guess again.

Today’s New York Times  has an interesting story about the inclusion of Bible quotes and religious images in official Pentagon reports during the early days of the Iraq war.

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

Every meeting between a U.S. president and Israeli Prime Minister has it’s own special focus and texture, but in terms of news, such meetings generally follow some predictable cycles.

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Take a look at today’s Israel Policy Forum (IPF) ad in the New York Times if you want to see how some Jewish pro-peace process groups are adopting a bolder strategy.

Do you see Benjamin Netanyahu’s name anywhere in the ad?  I didn’t think so.

It’s traditional for Jewish groups to welcome prime ministers with friendly ads even if they couple that with some pokes at Israeli policy.

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Update: In the post below I neglected to mention a third pre-summit letter: the Israel Policy Forum’s (IPF) missive from four former ambassadors.

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

As if it didn’t have enough on its plate, the Obama administration is now set to try to work some reform magic on the UN Human Rights Council, a group set up to monitor human rights conditions around the world but which is led by some of the  worst abusers anywhere and which seems to have little interest in anything but Israel.

On Tuesday the General Assembly elected the United States to the council following a decision by the Obama administration to seek membership.

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Does anybody else find the seemingly endless spectacle of John Demjanjuk pathetic, dispiriting and confusing?

Is this way the noble effort to call Nazi war criminals to account for their horrific  misdeeds ends  – with a furtive ambulance ride for an 89-year-old retired auto worker who’s been chased by federal authorities for three decades  and then a late-night flight to Germany, where he has been charged with assisting in the killing of at least 29,000 Jews at the Sobibor death camp?

Monday, May 11th, 2009

If you thought the issue of school vouchers for parents whose kids attend private and parochial schools would fade away now that the Democrats control both the White House and Congress, guess again.

Last week President Obama announced a proposal that would allow a controversial Washington, DC voucher program that has divided Jewish groups to keep its funding for now but not provide money for new students.

Friday, May 8th, 2009

AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, sure is sensitive about claims by some that it is tilted to the political right – a persistent image that could prove political awkward now that there’s a new administration in Washington that wants to move forward quickly on Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Washington area Jewish institutions are about to be visited by the wandering group of religious activists who believe they are winning friends and supporters by picketing the funerals of dead U.S. servicemen and women with their message that America is damned because of its tolerance of homosexuality.

The response by the Jewish institutions?  To deny the demonstrators what they want most: publicity.