The Gaza Attacks: “Israel carefully planned the attack to extract the highest possible price.”

UPDATE: Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have entered their fifth day. The Israeli cabinet has rejected a call for a cease fire. 
Amira Hass writes in Ha’aretz on the careful planning of these attacks. Hass covered Gaza and the West Bank for Ha’aretz for many years. She is currently a correspondent for Haaretz. Her understanding of Gaza’s neighborhoods adds an important insight into [...]

Niebuhr, Carter and Obama Understand History as “a larger realm of Mystery”

by James M. Wall      
Reinhold Niebuhr’s influence on former President Jimmy Carter has been evident throughout Carter’s political career. That influence is even more pronounced in Carter’s post-presidency.
Carter is a political realist who understands, and acts on, Niebuhr’s concept of the irony of history . William Dean, a retired faculty member at Denver’s Iliff School [...]

Rick Warren To Pray at Obama’s Inaugural? Was Otis Moss III Already Booked?

by James M. Wall                    
When word came that Barack Obama had selected Rick Warren to give the opening prayer at his inauguration, you had to wonder, was Otis Moss III already booked?
Warren has been a leading warrior in the culture wars that have divided the [...]

George Bush’s Legacy: A Deadly Manichean Mindset

By James M. Wall
Bill Moyers’ Journal interview with Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald, provides a valuable insight into the Bush legacy that is both wise and frightening. What Bush leaves behind, as Greenwald documents, is best described as a Manichean mindset, a simplistic and dangerous mental state which has spread like a disease to our media, the [...]

Obama Knows the Gaza Siege is Immoral Yet He Remains Silent

by James M. Wall
For more than a month, Israel has imposed a tightened  blockade over Gaza’s one million and a half residents.
Outside aid is forbidden which is why, on Monday, December 1, the Israeli navy blocked a Libyan ship carrying 3,000 tons of food and medical aid from entering Gaza, 
Israel’s attempt to clamp a media blackout on [...]

Were Bloggers Wrong to Block Brennan for CIA?

by James M. Wall 
When President-elect Obama rolled out his national security team at a press conference in Chicago Monday, there was no CIA director on stage. 
Until November 24, Barack Obama had John Brennan on a short list to become the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Brennan is co-chair of the Obama review team on [...]