Why not? They just called for genocide from the floor of the UN and correctly anticipated deafening international silence. A potential last gasp of opposition to their nuclear program crashed and burned last week. So while they didn't actually bring down a US jet this morning, they're still feeling pretty darned good about life:

Amid false allegations from Iranian media that a U.S. plane was forced down after accidentally entering Iranian airspace, FOX News learned Tuesday about another tense incident that occurred last month near the Strait of Hormuz. On Sept. 6, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatened to shoot down U.S. helicopters flying cover aboard the USS Peliliu patrolling in the area, according to a classified military transcript of the radio exchange... Military sources told FOX News that this sort of incident happens nearly daily around the Strait, which is heavily trafficked by oil tankers.

This has been going on for months. In January five IRG speedboats came within seconds of getting blown out of the water by the US Navy. In April three more speedboats tried to swarm a US patrol boat before getting turned away.

Constant cat-and-mouse naval incidents have usually been signs that hardliners are in control of the Iranian regime. Which is weird, because liberal foreign policy elites have been clear that offering Iran concessions would moderate the regime. Which the Bush Administration more or less tried after the January incident. Which apparently did the opposite of moderating the regime. At least these experts haven't been absolutely wrong about those anti-Ahmadinejad backlashes that they keep predicting, otherwise there'd be no reason to assume that they're not just making things up.

How about another round of EU-backed sanctions? What's that you say? Ahmadinejad already moved Iranian assets out of European banks to circumvent asset freezes? Well fuck.

References and previously behind the jump...

This is exactly how the Nazis did it, right? I only ask because "Jews = Nazis" is now the standard anti-Israel line for Arab governments and liberal activists. It's almost like they're wildly exaggerating just so they can make a particularly vicious, borderline anti-Semitic smear:

The creative minds inside Israel's Border Police have invented a new crowd control weapon, one that pays homage to that devil of a stinker, Pepé Le Pew... Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven't been washed for weeks - topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon... The smell... apparently lingers on the skin and in hair for days and can be smelled from quite a distance... neither soap nor tomato sauce is doing the job.

The smell is so awful that police stations can't even store it, while the actual substance is 100% nontoxic.

Vicious lunatics go on violent rampages where they alternate between attacking police and screaming for Israel's destruction. In response the Jewish State develops cutting-edge technology to minimize injuries - and still has to bear the brunt of the UN's condemnations. Nothing to worry about though - those condemnations come from clearheaded and objective anti-Zionism. Obviously.

References:
* Israel's new weapon [FP Passport]
* Libya spurs UN protest with Nazi remark [JPost]
* Terrorist Loving British Tool: Israel Running "Concentration Camp", Gaza Like Darfur [MR]

Previously:
* The IDF Is The World's Most Moral Army (Humanitarian Coordination Edition)
* The Most Moral Army In The World - Soldier Testimonials [Video]
* Still the World's Most Moral Army

Turns out that Biden more or less made up his dramatic, monumental, history-altering role in Congress's Bosnia stand:

During last week's debate with his counterpart on the Republican ticket, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Biden twice gave himself credit for shifting U.S. policy on Bosnia... But, despite the bravado, Biden was not a key player in the legislation that ultimately forced Bill Clinton to lift an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Bosnian Muslims fighting the Serbs, according to congressional officials involved in the issue and a review of Biden's speeches and voting record... Biden's foreign policy expertise -- honed over 36 years in the Senate -- is the main reason Obama selected him as his running mate and offers the strongest contrast with Palin.

36 years in the Senate and Biden still doesn't know shit and yet is utterly convinced in his own genius. His 2006 partition plan for Iraq was so stupid that Sunnis and Shiites - who were engaged in a civil war - united to oppose it. His understanding of Al Qaeda's strategy and territorial presence is the opposite of true. He clearly doesn't understand McKiernan's strategy in Afghanistan - not a surprise, since he also doesn't know the difference between brigades and battalions.

In fairness to him, though, he might just be listening to the bevy of liberal foreign policy specialists who have been getting things wrong about the Middle East for the better part of five decades. Click through for more.

I have to go through this every once in a while because of persistent anti-Israel wishful thinking from major media outlets and Israel's enemies. Even some pro-Western thinkers buy into this meme - a meme that is, among other things, flat out false:

Israelis have continued to display resilience and optimism in defiance of Palestinian terrorism, the Iranian threat, political uncertainty and occasional economic downturns, according to the 2008 Survey of Patriotism among Israeli Jews. In the survey, published by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Herzliya Inter-Disciplinary Center, 92 percent of those questioned said they were proud to be Jewish, while 90% said they considered themselves patriotic. Eighty-five percent said they opposed dividing Jerusalem in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, while 92% said they would actively engage in a military battle for Israel... the people of Israel are currently among the international leaders in national pride.

Which is shocking, because it makes this poll almost identical to every other poll about Israeli patriotism and Israeli happiness. Not that it will stop ostensible experts from blindly asserting the exact opposite - or from publishing academic and newspaper articles based on that fervently held anti-Israel hope.

References:
* BEHIND THE HEADLINES: ISRAELIS LEFT DEMORALIZED IN WAKE OF ATTACK IN [JTA]
* Israelis are demoralized, baffled [LAT]
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (6) "Israelis Demoralized and Blaming Themselves" - Actually, No They're Not [MR]
* Demoralized Israelis Blame Political and Military Leaders
* Fitzgerald: What Israel and the world owe the "Palestinians" [Jihad Watch]
* Poll: Israelis remain proud and patriotic [JPost]
* Turns Out, Israelis Aren't Ready To Abandon Israel After All (Plus: Israel's Awesome Anti-Missile Tech) [MR]
* Newsflash: Israelis Are Happy [MR]

Previously:
* Spectacular Media Bias In Jerusalem Attack Coverage
* Media Consensus Forming: Israeli West Bank Ops Violate Gaza Ceasefire (Plus: Palestinians Shot West Bank Israelis On Day 2)
* Media Slightly Exaggerating Ahmadinejad's Acceptance Of Israel, Willingness To Give Up Nukes

Hamas shut down Gaza's generators, rejected fuel shipments, shot at fuel trucks, refused to collect millions of liters from what Palestinians admitted were "full storage tanks on the Gaza side", and murdered Israelis who still tried to provide them with energy. Throughout this insanity Israel supplied extra electricity to Gaza even though, according to the UN, "it was not obliged to". Gaza's energy crisis? Israel's fault.

The food crisis? After taking over Gaza, Hamas started randomly rejecting Israeli food aid. But even the BBC admitted that Israel still supplied more than enough aid to ensure that "no one starves" in Gaza. So Hamas took to specifically blocking Israeli fruits and vegetables. A few months later, the UN followed the BBC and admitted that Gazans do get more than enough food - but they still condemned Israel for not supplying enough fruits and vegetables. Really.

The medical crisis? Hamas shut down Gaza's clinics, intentionally failed to request and often rejected medical supplies, siphoned hospital fuel for terrorism ops, sacked medical personnel, publicly abased dozens of doctors, and physically attacked several more. Which is to say nothing of how their genocidal terrorism regularly triggers conflicts that strain their medical system.

And the solution to Gaza's medical collapse - in addition to blaming Israel - is naturally to demonize Israel for not letting Gazans get medical care in Israel. Unsurprisingly, that is (a) bullshit and (b) would be justified even if it wasn't bullshit:

Just kidding, obviously. The UN's much too busy reviewing Israel's human rights record - or being closed in honor of Ramadan - to get to something like this:

There has been series of flagrant human rights violations recently in Syria, including the mass killing of prisoners in Sidnaya prison and the killing of three Kurdish citizens who were celebrating Norouz (New Year) in the city of Kamishli... On July 5, 2008, Syrian oppositionist websites and human rights organizations reported that least 25 prisoners had been killed by security forces during rioting in Sidnaya prison... To date, however, the Syrian regime has not acknowledged that any prisoners have been killed, nor has it allowed the prisoners' families to visit the prison to find out what befell their relatives... On March 20, 2008, the Syrian security forces opened fire on Kurdish citizens who were celebrating Norouz (New Year) in the city of Kamishli, killing three and wounding five... a Kurdish columnist residing in Syria, wrote that high-ranking Syrian officials were responsible for the Kamishli shootings: "Is there any state on the face of the earth [other than Syria] that fires live bullets at its citizens during their festival"

Remember that time when UN Secretary Ban condemned Israel's "excessive force" while Israel was considering its response to a massive Palestinian missile barrage? That was just like what's happening here, except no one launched any rockets at Syria and Ban isn't going to condemn anybody for anything. But other than that, the two situations are identical.

References:
* UN to review Israel's human rights track [JPost]
* UN Open For Anti-Semitism On Yom Kippur, Closed For Business On Ramadan [MR]
* Mass Killings and Human Rights Violations in Syria [MEMRI]
* Ban: Israel must halt 'excessive force' against Palestinians [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Sophisticated UN Diplomat: Yup, Jews Are Pretty Much Nazis
* Nazi Zionist Regime Responds To Hamas Terrorism Attempts, Deadly Ambushes, And Rocket Fire By Renewing Fuel Supplies To Gaza
* UN: It's Israel's Fault That The Palestinians Are Dumping Raw Sewage Into The Mediterranean

Major media outlets have become oh-so-intrigued by oh-so-tentative hints - always hints - that Ahmadinejad is willing to accept Israel and that Iran is willing to give up its nukes.

The former claim, obviously, is bullshit:

"I've heard that one of them [PM Olmert] recently said that the idea of Greater Israel is dead. I would like to declare that the idea of 'smaller Israel' is also dead. The very notion of Israel is dead, but they are lagging behind the times. Just as the idea of Greater Israel died 30 years ago, and they did not realize this, and have continued to perpetrate crimes for 30 years... Today, I say to them: The idea of smaller Israel is dead."... "A Zionist organization with 2,000 [members] and with 7,000 or 8,000 activists has brought the world to a state of confusion. Let me tell them that if they themselves do not wrap up Zionism, the strong arm of the peoples will wipe these germs of corruption off the face of the Earth."

But that second part about Iran giving up its nukes is actually pretty interesting, except for how it's total bullshit:

Expressing confidence his country is facing a diminished military threat, Iran's top diplomat said Thursday that Tehran remains committed to its nuclear development program despite international pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki contended that the danger of an Israeli airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities is waning as the United States - Israel's closest ally - finds itself mired in an economic crisis and Israel is roiled by its own domestic political troubles.

Disappointing, because I really had my hopes up this time.

References:
* Ahmadinejad accepts Israel's right to exist [Guardian]
* Iran Hints At Nuclear Rethink [CBS]
* Ahmadinejad: 'If [The Zionists] Themselves Do Not Wrap Up Zionism... The Peoples Will Wipe These Germs of Corruption Off the Face of the Earth' [MEMRI]
* Iran out to stay nuclear course [Chicago Tribune]

Previously:
* Israeli Military Intel: Iran "Halfway" Toward Nuclear Weapon (Plus: Syria, Hezbollah, And Hamas All The Way Toward Every Other Kind Of Weapon)
* Skewz.com Podcast: Mere Rhetoric Gets Interviewed About Israel, Iran, Politics, Etc.
* Iran: Of Course Sunnis And Shiites Cooperate, Iran Will Never Abandon Hamas

Real or not - and I sincerely hope that this is some kind of stunt - it's a pitch-perfect illustration of what these beatific darlings will look like in a few years

This is a movement that instinctively reaches for coercive government power to shut down events or kill political messages that they don't like. They're not even in power yet and they're already threatening political opponents with jail time.

For those times when current government power proves insufficient, the Obama campaign boasts about the organized mobs that they activate to "fight the good fight" and prevent critics from speaking out. In the meantime they are quite literally blackmailing political opponents into silence. Across the country, Obama's more enthusiastic partisans have taken to violently intimidating conservatives and destroying their property.

No surprise: Obama's style of dystopian populism always ends like this. Just let me know when this gets creepy.

References and previously behind the jump...

Biden, last night:

Here's what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, "Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them." What happened? Hamas won. When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."

Obama, 2006:

But During His 2006 Trip To The Middle East, Obama Met With Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas And Said The Election Represented An "Opportunity...To Consolidate Behind A Single Government." "Illinois Senator Barack Obama's journey to the Middle East took him to the West Bank Thursday for a meeting with the man elected to replace Yasser Arafat.

Whatever. Obama also claimed to support an undivided Jerusalem for a day, until he changed his mind. In fairness to him: he probably does support an undivided Jerusalem and he probably did oppose the 2006 election, but only in the same universe in which he called for NATO troops to be deployed after Hezbollah got kicked out of Lebanon. That isn't this universe, but I'm sure it's a very nice place to live.

References:
* Transcript of Palin, Biden debate [CNN]
* Biden Lied About Obama Not Supporting Hamas Election [LGF]

Previously:
* Obama Campaign Cripples Anti-Ahmadinejad Rally, Neatly Crystallizes Thuggish Liberal Fascism
* New Coulter Column: "If Obama Wanted A Historically Delusional Vice President, Why Not Lyndon LaRouche?"
* He Misspoke: Biden's Obnoxiously Smug Assertion About Hezbollah Was Actually An Aggressively Stupid Policy About Syria (Plus: They Just Don't Know Stuff)

Eye On The UN sent this out earlier via email

"Equality" at the United Nations under the management of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
October 8-9, 2008: The only two substantive planning sessions for the UN's so-called "anti-racism" conference - known as Durban II - were deliberately planned over major Jewish holidays, including the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur.
September 30, 2008: By contrast, in order to observe the Eid holiday to mark the end of Ramadan, the United Nations shut down totally in both New York and in Geneva.

Which is weird, because you'd think that they'd want to celebrate Eid with something more dramatic. Like calling Israelis Nazis while they themselves go around burning thousands of books. Or appointing Khaddafi Prize founders and anti-Semitic Truthers to report on imagined Israeli human rights abuses. Or at the very least condemning Israel in the UNHRC a couple dozen times or calling for an anti-Israel boycott or something.

Anything short of genocidal anti-Semitism just feels like kind of anti-climactic, ya know? Although I guess that's what last week was for.

References:
* UN Delegate: Israelis Are the New Nazis [Gateway Pundit]
* United Nations Organization Destroyed Thousands of Books [NY Sun]
* To Sounds of Cheers, UN Human Rights Council Elects Khaddafi Prize Founder to Expert Post [UN Watch]
* Shock: UN appoints pro-Zionist conservative as special envoy to Israel and Palestine [Hot Air]
* Video: UN Watch Exposes UNHRC [Daled Amos]
* UN summit: Boycott Israel [YNet]

Previously:
* How Badly Does the UN Draft Screw Israel? Part IV: UNIFIL Will Not Get a Chapter 7 Mandate
* UNSC Brushes Aside Ahmadinejad's Genocidal Rant, Focuses On What's Important (Plus: Of Course Obama-Linked Fundraisers And Liberal Christian Groups Welcomed Ahmadinejad)
* UN Children's Fund: Israeli Billionaire Just Too Jewish To Give Money To World's Children (Also Too Jewish For The UN: Ultra-Liberal Reform Jews)

Kind of a sensationalist headline, but bear with me. Here is Obama saying in Pittsburgh that "no one's been a more stalwart ally of Israel" than him. Here is Biden saying last night that "no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel" than him. One of them is obviously... reaching. And while this isn't really a scandal - notwithstanding Biden's continuing eagerness to trump his running mate - it's a good time to remind people that they're both wrong.

Of course they're going to degrade US-Israeli ties. It's what their foreign policy team thinks has to be done:

That's what his foreign policy team thinks needs to be done to promote American interests. It will be a White House that changes US priorities. It will be friendlier with Hamas and friendlier with Syria and friendlier with radical Muslim countries and friendlier with Hezbollah - all at the expense of Israel. Following the personal declarations of Obama, it will obviously be friendlier with Iran. And it will be an administration institutionally predisposed to blame Israel for Middle East instability across the board.

How about this: Biden once tried to zero out aid to Israel. Since there are Senators who haven't tried to zero out aid to Israel, can Biden really be the best friend Israel's had in the Senate?

References:
* 'Bitter' flap regrettable, Obama says [PPG]
* Transcript of Palin, Biden debate [CNN]
* Obama Isn't Anti-Israel Because... Umm... Err... Because He Just Isn't OK? [MR]
* NJDC: Biden Is Pro-Israel Because... Umm... Err... Because He Just Is OK? [MR]
* Palin Speech Now Online, Liberal Jewish Groups Reach New Heights Of Pro-Obama Denials, Fabrications, And Smears [MR]
* Palin Speech Now Online, Liberal Jewish Groups Reach New Heights Of Pro-Obama Denials, Fabrications, And Smears [MR]
* Obama Surrogates Now Openly And Demonstrably Lying About Biden's Anti-Israel Policies [MR]

Previously:
* Turns Out, The Devout Republican Evangelical Governor Of Alaska Has A Soft Spot For Israel
* JStreet Tools Proudly Declare Their Inability To Distinguish Between Reality And What They'd Like Reality To Be
* He Misspoke: Biden's Obnoxiously Smug Assertion About Hezbollah Was Actually An Aggressively Stupid Policy About Syria (Plus: They Just Don't Know Stuff)

When I did yesterday's post on this genius’s Hezbollah gaffe, I just assumed that he was making it up out of whole cloth. Too generous!

Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, misspoke when he said "we kicked - along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." Hezbollah, a radical Shiite Muslim group, is very much alive in Lebanon, part of the government there, and in fact more powerful than it's ever been. Biden may have meant to say Syria, which under intense international pressure withdrew its forces from Lebanon in 2005 after a two-decade-long presence.

Andy McCarthy has five or six reasons why this version is still an egregious abuse of history. My concern is that it's also a train wreck of a policy suggestion - albeit one that an Obama/Biden administration would indeed enthusiastically embrace. Putting European troops in South Lebanon - which of course has already happened under UNIFIL auspices - has been an unmitigated disaster for Israel. When they're not getting overrun by Lebanese children, they're threatening to take potshots at Israeli planes or conveniently losing equipment that ends up being used by Hezbollah to start wars. The rest of the time they're just passive human shields. Hezbollah tolerates them on account of that, on account of how they're utterly ineffectual, and on account of how France and Spain bribed Syria for protection. Which is to say: if Biden actually misspoke then he and Obama are enthusiastically advocating a de facto pro-Syrian and pro-Hezbollah policy. Sophisticated!

Yesterday morning I posted a roundup of various Obama/Biden historical fantasies: Roosevelt gave a speech on TV in 1929, Roosevelt talked to Hitler and Tojo, Hoover didn't try to soak the rich on the eve the Great Depression, Auschwitz was liberated by American troops, etc. I don't think any of those were deliberate lies - in sharp contrast to, say, Biden's nonexistent mom-and-pop diner story from last night's debate.

What the hell?

BIDEN: When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it." Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.

No, seriously: what the hell? I have no idea what he's talking about. And even if I did: Obama thinks Syria is the solution to Hezbollah. Which means that Obama has been listening to his anti-Israel advisers a wee bit too much.

UPDATE: I also forgot to mention: (1) NATO has what mandate to go into Lebanon? (2) An international force has been a disaster for Israel. Other than all of this - great answer from the Dem's top foreign policy mind.

References:
* Transcript of Palin, Biden debate [CNN]
* Lebanon - Another Country Where Obama Can Make Things Much Worse [MR]

Previously:
* Biden Now Actively Channeling Rabid Anti-Israel Partisans, Adopting Their Barely-Veiled Anti-Israel Euphemisms
* Guy Who Smeared "Pro-Likud Approach To Israel": "US-Israeli Relationship Transcends Parties"
* New Coulter Column: "If Obama Wanted A Historically Delusional Vice President, Why Not Lyndon LaRouche?"

Maybe even creepier: he's going to save America whether we "like it or not." That last bit makes it tough to choose whether this as an example of liberal facsism or of liberalism-as-religion. Although I suppose there's no reason that it can't be both:

In the Smith College student newspaper, a student writes an impassioned op-ed declaring Obama to be her "Personal Jesus."... "Obama had beat out squeaky clean southern boy John Edwards and former first lady and next in the line of political succession Hillary Clinton. I was in shock. And then I came to Jesus/Obama... I've officially been saved, and soon, whether they like it or not, the rest of the country will be too. I will follow him, all the way to the White House, and I'll be standing there in our nation's capital in January 2009, when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States of America. In the name of Obama, Amen.

Geraghty thinks it might be a parody. I dunno. Obama supporters have already started using his middle name as a saint's name. Which doesn't even register as a blip on the creepyasfuckometer when compared to this:

Check out the creepy coordinated hand motions starting in at around 40 seconds. Wow.

References:
* Liberal Facsism by Jonah Goldberg [Amazon]
* Godless by Ann Coulter [Amazon]
* 'I've officially been saved, and soon, whether they like it or not, the rest of the country will be too.' [NRO Campaign Spot]
* Obama Supporters Take His Name as Their Own [NYT]
* Sing For Obama [YouTube]

Previously:
* Obama's Sophistication Is Actually Kind Of Unsophisticated, Incoherent
* Obama Draws Line In The Sand: Invading Israel OK But Calling Hillary A Mean Name Is A Firing Offense
* New Coulter Column: "If Obama Wanted A Historically Delusional Vice President, Why Not Lyndon LaRouche?"

Fair:

Being interviewed by Katie Couric on the "CBS Evening News," Biden said: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'" For those of you who aren't hard-core history buffs, Biden not only named the wrong president during the 1929 stock market crash, he also claimed a president who wasn't president during the stock market crash went on TV before Americans had TVs... Biden cast one of only five votes against the [first Alaskan pipeline] that has produced more than 15 billion barrels of oil, supplied nearly 20 percent of this nation's oil, created tens of thousands of jobs, added hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and reduced money transfers to the nation's enemies.

Michelle Obama on Joe Biden: "What you learn about Barack from his choice is that he’s not afraid of smart people."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but: these people just don't know things. And - much worse than the worst that can reasonably be said about Palin's ostensible lack of experience - they're convinced they do. They just proceed as if history is what their political agenda would like it to be. Meeting with dictators is good so Roosevelt talked to Hitler and Tojo. Soaking the rich during a downturn is good so Hoover didn't try that on the eve of the Great Depression. Obama's life story is hagiographic so his uncle liberated a death camp actually liberated by the Russians.

Click through for a video of this tool being a tool.

Abbas was still predicting a 2008 peace deal as of last month and apparently it's Egypt's sounded like a fun place to vacation in November:

An international summit is to be held in Egypt in November, with representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the members of the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. According to a senior official in Jerusalem, the Israeli and PA participants will brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks. The gathering is said to be the result of a compromise between the U.S., Israel and the Palestinians. In recent months U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been urging both sides to draft a document detailing the points of agreement in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. She suggested they compile an "inventory" detailing progress on each of the core issues, such as Jerusalem, borders, refugees' right of return, security, settlements and water rights.

Yeah whatever. Palestinian PM Fayyad says it's not going to happen this year. Israeli President and eternal optimist Shimon Peres says it's not going to happen at all as long as Abbas is in charge. If only all this had been predictable back in January when Bush promised a peace deal by year's end.

References:
* Egypt to host 'Annapolis 2' peace summit in November [Ha'aretz]
* Abbas pledges to reach peace by end '08 [JPost]
* Fayad: No peace agreement by end of '08 [JPost]
* Peres: No chance of peace with Palestinians [Ha'aretz]
* Bush: Oh Hell Yes It's Peace Yet! [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* Holocaust Denier Complains to Israeli Traitors about Israelis
* Peace Process Talks Stalling Today Because Of Something. Or Because Of Something Else. Etc.

The logical conclusion for a country that - lacking authority figures - is already literally the worst place on earth to be a child:

A university is investigating a video of binge-drinking undergraduates taking part in a bizarre initiation ceremony with a student dressed as a Nazi officer. The University of Gloucestershire said on Thursday it would try to trace the students who were marched through the streets with plastic bags over their heads as part of a sports club ritual. The footage, broadcast on the BBC, showed a group of students taking orders from a man dressed in a peaked cap, black leather boots and a Nazi-style jacket with a red armband bearing a swastika. Some of the group are shown drinking and being sick while they are lined up against a wall. At one point, they are led in single file down the middle of a residential street.

Also the logical conclusion for a country where RAF heroes have gone from fighting the Nazi scourge to not being able to wear their uniforms in public. And this isn't even the most horrifying result of Britain's manic oscillation between parental neglect and indulgence in the last 24 hours.

In fairness to these tools: if Prince Harry can do it...

References:
* Childhood’s End [City Journal]
* U.K. university probes 'initiation' video of student in Nazi garb [Ha'aretz]
* Caving in to the Horde: RAF Ordered to Not Wear Uniforms in Public [JWF]
* 'How far can you bounce?': The extraordinary taunts of sick ghouls who jeered as a teenager leapt to his death [Daily Mail]
* Harry says sorry for Nazi costume [BBC]

Previously:
* War On Britain's Jews [Video]
* If Britain Won't Stop Radical Islam, Why Should Radical Islam Stop Being Radical?
* Britain Letting Distaste For Jewish State Get In the Way Of Not Having A Nuclear War In the Middle East

How heartwarming:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday ordered the release of 40 Hamas members from PA prisons in the West Bank as a "goodwill gesture" to the Islamic movement on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Id al-Fitr. The decision came two days after Hamas released 30 Fatah members who were being held in its prisons in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas government said that move was also a "goodwill gesture" for the Muslim holiday. The release of the Hamas and Fatah prisoners is likely to pave the way for the resumption of reconciliation talks between the two parties in Cairo early next month... Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri... said Hamas continues to favor the establishment of a "unity government" that would bring all Palestinian factions together... Abbas... also dismissed pressure to prepare for a "military confrontation" with Hamas in the Gaza Strip... "He believes that we must give the dialogue a chance before talking about a confrontation with Hamas," [Fatah] officials said. "And he is convinced that the dialogue would be successful in solving the crisis with Hamas."

It's either this or Fatah cedes control of the West Bank anyway. Looks like those battalions of Fatah soldiers that the US has been arming and training aren't going to be fighting Hamas. I wonder if they'll find anyone else to turn their guns on.

References:
* PA, Hamas mutually release prisoners [JPost]
* Fatah To Politically Cede West Bank, Palestinian Authority To Hamas (Plus: Remember Obama's Magical "I Only Negotiate With Terrorist States" Threshold?) [MR]
* State Dept: Sure Abbas Just Said That Palestinians Should Invade And Overrun Israel, But How About We Give Fatah Some More Weapons And Military Training? (Plus: Hamas Closer Than Ever To West Bank Takeover) [MR]

Previously:
* State Dept: Sure Abbas Just Said That Palestinians Should Invade And Overrun Israel, But How About We Give Fatah Some More Weapons And Military Training? (Plus: Hamas Closer Than Ever To West Bank Takeover)
* Hamas Continues Long Tradition Of "Shaking" And "Threatening" And "Endangering" Ceasefire By Firing Dozens Of Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals
* Israel Pardons Another Wave Of Terrorists, Hamas Fires Another Wave Of Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals

Why not? Their Hezbollah allies have achieved something even better than total victory in Lebanon. The Europeans in UNIFIL are begging them for protection. They've upgraded their military and diplomatic ties with Russia - something they've been working on for years - while their relationship with the DPRK remains solid. They're obviously not afraid of Israel.

And the Democratic Party - which is about to take firm control of two-thirds of the US government - is stacked with current and former leaders who have a penchant for dropping in to Damascus. At this point the only people still trying to isolate Assad are other Arab leaders, and there's no way they're going to publicly come out against a Sunni bomb. So - again - why not:

One year after Israel allegedly bombed a partially constructed nuclear reactor deep in the heart of Syria, the nuclear aspirations of Syrian President Bashar Assad have not subsided, with the country redoubling its efforts to develop a nuclear program, Asharq Alawsat reported on Thursday. According to the report, Israeli military sources told the London-based paper that following the reported airstrike against the nuclear reactor at Al-Kibar on September 6, Syria changed course and began a nuclear program based on the Iranian model of simultaneously building multiple facilities in various sites throughout the country.

The rest of the article goes on to say that Israel is wiping out Syrian nuclear officials as fast as Syria can replace them. But that's very small comfort given how Iran - despite having planeloads of nuclear techs who keep regularly crashing - is just a few months away from going nuclear. Next up: Egypt.

References and previously after the jump.

Atlantic writers are apparently deciding between their earlier Jews are "indoctrinating" Palin line and this new smear. Particularly rich from the side whose guy has Palestinians in Gaza working the phones for him. Which is the same guy who just got done meeting with the same Palestinians who are now mursing about handing over the West Bank to Hamas. Obama's behavior during those meetings is particular instructive, since Abbas had just gone out of his way to celebrate a terrorist child murderer.

And yet:

A representative of the McCain campaign on Monday accused a blogger on the Atlantic website of libel in response to a blog on the website entitled "Palin endorses Hamas." The blog mocked McCain running mate Sarah Palin's difficulty answering a question from Katie Couric, in which she gave a sweeping endorsement of democracy in the Middle East. Michael Goldfarb of the McCain campaign issued a statement to the Atlantic Monthly on Monday saying "Governor Palin did no such thing, and your title is nothing short of slander. Having read your work for some time I doubt that you believe Hamas qualifies as "those who seek democracy." That you would put those words in Governor Palin's mouth is libel." In the post, Jeremy Goldberg mocked Palin's inability to issue a nuanced response when Couric asked "What happens if the goal of democracy doesn't produce the desired outcome? In Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections and Hamas won."

Sarah Palin has problems reconciling democracy promotion with Arab and Muslim radicalism? Wow. That makes her exactly the same as every other honest conservative who wants a solution to the Middle East that stops short of mass Palestinian deportation and/or a Great Powers war in the region. Liberal foreign policy experts don't have that problem because they just unblinkingly assert - against all evidence - that moderation is right around the corner. Convenient for them, but not much help to the rest of us.

No wonder the foreign policy left smears Palin. It's either that or a discussion about how deeply hostile their entire worldview is to the US-Israel alliance. According to their understanding of the Middle East, all problems inevitably come back to Israeli misbehavior - misbehavior to which the US is either implicitly or explicitly linked. So even when Obama claims to be pro-Israel - and even when he's not either incoherent on the subject or about to take it back - his support still comes in spite of how Israel is the root of the problem.

Iranian nuclearization, for instance? It's a problem, but mostly because Israel might overreact. And that's not an isolated example: this way of thinking runs through Obama's entire approach to foreign policy, up to and including linking Israel to the entire breadth and depth of Middle East instability. The breathtakingly clear blockquote on that, plus more on Obama's foreign policy team, is behind the jump.