In 2005 there was much sound a fury about a series of Danish Cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed. The bottom line was that several Danish cartoonists drew cartoons including the prophet as part of a newspaper's publicity stunt. Two of the cartoons were making fun of the newspaper's publicity stunt itself. Two were, arguably, based on racial stereotypes. At least one specifically addressed Western stereotypes of Muslims. In other words, the cartoons were a mixed bag of attitudes towards Islam and the West's attitudes towards Islam.

The overwhelming reaction in the Muslim world was of outrage, often with no real knowledge of the actual cartoons.

This controversy has come back. One of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, was targeted for death by Muslim terrorists. This plot was stopped by the Danish police. In response to the terrorist threat 11 Danish newspapers reprinted Kurt Westergaard's original cartoon...further pissing off Muslim nations.

Again...much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

There has really been a recent dovetailing of Israel related issues. From a Bulgarian friend quizing me on Israel to a discussion among NYC bloggers (offline and private, so none of your business) about Israel/Palestine, to some rather disturbingly anti-Israel diaries on Daily Kos with some outright anti-Semitic overtones. (Note: This statement in NO WAY implies an anti-Semitic bias of dKos in general. The opinions were those of particular individuals, not the community as a whole). And, of course, my recent writing about Jewish issues, including what seemed to be a not so well received piece on the depth and persistence of anti-Semitism historically.

In the context of all of this, I find an editorial that gets to the crux of one key issue in Israeli politics: the balancing of equality for Israeli Arabs with security of Israel as a whole. In an ideal world these two things would not need balancing. But the Middle East is not and never has been an ideal world even if you look back thousands of years.

This is from Abraham Foxman and Ken Jacobson, both of the Anti-Defamation League, and originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post on March 5, 2007:

John Lavelle did not die in vain. A few hours before his death, while at Wednesday’s Council candidate Manny Inamorato's Beekman Pub fundraiser, I learned Lavelle donated his organs with one of his kidneys saving the recipient’s life.

Unless prohibited by religious belief or medical condition, it’s a no brainer to donate organs postmortem. The former Staten Island political boss and legislator positively impacted people, even in death. We all can do likewise by joining organ donor lists.

My favorite organ donor story is that of JJ Greenberg, the son of the former US Holocaust Memorial chair. He died after being hit by a car while bicycling in Israel. His organs saved six people including a Palestinian in need of a liver.

Back in June, I think it was, my blogging about Bush's disastrous foreign policy failures enabling a rising Islamic Fundamentalist Caliphate, as I described it, got the attention of BBC radio. They invited me to participate in a call in program about the rise of Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia, which was my first 30 minutes of fame. I didn't really feel like I came off well on their show as it wasn't really a format I was comfortable with, but it sure was flattering to have my blogging noticed!

Since then I have continued to write about our increasing losses to Islamic fundamentalism and our failures to counter it. Most recently I wrote about the rise of fundamentalists in Bahrain. I criticize the Republicans for failing to back Clinton's attempts to stabilize Somalia and to stop al-Qaeda, instead chastising him for being "obsessed with al-Qaeda" as if that was a bad thing. I criticize Bush for putting the war against the terrorists who attacked us on the back burner in his rush to attack the two Muslim nations arguably most opposed to al-Qaeda: Iraq and Iran. By picking on these three groups, Bush has picked fights with three completely disparate parts of the Muslim world: secular Sunni, fundamentalist Sunni and fundamentalist Shi'ite. Attacking all three in essence confirms in the eyes of much of the world the accusation that Bush has declared a Crusade on all Islam.

At a time when extremists are increasingly dominating the situation in the Middle East, sometimes it is good to remember the efforts for PEACE between Palestine and Israel.

According to Guysen.Israël.News:

Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas met on Saturday evening in Jerusalem to renew their commitment to agreements signed previously. The two leaders also agreed to work to reach a political arrangement of two states based on the Road Map...Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas agreed on several points during their suprise meeting in Jerusalem on Saturday evening, according to Nabil Abu Rudeina, advisor to Abbas.

For those who want to help moderate Muslims and Jews achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East, what follows is something I wrote back in July that is just as important right now.

Israel, Palestine, Lebanon...all are nations that deserve full recognition and viability. Forget sides. Forget who started what. Forget borders. I am not aiming for a solution. I am aiming for the conditions that will allow a solution to be possible and lasting. I don't care, for the purposes of this effort, who committed what terrorist act or which government is the worse. I care about people, whatever their religion or culture, and I care that people will continue to die if something isn't done. Political solutions from the top have failed since 1948, devolving repeatedly into war. Time for bottom up efforts.

Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) is quoted on CNN.com:

"When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Quran in any way.

"The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.

"We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.

"I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped."

Does this idiot really think he's going to help his cause this way? Between W. no longer listening to his generals in the field (and General Abizaid is reportedly retiring this week) and other Republican figures making blatantly bigoted statements, they seem seriously committed to shooting themselves down.

In Bush's "Forever War" crusade against Islam, one of the nations he has touted as a strong ally has be Bahrain, the oil-rich nation that has long balanced Shiite and Sunni Islam in relative stability. Bush's failed foreign policy has destabilized huge swaths of the Middle East, creating conditions that I have been predicting are ripe for a rising, religious extremist caliphate, a united, fundamentalist Islamic movement that will rise from the Republican failures to dominate the Middle East for decades to come.

Muslim extremists are rising in Iraq, a nation that before our invasion was predominantly secular and modern. The Taliban and al-Qaeda is resurgent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, becoming powerful enough that Republican Senate FORMER-Majority Leader Bill Frist is talking of cooperating with the Taliban to save our asses in Afghanistan. Somalia has now been taken over by a new, Somalia Taliban.

This comes via Daily Kos.

Daddy Bush (you know, the one who actually was elected President) just got a whole heap of reality thrown at him by an unlikely audience. The Abu Dhabi World Leadership Summit is one of the biggest, most prestigious Muslim gatherings there is, held in one of the few remaining bastions of pro-US sentiment in the Arab world. And yet even here, even in one of the last places Muslims are willing to view our government as benign, our unelected president is despised with a passion that is stunning...at least to Daddy Bush.

If Daddy Bush didn't see this coming, he is almost as much of a fool as his son. From the NY Daily News (the NYC paper that is good only in comparison with the Post):

President Bush's father was forced into an emotional defense of his son yesterday in the Persian Gulf when an Arab audience launched a blistering surprise attack on his first-born.

"We do honor Americans, and I believe that they are highly respected in our country. However, we do not respect your son, and we do not respect what you are doing all over the world," college student Nevine Al Rumeisi told the former President at a leadership conference in the United Arab Emirates.

The problem with Bush's crusade on all Islam, as his policies seem to be, is that innocent Americans get their rights trampled both by the government and by other citizens who have been stirred into a frenzy of paranoia by Bush's fear mongering.

Salon.com reports the latest in nearly 5 years of innocent Muslim-Americans (and, occasionally, Sikhs mistaken for Muslims) being hassled and profiled as terrorists.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.

The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m., airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.

A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused.

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

Have you noticed that the decline of organized labor in our work force has been accompanied by a decline in the number of good jobs and -- especially among professional workers -- a rise in the numbers of free-lance, benefitless nomads (as well as a rightward lurch in our body politic)? Well, so has Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist, trouble-maker and author of Nickel & Dimed (being made into a movie?) and Bait and Switch -- both reportage about tough times working in America.

Unlike you and me, she decided to try to do something about it. With others, she's founded a proto-professionals union United Professionals . Even traditional unions, faced with declining membership and political power have recognized the need for new forms of organization. The AFL-CIO for example has set up Working America to give voice to workers without unions. Will these attempts succeed? If they do, they'll help us personally and change political power relations for the better.