Chuck Todd explains why the Obama camp is cheering today…
When President Bush — thousands of miles away in Israel — decided to fire his thinly veiled shot at Obama yesterday, it was a giant gift to the Illinois senator and his campaign.
Why?
One, it essentially kept Clinton on the sidelines just two days after [...]

(UPDATE: Go here to read how McCain’s statement was taken out of context. In other words, this post was based on a false report and should be read as such, even though I still think McCain raising money off of Hamas’ “endorsement” of Obama is hacky at best.)
As most of you know by now, Hamas [...]

Well, that didn’t take long…
This is what it says:
“Barack Obama’s foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders. Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said, ‘We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America.’”
Do note that Obama condemned [...]

I don’t usually link to content from the Huffington Post, but you have to see this piece about the Christians United For Israel conference. These people want Armageddon, as DeLay plainly states in this video, and Israel is the lynchpin. So their support for Israel is pretty much solely predicated on the fact that Israel [...]

Hamas has staged a bloody takeover of the government and now has complete control.
A failure of the Bush Doctrine? Some are saying so…
After his reelection in 2004, Bush said he would use his “political capital” to help create a Palestinian state by the end of his second term. In his final 18 months as president, [...]

There was a post earlier about Hezbollah’s transmigration to the Americas. I’m glad to see mention of Hezbollah in major news sources (NBC) but of course am saddened and worried by the news of Hezbollah’s spread. The news isn’t new of course, they have had operatives in South America for a while now and even [...]

I’ve been noticing signs of the approaching Apocalypse lately.
Yesterday, for instance, CNN devoted an hour of prime-time programming to…. Larry King and Dr. Phil dissecting the Alec Baldwin voicemail brouhaha.
Today, though, the earth really shifted. I find myself agreeing — in substance, if not in tone — with the conservative whackjobs Little Green Footballs.
They [...]

It took me awhile, but I’ve read the entire ISG report.
My detailed thoughts are over at Midtopia. Here at Donklephant I’ll do the executive summary.
There’s nothing earth-shattering in their analysis of the current situation, and nothing paradigm-shifting in their proposed solutions. But both are very solid, very reasonable. I came away with two impressions:
1. The [...]

Yesterday Israel lifted its air blockade of Lebanon. Today, it lifted its naval blockade.
Israel turned over monitoring of Lebanon’s coast to Italian naval vessels, who “will continue to enforce the international embargo against the supply of armaments to Hezbollah,” Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.
It also announced it would withdraw completely from Lebanon within two [...]

You know, it’s bad enough that my birthday falls the day after Sept. 11; talk about a buzzkiller.
Now there’s this:
Yisrayl Hawkins, well known Bible scholar and author, reports that the Bible predicts the exact date and the location that nuclear war will begin. Hawkins states that the current crisis in the Middle East will go [...]

I never defend the UN, but I have in the past defended the French. And I had hopes for Condoleezza Rice.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 17 — France has rebuffed U.N. pleas to make a major contribution to a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, setting back international efforts to send a credible military force to the region [...]

In 1948, Israel repelled the attacks of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Transjordan. In the Six Days War Israel used military force to stop a planned Egyptian attack and then defeated Syria, Iraq and Jordan when those nations launched their own attacks. During the Yom Kippur War, Israel again repelled attacks by Egypt and Syria.
Every [...]

William Shawcross [?!] has the last word on the now tremulously silenced Israel-Hezbollah war:
Civilian deaths in Lebanon are utterly tragic. But if you watched only British television, particularly the BBC, you would be hard-pressed to understand that Israel has been forced into a war for its survival, one in which Iran has empowered its proxy, [...]

A revised US-France ceasefire proposal has been submitted to the UN Security Council. A vote is expected later today.
It looks pretty good, to my mind.
sources close to the negotiations said the deal would create a 400-square-mile zone inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah militia would be excluded.
Under the draft resolution, the number of U.N. troops in [...]

I’ve avoided writing about the Israel-Hezbollah conflict for weeks, because when I finally did tackle it I wanted to do it right. I didn’t want to simply assess blame — as with anything in the Middle East, there’s plenty to go around. I didn’t want simply to take sides — our interests are not fully [...]

With the recent crisis going on in the Middle East, it might be important to talk about some Christians who are involved in the issues facing the region and how their views might be a detriment to finding a peaceful and just solution. This post is about a movement called “Christian Zionism.”
What is Christian [...]

Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as their patrons, Iran and Syria, are in the vanguard of a relentless Islamist-jihadist march that challenges human values on a global scale, from Indonesia to Iraq, Lebanon to Palestine, and as far away as Chechnya and the “Mad Max” land of Somalia. The jihadists’ goal is reversing a 200-year [...]

Bush and Blair call for a cease fire. Remember me writing about the possibility that at some point we’d have to play the role of the buddy who pulls you out of a bar fight and lets you save face? My guess is that’s what’s happening here. I suspect the Israelis, having waffled on dealing [...]

Ayman al-Zawahri has issued a new video calling on Muslims to rise up and defeat all those who are aligned with Western civilization. Clearly, al-Qaida sees the turmoil in the Middle East as an opportunity to recruit new members…and by portraying the struggle as a religious war they are much more likely to be successful. [...]

Want to know what I think about the current conflict in the Middle East? Go over to NeoMugwump.