So much for that.  What bombing pause? Israel's security cabinet has approved an escalation of the ground war in Lebanon.
That "extra week" the Israelis had reportedly asked for from the Bush administration has come and gone and we now stand poised on the brink of a widened war.
The fear now, at least my fear, is [...]

Well, now we at least know what it takes to make Condi Rice "sad"  -- the death of 60 civilians including a couple of dozen children in the Israeli bombing of Qana. The Associated Press quotes the U.S. Secretary of State saying:
Rice said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life" in Israel's attack. But [...]

Owing to some weekend travel, I'm making a unilateral withdrawal from blogging about the war -- and from blogging in general until next Monday. Try to get along without me until then. 

Here's some good news:

A new poll by Insider Advantage shows challenger Hank Johnson with a hefty lead over incumbent Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic run-off for the 4th District congressional race.
The poll shows Johnson leading McKinney, 46 to 21 percent, with a third of voters undecided. The survey recorded the responses of 489 likely voters [...]

The rhetoric of the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon has rudely bumped into reality.  Israeli forces got bloodied in the fight for the Lebanese border city of Bint Jbeil. And all of a sudden, the goal posts have begun to slide.
After boasting for two weeks that it was intent on eradicating Hezbollah as a military [...]

I'm guest-hosting Wednesday and Thursday on Public Radio International's To The Point.
You can listen to both shows by clicking on the link above. Or hear Thursday's show live at NOON PDT streaming live on KCRW, or on 89.9 FM if you live in the Los Angeles area.
On Wednesday's show we had a good hour-long discussion [...]

Fabulous. That's the only word I can use to describe the American political reaction to the war in Lebanon.
Condi Rice finally gets up off her arse after two weeks, she flys into Beirut and later into Rome and tells the world how the U.S. has pledged $30 million in sheets, blankets, and plastic sheet rolls [...]

Time out for a few minutes from the war in Lebanon.
For some time I've been quite appalled by Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. She's frankly a discredit to the very notion of a progressive politician.
She got a surprise wake up call last week when she was forced into an August 8th run-off
by an opponent in the [...]

A bit of follow-up on my posting last week about the Democrats' "unwaverig support" for Israel.
Revolting it is to now watch leaders from both major parties trying to capitalize on the blood being spilled in Lebanon. The Vice-President of the United States was in Florida this weekend using the war as an excuse to raise [...]

**Update** This just in from Ken Silverstein: an interview with Wayne White who, until last year, was a ranking Bush State Department officer on the Middle East. Those who think Israel is doing a great job in its retaliation campaign should read closely the words of somebody who actually knows something about this subject. Unless, [...]

War is the failure of diplomacy.
The Bush administration is now engaged in what I call scuttle diplomacy: using diplomatic activity, or in this case inactivity, to scuttle a cease-fire.
It is disingenuous on the part of the administration to claim that there must be continuing war in order to lay the groundwork for a lasting peace. [...]

My colleague at The Nation, its literary editor, Adam Shatz has just put out a great backgrounder on the war in Lebanon. Able to chew gum and walk at the same time, Shatz gives us a clear-eyed view of what motivated Hezbollah to provoke the ongoing gotterdammerung while also explaining why Israel's response plays right into the [...]

If one were really, really cynical one might suspect that the Bush administration has encouraged Israel to continue its military offensive if for no other reason than to continue distracting attention from the full-on debacle in Iraq.
I'm not that cynical. The truth, nevertheless, is that the wheels seem to be breaking off in Iraq this [...]

Allow a proud father some boasting on his own blog. This story in the Ventura County Star neatly describes the strike movement being built at a chain of California hospitals. My daughter, Natasha, only 22 years old, is one of the SEIU organizers in this push.
The hospitals, by the way, are run by Health Corporation [...]

My feature story on the congressional race in the ultimate swing district in the ultimate swing state is now posted online at The Nation.
Please be kind enough to take a peek.

Let's for a moment speak the unspeakable. I can give myself license because I am a Jew.
Fact is, the Democrats' policy on Israel mirrors the Republican policy on Cuba. They both derive from primarily domestic political considerations and not from any measured analysis of foreign policy nor any deliberation on where our true national interests [...]

After a week of carnage in the Middle East, after the Israelis have begun to move ground troops into Lebanon, after a half-million people have been driven from their homes, and  after nothing but seven days of rhetorical pablum from the White House, we can now discern an emerging Bush administration policy: block all peace intitiatives [...]

Professor Tony Judt, who grew up in the bosom of Jewish-Israeli political life, had landed a Sunday punch in an essay published in Haaretz. (Judt, born in Lodon to Jewish parents went to Israel as a teenager and rose to the post of national secretary of the Labor Zionist youth movement Dror).Four decades later, he [...]

De-escalation? Who wrote that? Maybe there's still some hope but we're still climbing up the ladder and not down.
I'm pretty much taking the day off from blogging. Debit that to having a lot of other things to do today plus a certain level of disgust with some of the "dialogue." I'm not going to [...]

A worthy interview with Mark Perry suggests that the current military flare-up in the Middle East will soon tamp down with Israel and Hezollah pulling back from the brink.Let's hope so.
There's a lot of valuable nuance in Perry's analysis. He''s the director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum and is an old hand at brokering dialogue [...]