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Happy New Year

Best wishes to all!

Heading to Manhattan for New Year's Eve.  Will take the camera and try to post some pics if any come out well.

The Last King of Scotland

This evening's movie entertainment for my husband and I was about the madman dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin.  {{{{{{shudder}}}}}}}  Forest Whitaker was terrific  - he played Amin.  It covered the time period from when he first came into power - initially he was extremely popular and people had high hopes for him improving the country - until the hijacking of an Israeli plane and the subsequent succesful raid on Entebbe, when stories of Amin's insanity and violence began to emerge.

This film falls under the category of what I call the "sweaty palm" genre.  There was a torture scene near the end where I had to hide my eyes.  However, I didn't think it was overdone or gratuitous.  It was a real life story and has a very simple moral that should be taught and driven home repeatedly to every liberal who dares complain about the US:  If you are living in a place where you can wake up each morning and go to bed every night and know that in between, your day is going to be predictable in terms of a roof over your head, healthy food on your plate, a reliable income, freedom from being shot or tortured, with access to good medical care, air conditioning, and a clean water supply, thank God for it.

The movie scared the crap out of me, frankly.  There are real live lunatics in this world, and somehow, some of them manage to charm/kill their way into being put in charge of the lives of others.

George Bush?  President Bush is Mr. Rogers and we Americans live in the neighborhood of rainbows and lollipops compared to the lives of some people in this world. 

After seeing this film, I am torn between feeling that we Americans ought to be out there killing each and every lunatic despot and saving all the poor innocents of the world vs thinking that we ought to put up a big fence around our borders, live behind it and never even peek over the top again.

Link.   

"The Queen"

Went to see it yesterday - it's a small movie only shown in the arthouse theaters around my area - you may or may not have heard of it.  Helen Mirren delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as Queen Elizabeth, playing her with dignity, determination, icyness, old-fashioned stick-up-the-butt aristocratic snoot, and melting confusion when faced with the changing modern world. The movie is both hard on and sympathetic to Elizabeth, Charles and Diana, each in turn.  There's no smarm or sentimentality - it's about a family with a complicated heritage trying to deal with it and the reaction of the public to Diana's sudden death.  They coped with their own grief or lack thereof, taking care of the young princes, and preserving the monarchy all at once.  Tony Blair comes off very well, exhibiting both sympathy for and frustration with Elizabeth. According to this version of events, he was instrumental in saving the royals from a public relations disaster.  The funniest part was watching Blair's pro-republic anti-monarchy wife enacting a reluctant curtsy. 

A great way to spend a late afternoon, followed by dinner out, which is exactly what we did yesterday.

Link

Saddam's Death: Justice Served

HalabjaMoreThe Iraqi Holocaust

Note

New content up at Rubicon2.

Miscommunication

Israel Open to "Any Murmur of Peace" - Josef Federman
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday he is open to "any murmur of peace" from Israel's enemies. "If our enemies genuinely want peace, they will find in us a fair partner, determined to establish relations of peace, friendship, and reciprocity," he said. (AP/Fox News)   

The Passing of Gerald Ford

President Ford was handed a very difficult job at a very difficult time. 

Ford was able to laugh at himself and I liked his wife and family too.  For White House residents, they were very down-to-earth people.

I still can't quite decide if his decision to pardon Nixon was right or wrong.  In my reading this morning, I came across this quote from one of Ford's speech writers, James Hume:

Yet, as the president told this writer in Vail, Colo., in 1977 while working on his memoirs, "A Time to Heal," Ford said: "I did it not for Nixon but for the country. I knew at the time it would probably cost me my re-election, but President Nixon's legal team could advance constitutional arguments that could tie up the courts for years. The prospect that a former president could face jail time would divert the country's attention ... I had to turn the page and let the healing process begin."

Two decades later, the Kennedy Institute of Politics awarded Ford its Profile in Courage Award, confirming what historians now say.

From the Washington Post:

When he assumed office, Ford immediately made clear his intention to change what historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. called "the imperial presidency."

He was "acutely aware," he said in his inaugural address, that he had not been elected to the position he held, and he asked Americans "to confirm me as your president with your prayers." He said he had neither sought the presidency nor made any "secret promises" to attain it.

"In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy at hand. . . .

"Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.

"As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and hate."

A new spirit was soon evident in the nation's leadership. The Oval Office, long a fortress for an embittered president who frequently fled its confines to his homes in San Clemente, Calif., or Key Biscayne, Fla., was thrown open to members of Congress, old friends, public officials and reporters.

The president's approval rating reached 71 percent. He was photographed making his own breakfast. He was freely contradicted by his eldest son, and his aides said what was on their minds without waiting for official clearance. In the press office, he appointed Jerald F. terHorst, a respected Washington correspondent, as his chief spokesman.

This euphoric honeymoon lasted precisely one month.

On Sept. 8, Ford granted Nixon a full pardon for all federal crimes he had "committed or may have committed" when he was in the White House. The only acknowledgement he received in return was a six-paragraph statement from Nixon in San Clemente saying that "I can see clearly now . . . that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal into a national tragedy."

Ford said the pardon was necessary to bring Watergate to a close, that he would have had to pardon Nixon sometime in any case and that it was easier to do it sooner than later.

The response was a tidal wave of criticism. Every opinion poll showed a large majority of Americans opposed the pardon. It was denounced in Congress, including by members of Ford's own party. Republican officials gloomily and accurately forecast that it had reintroduced the Watergate issue into the 1974 elections, which proved to be a Democratic landslide. TerHorst resigned in protest.

It was widely assumed that Ford had doomed his political career. By January 1975, his approval rating had plummeted to 36 percent. Not even two assassination attempts, both in California in 1975, generated significant popular support.

The consequences included a three-month delay in confirmation of Ford's choice of former governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York as vice president. In congressional hearings, it was disclosed that Rockefeller had made large private gifts to employees on the New York state payroll and that he had played a hidden role in financing a campaign book against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Arthur Goldberg. The disclosures undermined his ability to play an influential role in the Ford administration.

Many conservative Republicans in Congress joined Democrats in opposing Ford's programs. In mid-1975, Gov. Ronald Reagan of California, the darling of the right wing of the GOP, announced his intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.

Ford beat back the Reagan challenge, but he narrowly lost the general election in November 1976 to the Democratic candidate, former governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia.

Asked in his 2004 interview with The Post whether the pardon had hurt him in the 1976 election, Ford replied, "It probably did. It was a close election, as you know. . . . There is a group of bitter people who never forgave me and probably voted against me, and the net result is that they probably helped that I didn't win."

Ford closed strongly against Carter after trailing by as much as 30 points in the polls but was damaged by asserting during a debate that Poland was not under Soviet domination.

Darn, I wish he'd won instead of Carter.

Christians Threatened in Iraq

"Leave, Crusaders, or Have Your Heads Cut Off" - Aqeel Hussein and Colin Freeman (Sunday Telegraph-UK)
    The Christians of the Iraqi city of Mosul are scared to put festive decorations outside their homes this year.
    Their ancestors settled here in the 1st century AD, yet as teacher Jamal Fadi has discovered, some of their Muslim neighbors want this Christmas to be their last.
    "A letter was delivered to my door with two bullets placed on top of it," said Fadi, 32. "It said: 'Leave, crusaders, or we will cut your heads off.'"
    Iraq's Christian minority fears that al-Qaeda-backed zealots want to end 1,500 years of coexistence with an onslaught of ethnic cleansing.

2 Teens Injured By Kassams Fired From Gaza

PM: Gaza Ceasefire Will Continue. Israel will continue to adhere to the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and will demand that the Palestinians take immediate steps against those firing Kassam rockets, it was decided at the end of an emergency meeting between Prime Minster Ehud Olmert and leaders of the security establishment on Wednesday morning.

The meeting was called after the previous night's rocket attack on Sderot that wounded two boys, one critically.

Nevertheless, Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz instructed the security establishment to target Kassam rocket launching cells, something IDF troops have refrained from doing in recent weeks.

The defense establishment has been instructed to take pinpoint action against the rocket-launching cells," Olmert's office said after the morning meeting. "At the same time, Israel will continue to abide by the cease-fire."

Hamas government spokeswoman Ghazi Hamad denounced the Israeli decision to "continue their aggression against our people," but added: "We still believe that this agreement is alive, and both sides should respect this agreement because it is (in) the interest (of) our people."

Hours after the decision, a Kassam rocket, fired by Palestinians from Gaza, landed in Sderot. No casualties were reported.

Abu Hamza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said the group was not moved by Olmert's threat. "Any harm to our leaders will be met with a harsh response," he said. He said the rocket fire was a response to Israeli arrests of operatives in the West Bank, which is not covered by the truce.

He also expressed hope that renewed fighting with Israel would help end internal Palestinian violence. Battles between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement have killed 17 Palestinians in Gaza since Dec. 11. 

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Does anyone remember ceasefire? Two teenagers injured in their legs Tuesday evening by shrapnel of a Qassam rocket.

One of the youths, Adir Basad, sustained critical wounds and was rushed into surgery. The other teen, Matan Cohen, was moderately to severely injured.

Three people suffered from shock and several cars and houses in the area were damaged.

...The two 14-year-old boys are ninth graders at the Netiv Hayeshivati school in Sderot. Matan's uncle, Nir Ohanan, told Ynet, "They are good friends. They were studying for an exam together, which was apparently supposed to be held tomorrow.

"It appears that they left toward the house, and then the rocket exploded and hit them. Matan was hurt in his right foot and his friend sustained much more serious wounds. We are here, waiting at the Barzilai hospital for the hospital's updates."

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Army begs, Let us Fire Back

The government's restraint in the face of the rocket attacks is "immoral," "ineffective," and must end. So say various IDF officers, as Olmert convenes an emergency security meeting this morning.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said it last night, following the serious wounding of two boys in Sderot by a Kassam rocket, and increasing numbers of army officers are now saying it publicly as well: The policy of restraint must end. Peretz told Olmert last night that Israel can no longer afford to restrain its fire. IDF forces are currently not permitted even to fire at a Kassam rocket launching cell, unless the soldiers' lives are directly and immediately endangered. Col. (ret.) Moshe Hager, a deputy division head during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, told Arutz-7, "The current policy is immoral - not because of any given Kassam attack, but because every minute, Gaza is becoming more and more like Lebanon, as the terrorists increase their military capabilities. The Negev will soon be lost to us, at this rate." "...The IDF's inaction gives immunity to the rocket launching cells," an unnamed army official told Ynet. "In the past, a terrorist who went out on a rocket launching mission thought seven times whether it was worth it and what were the chances that he would be hit. Now, he doesn't have to think even twice." Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yom Tov Samiyeh, a former IDF Southern Region Commander, told Army Radio today that if we don't want to end up having to re-conquer all of Gaza - "and I don't want to; who needs it?" - then we had better implement smaller-scale military measures to uproot the terrorist infrastructure there. ...The wounding of the two boys last night was the climax of a day of Kassam rockets against Israel. No fewer than eight rockets were fired, the most in one day since the ceasefire took effect just over a month ago. Damage was caused, and one rocket landed dangerously close to a sensitive infrastructure in southern Ashkelon. Noticeably differing in his approach is Yuval Diskin, the head of the General Security Service (Shabak). Diskin has recommended that Israel act diplomatically, not militarily. Just two days ago, Israel submitted a detailed complaint to the UN against the PA and its continued ceasefire violations. Meanwhile, Shimon Peres continues to reach out to Israel's deadliest enemies. In a speech in Spain last night, the Vice Prime Minister said he believes Hamas is an "important factor" in the Middle East peace process, and that the organization should play a role in it. Israel's official position is to conduct no negotiations with Hamas as long as it continues not to recognize Israel's right to exist and calls for its destruction.

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Sderot's Shattered Windows - Editorial
Israel has dutifully halted its fire, but the rockets keep coming from Gaza nevertheless. It has become a curious game of Palestinian Roulette. The rocket that hit a sensitive strategic target near Ashkelon could have, with a little less luck, released poisonous chemicals over a densely populated urban center. The rocket that fell in a Sderot nursery school playground could have, with a little less luck, taken the lives of many toddlers. When we hear that only minor damage to Sderot was caused by a Kassam rocket salvo, it means that window panes in entire apartment blocks were blown in by shock waves.
    International opinion is not even aware that some 60 rockets have been unleashed on Israel during what's purported to be a cease-fire. Hence Israel's restraint wins no merit points. (Jerusalem Post)

A collection of some of the rockets fired from Gaza.

A car damaged in the most recent attack.

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The history of Sderot (the name means "boulevards"), a city of refugees from around the world - from Wikipedia:

Sderot (Hebrew: שדרות) is a city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2004 the city had a total population of 20,000.

Sderot was founded in 1953 as a transit camp for Kurdish and Persian Jews, and the first houses were built in 1954. In the 1950s, the city absorbed a large number of immigrants from Morocco and Romania, and was declared a local council in 1958. In the 1990s Sderot again absorbed a large immigrant population from the former USSR, and doubled its population in this decade. In 1996 it was declared a city.

...Sderot lies a kilometre from the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada in October 2000, the city has been frequently bombed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants using ballistic rockets known as "Qassam rockets". While very inaccurate, these attacks have resulted in several deaths and injuries, as well as in psychologic distress among the residents and in negative immigration from the city. The Israeli government has installed a "Red Dawn" alarm system in an attempt to alert Israelis to possible shellings, though there are doubts concerning its effectiveness. Hundreds of Qassam rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip since Israel's disengagement from Gaza in September 2005.
On June 18, 2006, Sderot's municipal council announced it will seal off the city's entrance for a 24-hour period in protest of continuing Qassam rocket attacks^[1]
On June 20, 2006, The Sderot municipality shut the city down in protest at the continuing barrage of Qassam rockets from Gaza that have struck the area. All inner-city junctions were shut down for an indefinite period of time and the city would be blacked-out from 9 p.m. onwards. Hunger strikers in Sderot ended their nine-day protest on June 19 at the request of President Moshe Katsav, who was touring the Qassam struck southern city. Katsav said that the ongoing rocket attacks in the aftermath of Israel's disengagement from Gaza left Israel with no option other than a military response.
The June 2006 shelling of Gaza by the IDF, which claimed the lives of the intended targets: two senior members of the Palestinian group, the Popular Resistance Committee, was regarded as Israel's response to the on-going rocket attacks on Sderot. The Popular Resistance Committee is a dissident group within the Fatah movement and has fired hundreds of Qassam rockets into Sderot throughout 2006, failing to follow in the footsteps of Hamas's unilaterally declared ceasefire in March 2005. Since the shelling of Gaza by Israel in June 2006 and Israel assassination of Jamal Abu Samhadana in 2006, Hamas has apparently supported and assisted the Popular Resistance Committee's shelling campaign of Sderot, which escalated towards the end of June 2006. On Sunday 25 June 2006, 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, an IDF guard on the Gaza Israeli border, was taken hostage in an attack which killed two other IDF members. In a joint statement, Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committee claimed responsibility. On Monday 26 June 2006, tensions arose when the IDF lined up along the parts of the Gaza-Israeli border, seemingly with the intention of launching some sort of combined attack - rescue mission.

On July 7, 2006, two Qassam rockets fired from Gaza hit the city. One of the Qassams fell in the city's central market, wounding seven civilians. Three people were hit by shrapnel from the rocket, while four were in shock. The second rocket landed in an empty soccer field. Three of the wounded were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital.

On November 15, 2006, Islamic Jihad and militants associated with Hamas fired fifteen Qassam rockets from Gaza into the Western Negev, eleven of which landed in Sderot, killing a 57-year old woman, Faina Sloutsker, and seriously wounding several people, among whom were a bodyguard of Amir Peretz^[2] and a 17-year old boy.^[3] Notably, this was the first Qassam-inflicted fatality of 2006.

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And once again, an opportunity to form a state of their own is turned down:

Hamas Rejects U.S. Plan for State with Temporary Borders - Yaakov Lappin
The PA Hamas government has turned down an American proposal to form a Palestinian state in two years with temporary borders, Hamas' English-language website said Tuesday. According to recent reports, the U.S. State Department is weighing a proposal to form a Palestinian state with interim borders as part of a renewed U.S. peace drive in the Middle East. (Ynet News)

Motherhood Has Made Me Nuts

I have all sorts of fears about the physical safety of my children.  I don't know if these fears are normal or not. Sometimes I suspect they are not.  I used to be scared to death that I would accidentally lock them in the car with my car keys.  I cut their grapes into quarters and wouldn't allow them to have hard candies probably until they were in 2nd grade - maybe 3rd. And baths - I was always afraid they'd drown and never took my eyes off them for a minute. Wouldn't leave the room to answer the door or the phone or anything - even when they were as old as 5 or 6.

Once when my daughter was about 18 months old, my husband and I were with her at a kiddie pool.  It was a big pool - maybe 20 feet across, but shallow.  It came up to her mid-thigh or so.  One of us was on one side, and one of us was on the other, and she was in the middle of the pool.  We were both watching her like hawks, when all of a sudden, she lost her balance and fell forward, face down, in the dead man's float position.  We both thought she'd right herself, but after a second or two, it was apparent that she was not going to, and both of us ran to scoop her up.  She was fine. Our hair was standing on end.

Some of the fears have changed a bit now that they are older, but they are just as gripping.  When I hear a siren, I immediately take inventory of where my sons are to see if they could possibly have been in a car accident. If I actually see a wrecked vehicle, I find it necessary to tell them about it and how bad it was and once again impress upon them that they have to drive safely. Every time they leave the house, I tell them to be careful. 

Writing this post is helping to keep my mind off the fact that my daughter is in the jacuzzi. Once a long time ago, I heard the story of a girl whose hair got sucked into a jacuzzi valve and she was pulled under the water and drowned.  I have told my daughter that story several times.  She knows it by heart.  She wears her hair up whenever she takes a bath.

I keep battling the urge to go in there and check on her. The only thing that stops me is knowing how much she hates it when I do that.

A few minutes later: Just knocked on the door on the pretext of asking her if she's enjoying the bath.  I knew I was interrupting her lovely revery.  She had to turn off he jets in order to hear her annoying mother.  But, I found out that she's still conscious, thank God.   

In the Wake of Israeli Withdrawal from Gaza

Unemployment and drug abuse:

Gaza Arabs, left jobless by the Oslo War and by last year's expulsion of Gush Katif farmers, have turned to drugs that are smuggled from Lebanon and Egypt, the United Nations reports.

Tens of thousands of Arabs worked throughout Israel in factories and in construction until the Oslo War broke out in 2000. The constant flow of terrorists from Gaza forced Israel to severely restrict traffic and to withdraw work permits, in an attempt to prevent terrorists from abusing them to carry out attacks.

Thousands of Arabs were still able to work for Jewish farmers in Gush Katif until the summer of 2005, when the government forced the nearly 10,000 Jewish residents out of their homes and destroyed their flourishing communities.

Hopes for a robust PA economy following the eviction of the Jews turned to dust, however, and the former greenhouses (pictured above) became training grounds for terrorists. The situation has fostered a drug problem among the poor and jobless, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The U.N. agency cited the example of a 35-year-old man, Hassan, who worked for Jewish shippers and was left jobless after the Oslo War. "My life was normal," he said. "Everything was normal, but unemployment is difficult and poverty is more difficult. Bad conditions led me down a worse path. I have even had to beg for money."

Since then he has been unemployed, a situation that drove him to drug addiction. To fund his habit, he first sold his wife's and children's clothes, then stole his brother's property to be able to pay for his drugs.

"Overall, drug dependency... is on the rise, according to... police and doctors," the U.N. report said. "This, they say, is due to a sense of hopelessness among ordinary Palestinians and the lack of both effective policing to catch the dealers and of a clinical safety net to help those already addicted."

Haveil Havalim #99

HH is up at Muse's blog.  Tons of terrific posts about Chanukah, Israel and more from the Jewish blogging community.  Great job, Muse! 

The Joos are Surpressing Freedom of Speech

Sometimes antisemitism seems to me to be like an avalanche that, as soon as we dig out from under it, comes tumbling down over our heads again.  Other times, it feels like falling in a river and becoming entangled in hydrilla and being unable to surface. It grabs hold and you can't fight it and the fear is that eventually we will drown.

Some might argue that in the US, this is an irrational fear.  Yet history reminds us no matter what anyone says to the contrary and no matter how much we'd like to think otherwise, that irrational hatred is very real and has very grave consequences.  All things considered, perhaps being afraid of irrational hate is not an irrational fear for Jews.

Just a long-winded way of saying that this next piece scares me.

Ed Koch sees a newly emerging pattern:

From Tehran to Plains, Ga., to the hallowed halls of Harvard, a new cry is heard in the land: The Jews are suppressing free speech. In recent weeks, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, and Harvard University-associated academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have all claimed to be victims of a conspiracy by Jews to keep them from speaking out. (See cover story, page 20.)

According to Ahmadeinejad, the Tehran conference of Holocaust-deniers that he organized was necessary because the Jewish-influenced governments of other countries prevent public discussion about the Holocaust.

The Iranian president apparently hasn’t done the math. Only 12 countries have laws that in some way restrict public denial of the Holocaust or other genocides. That’s less than seven percent of the 192 member-countries of the United Nations, leaving more than 90 percent of the globe free for Ahmadinejad and his acolytes to spread their hatred without legal encumbrance.

The United States has no laws prohibiting Holocaust denial, although if Tehran conference speaker David Duke decided to return to his old Ku Klux Klan ways, he would run into problems in some parts of the country: 20 states have legal restrictions on burning crosses or wearing Ku Klux Klan-style hoods, regarding those activities as terroristic intimidation. But 30 states do not, meaning that Duke and company can still operate with complete freedom in 60 percent of the country (with, of course, freedom of speech and assembly everywhere else).

Former President Carter, for his part, has written a provocative book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which is, to put it mildly, harshly critical of Israel. That, of course, is his right. But Mr. Carter crossed a line when he charged recently that universities "with high Jewish enrollment" had refused to let him speak on their campuses. The implication is that the Jews are trying to silence him. Expanding on this allegation in an interview in the latest issue of Tikkun magazine, Carter added this howler: "One of the things that’s missing is any voice in the Jewish community who dares to be at all critical of anything that the right wing in Israel does."

Apparently Carter forgot to whom he was talking. Tikkun is one of the leading voices in the Jewish community critical of "the right wing in Israel." In fact, it has also been critical of the Israeli center, and sometimes even the Israeli left. Not only is Tikkun critical in its articles, it organizes meetings and rallies on the same themes, and has even lobbied Congress. And, of course, anyone even remotely familiar with the American Jewish community knows of the numerous organizations, leaders, writers, and other voices critical of the Israeli right. The notion that American Jewry, like Carter himself, has been cowed into silent acquiescence to "the right wing in Israel" would be laughable were it not so pernicious.

Mearsheimer and Walt are, respectively, professor at the University of Chicago and professor and former academic dean at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The Kennedy School’s Website recently published their controversial 82-page paper "The Israel Lobby." They contend that American Jews, some American Christians, and pro-Israel elements of the media have colluded to bring about a pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy that was detrimental to America’s own interests. Moreover, they allege, "the Lobby" works assiduously to "prevent critical comments [about Israel] from getting a fair hearing" in the media and other public forums.

"The Lobby" also tries "to blacklist and intimidate scholars" who are critical of Israel, they report; although, in contrast to Jimmy Carter, Mearsheimer and Walt claim the pro-Israel forces have "had difficulty ... in stifling debate on university campuses."

The irony is that Mearsheimer and Walt’s allegations have received extraordinarily wide attention in the supposedly Zionist-dominated media. Their paper appeared in full not only on Harvard’s Website but in the London Review of Books as well. It was reported extensively in the world’s press and discussed just as extensively on the op-ed pages of numerous prominent daily newspapers. And they have landed a book deal with a major publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. But facts do not seem to get in the way of Mearsheimer and Walt, or Carter or Ahmadinejad, for that matter.

It is, of course, important to be cautious about drawing comparisons between public figures. Overwrought analogies have soiled public discourse on more than one occasion in recent memory. Ahmadinejad is a genocidal maniac, and obviously Carter, Mearsheimer, and Walt are not. But that is what makes their allegations all the more disturbing: Their irresponsible utterances are dragging the good name of the office of the presidency and Harvard University through the mud of Tehran.

Edward I. Koch, a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, served as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

And while I'm at it, this is disturbing too.

In a Bit of a Lather

My daughter is arriving soon, and I am going a bit crazy trying to get everything ready.  I am going to be feeding 5 adult sized appetites for the next week.  At the grocery store, which was mobbed for a weekday, my cart was filled to overflowing.  Knowing that the store will be closed on Monday and that I would likely be too busy to get back there over the weekend, I felt the same way I feel when I am shopping before an expected blizzard. Make sure to have enough hot chocolate and toilet paper and milk and bread and...etc etc 

If I don't have another opportunity to get back here, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Shabbat Shalom to those who observe Shabbat.

Guess Who?

From 1963:

Credit Given Where it is Due

A heartfelt thank you to our friends, American Muslims:

Muslims Mark Solidarity With Jews
Event Held Days After Iranian Meeting That Denied Genocide

Local Muslim leaders lit candles yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to commemorate Jewish suffering under the Nazis, in a ceremony held just days after Iran had a conference denying the genocide.

American Muslims "believe we have to learn the lessons of history and commit ourselves: Never again," said Imam Mohamed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, standing before the eternal flame flickering from a black marble base that holds dirt from Nazi concentration camps.

Major American Muslim and Arab-American organizations have condemned the Iran conference. The Muslim speakers at yesterday's ceremony did not mention that event but called for recognition of the suffering Jews experienced in the Holocaust and condemned religious hatred. Asked afterward why they did not single out Iran, the Muslim leaders said the problem was broader than the recent conference.

"The issue here is: There might be somebody from X and Y country, a Muslim, saying the same thing," Magid said. If anyone wants to make Holocaust denial an Islamic cause, he said, "we want to say to them: You cannot use our name."

Museum officials said a Muslim delegation had never before made such a public statement at the memorial building.

After the speeches yesterday, Bloomfield invited the visitors to light candles to remember the Holocaust victims and Muslims who rescued some of the besieged Jews. One by one, the guests silently shuffled along the wallside bank of candles: the tall imam in his round Muslim cap, known as a kufi; a woman in a Muslim head scarf; Muslim men in business suits; and three elderly women in pantsuits from the D.C. suburbs, survivors of the genocide.

One of them, Johanna Neumann, recounted at the ceremony how Muslims saved her Jewish family. Members of her family had fled from Germany to Albania, where Muslim families sheltered them and hid their identity during the Nazi occupation.

"Everybody knew who we were. Nobody would even have thought of denouncing us" to the Nazis, said the tiny 76-year-old Silver Spring resident. "These people deserve every respect anybody can give them."

More

There's hope for this world yet.

Totally Cool if True

The results of a surprising new demographic study:

Two major new demographic studies estimate the American Jewish population at well above 6 million people, indicating a growing Jewish community that contrasts sharply with popular images of Jewish decline. In particular, scholars say, the new studies appear to refute a widely publicized survey conducted in 2001, which counted 5.2 million American Jews and sparked widespread anxiety over American Jewry’s future.

The most clear-cut refutation of the earlier figure comes in the newly published American Jewish Year Book, published by the American Jewish Committee, which sets the American Jewish population at 6.4 million. A separate study, being conducted by a new Jewish demographic institute at Brandeis University, is not yet complete, but the head of the institute told the Forward that the final estimate will likely be between 6 million and 8 million.

The earlier figure, 5.2 million, has been criticized by many American demographers as too low since it appeared. Nonetheless, it has gained traction in public discussion and has been cited by Israeli officials as confirmation of Israel’s central role in world Jewry. Earlier this year, a quasi-governmental Israeli think tank used the 2001 number in a report announcing that Israel had more Jews than America and was the world’s largest Jewish community for the first time in over 2,000 years. Until now many American demographers have hesitated to challenge the 2001 figures publicly because there was no good alternative. Now, however, the public consensus appears to be shifting.

“The buzz among social scientists — on the e-mails and over the coffee tables — has been, ‘We all know the number is higher,’” said sociologist Steven M. Cohen, who helped oversee the release of the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey. “We just don’t know exactly how much higher. This is the first post-NJPS effort to come out.”

The focus of the current debate is a matter of decimal points, but the stakes are higher: The verdict will have an impact both on communal policy-making and on the self-image of Jewish communities worldwide. The new numbers have not stilled the debate.

Israel’s most prominent demographer, Sergio Della Pergola, has stuck to the lower American figures, almost alone among prominent researchers. The new American Jewish Year Book allows for a continuing debate. Several hundred pages after the chapter announcing the 6.4 million figure, the book offers a chapter by Della Pergola on world Jewish population in which he offers and defends an estimate of 5.275 million American Jews.

The executive editor of the American Jewish Year Book, Lawrence Grossman, acknowledged that Della Pergola is now mostly alone in touting the lower figure. But, he said, Della Pergola is too respected a scholar to be ignored.

“The prestige of Della Pergola is such that he is not just one guy out there,” said Grossman, who edits the annual reference book for the American Jewish Committee. “I think that the Year Book does a service to its readers to indicate that this issue is not black and white.”

More.

Dammit George - Get a Hold of Yourself

This is no time for a mid-life crisis.  Grab the bull by the horns, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, the sun will come out tomorrow!  The glass is half full! Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right! No one can make you feel inferior without your consent! Repeat after me: I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!

We are here for you, guy!  We are on your side!

Damn those liberals. 

They've gone and depressed our president.

***************************

It's not really a joking matter.  He's got to get fired up again. The world needs this man to be strong.

Maybe he's just distracted by Christmas.  Or maybe Laura's recent diagnosis of CA shook him up?

Mr. Carter, You have Been Asked to Explain Yourself

And it looks like Mr. Dershowitz is going to hold your feet to the fire until you do:

Why won't Carter debate his book?

YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when a public figure has written an indefensible book: when he refuses to debate it in the court of public opinion. And you can always tell when he's a hypocrite to boot: when he says he wrote a book in order to stimulate a debate, and then he refuses to participate in any such debate. I'm talking about former president Jimmy Carter and his new book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."

Carter's book has been condemned as "moronic" (Slate), "anti-historical" (The Washington Post), "laughable" (San Francisco Chronicle), and riddled with errors and bias in reviews across the country. Many of the reviews have been written by non-Jewish as well as Jewish critics, and not by "representatives of Jewish organizations" as Carter has claimed. Carter has gone even beyond the errors of his book in interviews, in which he has said that the situation in Israel is worse than the crimes committed in Apartheid South Africa. When asked whether he believed that Israel's "persecution" of Palestinians was "[e]ven worse . . . than a place like Rwanda," Carter answered, "Yes. I think -- yes."

When Larry King referred to my review several times to challenge Carter, Carter first said I hadn't read the book and then blustered, "You know, I think it's a waste of my time and yours to quote professor Dershowitz. He's so obviously biased, Larry, and it's not worth my time to waste it on commenting on him." (He never did answer King's questions.)

The next week Carter wrote a series of op-eds bemoaning the reception his book had received. He wrote that his "most troubling experience" had been "the rejection of [his] offers to speak" at "university campuses with high Jewish enrollment." The fact is that Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz had invited Carter to come to Brandeis to debate me, and Carter refused. The reason Carter gave was this: "There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."

As Carter knows, I've been to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, many times -- certainly more times than Carter has been there -- and I've written three books dealing with the subject of Middle Eastern history, politics, and the peace process. The real reason Carter won't debate me is that I would correct his factual errors. It's not that I know too little; it's that I know too much.

Nor is Carter the unbiased observer of the Middle East that he claims to be. He has accepted money and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan , saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who "were the people who killed the Jews in Europe" during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11. Carter's acceptance of money from this biased group casts real doubt on his objectivity and creates an obvious conflict of interest.

Carter's refusal to debate wouldn't be so strange if it weren't for the fact that he claims that he wrote the book precisely so as to start debate over the issue of the Israel-Palestine peace process. If that were really true, Carter would be thrilled to have the opportunity to debate. Authors should be accountable for their ideas and their facts. Books shouldn't be like chapel, delivered from on high and believed on faith.

What most rankles is Carter's insistence that he is somehow brave for attacking Israel and highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people. No other conflict in the world -- not even the genocides in Rwanda and Sudan -- evokes more hand-wringing in the media, universities, and human rights organizations than the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Jimmy Carter isn't brave for beating up on Israel. He's a bully. And like all school-yard bullies, underneath the tough talk and bravado, there's a nagging insecurity and a fear that one day he'll have to answer for himself in a fair fight.

When Jimmy Carter's ready to speak at Brandeis, or anywhere else, I'll be there. If he refuses to debate, I will still be there -- ready and willing to answer falsity with truth in the court of public opinion.

Bravo.

Jewish Refugees

...who want to go home.

Their story is ignored.  Why?  Because they will never kidnap and murder an Olympic team, they will never hijack an airplane, they will never strap bombs to their bodies and commit suicide while blowing up innocent victims.

They were forced to give up their homes for a peace that never materialized.

Who remembers?  Who cares?  Who hears them?

Question of the Day

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

The 70th Anniversary of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra

There is no orchestra in the world quite like it:

It is boycotted by its immediate neighbours and frequently finds itself playing during a war – it is not easy being the representative orchestra of the state of Israel.

The extraordinary story of the orchestra's birth centres round the vision and drive of a single Polish violinist.

Bronislaw Huberman's concert tours to Palestine in the early 1930s led him to conceive a rescue plan for Jewish musicians in central Europe: a Palestine Orchestra would offer a haven for players who had been dismissed from their posts, and would also bolster "the prestige of world Jewry and its cultural defence against the ignominious lies of Hitlerism".

Huberman's project to bring an entire orchestra over from Europe was a sort of musical version of the Zionist endeavour to make the deserts bloom. He did not live to witness the state of Israel (or the change of the orchestra's name), but he provided the foundation of a remarkable orchestra that has survived a number of flashpoints.

In 1971, for example, their first tour to Germany created division in the ranks. "Several players were Holocaust survivors," says former principal horn Yaakov Mishori. "There was a big argument about whether to go. We played Jewish composers – Mendelssohn, Mahler – and our encore was Hatikva [Israel's national anthem]. I felt it was a revenge."

The orchestra's resilience is matched by that of its audience. When the Philharmonic performed in Jerusalem during the first Gulf war, the audience wore gas masks. And earlier this year, at the time of the conflict in Lebanon, the orchestra was in mid-performance in Haifa when the first missiles hit the city. Nobody left the hall.

The Philharmonic's secretary-general, Avi Shoshani, says there is a peculiarly Israeli way of handling a crisis: "In other countries people leave when it gets dangerous. In Israel it is the other way round. I was in Switzerland when the recent Lebanon war started, and I made sure I got back here."

Conductor Zubin Mehta, in particular, has gone beyond the call of professional duty. He flew to Israel to conduct during the Six-Day War of 1967, and again during the Scud missile attacks of the Gulf war.

Link

Chanukah in Jerusalem

Photos.

Whilst Delicate Moths Drink the Tears of Sleeping Birds...

Sounds kinda poetic, but it's not.

More Danish Cartoons

Those wild and crazy guys are at it again:

A Danish art group that pokes fun at world leaders targeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday by placing an advertisement in a Tehran newspaper with an insulting hidden message.

Beneath a picture of the president, a series of apparently sympathetic statements were arranged such as "Support his fight against Bush" and "Iran has the right to produce nuclear energy". The advert was attributed to "Danes for World Peace".

However, the first letters of each phrase, when read from top to bottom, spell out "S-W-I-N-E".

Via Memeorandum.

Is it Safe?

Definitely not.  This is a clip from a movie that turned me off to dental work forever - Lawrence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman in the torture scene from "Marathon Man."  I dare you to watch it on the day you have a dental appointment:

I've had a couple of root canal procedures that were exactly like this. After the first one, I opted for valium and nitrous oxide in addition to the novocaine, which helped, but not completely. Apparently, some of us have root canals that are structured in a way that the novocaine can't reach the entire nerve.  So there's a point in the process where - well, let's just say I can really relate to what Dustin Hoffman was feeling.

The UN's Fateful History

SoccerDad has written a terrific, must read post on the history of the UN as seen through the eyes of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick. Funny the way things, which once weren't obvious at all, become so clear over time. The seeds for Israel's problems and by extension, our own problem with terrorism today, were sown years ago. And strangely enough, one of the principle actors in the play was Jimmy Carter, who to this very day can't seem to leave well enough alone.     

Great Writing

AndyJ says, "Does time have a beginning and end (with corresponding religious concerns) or is it a large albeit convoluted loop?

Jeez, AndyJ, I don't smoke pot any more, so how do you expect me to answer a question like that?

I do know that lots of reactions only work in one direction, so you're not going to run time backwards, as fun as that would be: worms gather bits of dirt into their anus, run it through their stomachs and assemble it into decayed flesh, and then slowly build a person in a box underground. A crowd of sad people gather, weeping, and raise the box out of the ground. The box is taken to a mortuary where the poor craftmenship of the worms is removed, and then the body is sent to a hospital for reanimation by a doctor.

And so you are born, full of memories must be unlearned, events that must be undone. You grow younger, into the prime of your life, stronger and fuller as your wrinkles dissolve away....and then the slide into darkness begins: you shrink in size, and when you are finally small enough to fit, you are placed back into your mother's womb to be reabsorbed by her flesh. All life spirals back into the past, growing less complex, more closely related, until all life disappears forever. The universe shrinks, grows hotter, until all of everything is compressed out of existence, leaving no time, no space.

I know it sounds great, but I don't think it works that way.

- Draftervoi

Hey!

Besides coffee, what else is brewing in Seattle?

Meryl has a pointed post on the issue with lots of interesting follow up commentary here.

Antiquities

The surface of this is much degraded, with a rough look and bits of attached deposits. Buried in the ground for over a thousand years, this isn't uncommon.

Please Don't Sell Out the Kurds

Leaving Iraq before establishing safety and stability would not only be wrong strategically, it would be morally wrong as well:

For Iraqis, A Promise Is in Peril
Baker-Hamilton Would Sell Out Democracy

By Masrour Barzani
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; A23

IRBIL, Iraq -- The Iraq Study Group's recommendations will accomplish nothing in Iraq. Its expressions of "gratitude" to those of us Iraqis who fought on the battlefield for freedom and liberty ring hollow. The report ignores our accomplishments, dreams and sacrifices in favor of a concern for those whose ultimate goal is the destruction of democracy.

Our federal constitution, which the majority of the Iraqi people voted for, is treated flippantly, as though it were a negotiable document rather than the hard-fought result of lengthy negotiation among those willing to participate in the new Iraq. Further, the study group's approach is driven by the concerns of the countries in this region rather than by the concerns of the Iraqi people.

Many Iraqis, especially the Kurds, are justifiably concerned about this. No one from the study group visited Iraqi Kurdistan, which the group admits is safe and pro-American, and where there has not been a single U.S. casualty since the war. Kurds not only fought alongside Americans but lost some of our best men to American friendly-fire incidents. Yet we staunchly support the work of the coalition and are eternally grateful for the sacrifices the American people have made for our future.

The report is right to acknowledge that part of the problem in Iraq is America's inability to distinguish friend from foe. Unfortunately, Baker-Hamilton fares even worse in this regard. This comes as little surprise, since it was partly written by those who orchestrated the saving of Saddam Hussein in 1991.

To call upon Iraq's neighbors, which have chosen Iraq as a place to fight the United States, is a grave mistake. Seeking their participation would inevitably backfire. They would not only contribute to the instability within the country but would implement agendas in direct contradiction to America's occupation goals.

The plan would reward regimes that have undermined the U.S. effort at every turn. Iraq would fall under the regional powers, and the Iraqi people would come out the losers. Any vacancy left in Iraq by the coalition forces before Iraq is ready to stand on its own would be filled by those opposed to democracy. American credibility would dissipate, and any chance for success in Iraq would evaporate. If this comes to pass, hopes for real democracy in the Middle East will be history. The regional powers that border us have an interest in keeping us weak and divided.

Once again Kurds are about to be sold out. Should the U.S. administration adopt the recommendations of Baker-Hamilton, the Kurds will be sacrificed to protect the interests of Iraq's neighbors. We were massacred in 1975 and 1991 by Saddam Hussein because we thought that our commitment to democracy and tolerance made us natural U.S. allies. We responded then, as we did four years ago, to American calls for the introduction of a new era in the region. Like Americans, we dream of a better future for our children, one in which they can grow up without deformities caused by chemical attacks on our villages.

It is true we fly Kurdish flags. This is yet another similarity we have with Americans, who are proud not only of their country but also of the accomplishments and unique identities of their states. The harbinger of successful democracy in the United States was the willingness of its founders to recognize the particular interests of states and to craft a constitution to safeguard their rights. Baker-Hamilton would deny Iraqis the same rights and thus doom our efforts to construct a system in Iraq that protects all its citizens. It would strip Kurdistan of rights it has negotiated with the central government to protect it from abuses like those it has suffered in the past. We should not forget that over-centralization has been a disaster for the Iraqi people.

Iraq's constitution should be treasured. Iraq's neighbors should not be allowed to violate our sovereignty. Democracy and federalism are the popularly chosen basis of the new Iraq. Never again should Kurdish wealth be stolen to finance genocide against the Kurdish people.

While Kurds welcome American troops into their homes, Baker-Hamilton proposes that the United States revise its policies to meet the demands of those firing at its soldiers. According to the study group, we are all part of "a problem" that needs fixing, and we are equally unworthy of America's protection.

Don't sell us out to our authoritarian neighbors and those who are terrorizing our communities. We agreed democratically to participate in this project because we were guaranteed the rights needed to protect our people. We Kurds are asking President Bush and America to remember the sacrifices we have made to keep your loved ones safe in Iraq. We are asking you to keep a promise where those before you have failed.

The writer is the director of the Intelligence and Security Agency of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and a high-ranking member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The Year Comes to an End

The year draws to an uneasy close and we are faced with more questions than answers, and less success - much less - than I would have liked in the Middle East.  In my opinion, the reasons for that are two-fold:

1.  The Bush administration badly mishandled the war in Iraq. Note that I am still not giving in on the correctness of the war - I still think it was the right thing to do.  But what a horrendous squandering of opportunity and what a hideous snafu has resulted from botched handling and lack of planning. 

April 9th, 2003 - I remember it well, the day Saddam's statue was brought down and dragged around the square.  The thousands of people who converged upon the prisons, looking for loved ones - dead and gone, killed by Saddam and his evil sons. Shock and awe.  Shock and awe! We wrested control away, and had Saddam's army scattered and cowering. 

And then, little by little, we allowed our advantage to dribble away.

There were not enough men on the ground.  There was insufficient planning.  The situation was misjudged.  And every step along the way, it could have been fixed, but was not. Instead of taking control and anticipating in advance, we were running to try to keep up.  We allowed the situation to get out of control. We did it.  Us.  The buck stops here.

2. Lack of character, lack of strength, ill-focused values and morality, cowardice, self-entitlement, self-righteousness, heads in the sand, childishness, irresponsibility and generalized weakness on the part of the Western world.  We are psychologically ill-equipped for war.  Cowardice and fear inform our every move, our every decision.

Number 1, above, is a relatively newly perceived reason (on my part) for the mess - one that has been niggling in the back of my mind for the past few months.  I was at first tempted to write that this it is the most important reason for our current failure in Iraq.  But as I thought things out further, I came to feel that it was more a chicken/egg scenario.  I don't know which came first.  I think both reasons have echoed back and forth off the other and both are influencing the outcome as we know it today.

The conundrum as I see it:

• If Bush had felt the backing and encouragement of the entire US and Europe, he might have handled the aftermath of the war more decisively. 
• If Bush had handled the aftermath of the war more decisively, he might have felt the backing and encouragement of the entire US and Europe.

The consequences of having a united, steel-reinforced, unmoving and determined front, backed by proper planning and adequate men on the ground:

• We all would have felt more self-confidence and less fearful. 
• The world would have felt more secure having an alliance of the US and Europe in charge.
• The insurgents would have given up, perceiving the situation as one where there was no way they could win.
• The result would have been peace and a greater potential for Democracy to have taken hold in the Middle East.
• I don't think what happens between the Israelis and the Palestinians drives what goes on in the Middle East.  I think how the Western world handles Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon will determine the outcome between them.  A united US and Europe with a take-charge attitude and a big army standing by to enforce the acceptance of Israeli sovereignty and to severly punish terrorism is something I would like to see. 

Someone has to take charge. As I see it, we have no choice.  We must win.  I think that if we don't, the West will receive it as a blow from which it may never recover. 

We could still pull it off.  But each and every day, I feel less hopeful.  I think the cowards are winning out, and I fear that Bush has lost his fire or will run out of time.

I ask the Magic 8 Ball whether there will be peace in the Middle East in my lifetime.  The answer:

"Reply hazy, try again."

And that's the way I see us ending 2006.

***********************

At the same time, I am very happy for the things that are going well in my life, and feel lucky and thankful that as of Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm, I will have all of my family - husband and all three children - safely under my roof, together, for an entire week.

Otherwise

By Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise.  I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach.  It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate.  It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks.  It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

******************

2006: Personally happy, politically unhappy.

2007: ?

***********************

Addendum:

Just came across this from US News and World Report:

Good News Out Of Iraq   In the midst of all this gloom, the AP reports new Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad this morning in an unannounced visit. And he was, it would appear, greeted by some good news. The New York Times reports Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has "tentatively approved" a US-backed coalition of Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties in an attempt to "isolate" Moqtada al-Sadr. Also, the Washington Times and AP report Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training the Iraq army and national police, said the "final target" of 325,000 trained personnel will be met this month, "with 'dramatic improvement' in performance envisioned by July." The Times notes Dempsey's "assessment comes as President Bush weighs options for changing strategy and tactics." Dempsey said Iraqi officials "are working to reform police, take more responsibility for their security and make financial investments in troops and equipment -- all steps toward freeing U.S. troops to return home." The AP adds evidence of Dempsey's optimistic assessment. US forces handed over security responsibilities in Iraq's northern Najaf province to Iraqi forces Wednesday morning.

Ground Zero Milestone

Two 25-ton steel columns — one bearing signatures of American steelworkers who helped make it — rose at ground zero Tuesday, a milestone in prolonged efforts to build the skyscraper that will replace the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

As construction workers, politicians and architects applauded, a massive crane lifted the first 31-foot-high column, which was pa