1. From a Dallas Morning News staff-ed on Ahmadinejad and Durban 2:
After all, giving the Holocaust-denying fruitcake Ahmadinejad a platform to lecture the world about racism is like inviting Bernie Madoff to headline a global conference on business ethics.
2. Haaretz writes that Hamas learned at least one lesson from the Gaza war — clothes make the man:
Israeli officials say Hamas military commanders have recognized that their militants' decision to take off their fatigues and don civilian clothing a few days into the fighting was a mistake. The Islamic group believes the decision damaged morale and was perceived by Gazans as indicative that they had lost control of the territory.
3. Does the road to Mideast peace run through Tehran, or does the road to resolving Iranian nukes run through Jerusalem? According to the Washington Post, the direction of the linkage depends on whether you ask Israeli or US officials:
U.S. officials are wary of linking the two issues and, if anything, would like to do the reverse of what Israel has proposed, by using progress in the Israeli-Palestinian talks to curb Iranian influence, which is wielded in the region through anti-Israeli organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas . . . .
While Israeli officials have long expressed concern about Iran, Netanyahu views the threat from Tehran as so acute that he is shaping Israel's policy toward the Palestinians around that issue — a shift in approach that effectively puts Palestinian statehood after resolution of a complicated regional and international issue.
