It is impossible to get Mumbai out of my mind. I keep thinking about two-year old, Moshe, sitting in his parents' blood, crying out to a mother and father who are gone forever.

It is hard to imagine how anyone can justify terror against children but many people do. In fact, fanatics of virtually every faith and nationality do indeed justify killing kids or leaving them orphans. It is sickening. Until humanity comes to the understanding that there is no justification - none, whatsoever - for killing children or making them orphans, we remain uncivilized.

Mumbai, of course, was no isolated case. Since the early twentieth century the slaughter of innocents has been considered a legitimate military tactic or, not much better, unavoidable collateral damage. The Arab-Israeli conflict has not yet fully descended into mass carnage (with the awful exceptions of the Hamas suicide bombings and massacres like Baruch Goldstein's Hebron slaughter) but, no doubt, that is where we are heading unless we begin treating the Arab-Israeli conflict with the urgency it warrants.

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The Mumbai terror attacks were appalling. That should go without saying.

But we all need to be on guard as the usual Muslim bashers go rushing to the barricades to indict Pakistan (with no evidence of its involvement) and Muslims in general.

Take a look at this garbage from the New Republic. Martin Peretz is practically wetting his pants in excitement at the possibility that Mumbai can be used against....the Palestinians.

The Israeli right (in Israel and here) strongly supports, and works with, the Hindu/ BJP right in India on the predictable grounds that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. There will be a joint effort to blame Islam as a civilization for this horror. As for Pakistan, it could be implicated but so far it hasn't been.

So let's not fall for propaganda. The facts are bad enough.

Gershom Gorenberg, of the American Prospect, takes on the developing conventional wisdom to pursue Israeli-Syrian peace before moving to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I'm with Gorenberg. An Israeli-Syrian agreement would be a good thing. But it would not resolve the bleeding heart that is at the core of the Middle East conflict and America's problems in the Muslim world: the Palestinian issue.

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Only in America.

Steve Rosen, the AIPAC official who was dismissed by the organization after being indicted for espionage, is leading the charge against the appointment of General James L. Jones as President Obama's National Security Adviser. Rosen says that Jones is too strenuous in opposition to the occupation of the West Bank (Jones has said that he would consider replacing IDF occupation forces with NATO troops as an interim step to separate Israelis and Palestinians). And Rosen has been calling reporters all over town to badmouth Jones.

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Lilly Rivlin, an Israeli journalist, filmmaker and peace activist spoke at the same conference I did this past weekend.

Rivlin was asked what she thought about Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. The questioner was worried about Hillary's closeness to the neocons.

Rivlin responded that Clinton will be working for Obama and that it's his policies that will carry the day. But then she added how important she thinks it is that Clinton is a woman.

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I can hardly think of anyone I'd rather have our new President talking to about foreign policy than Brent Scowcroft. Here is a shorthand way to understand Scowcroft's foreign policy views.

Take everything you hate about the neocons and think "exact opposite" and you have Scowcroft. He was against the Iraq war. Opposes confrontation with Iran. And wants to use every resource at our command to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and implement the two-state solution NOW.

And he has Obama's ear.

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I spoke at a conference in New York yesterday that was pretty amazing. It was called "Jews United Against the War" and was sponsored by Workmen's Circle, the Shalom Center and Jewish Currents.

Anyway, take a look at this terrific piece by Phil Weiss and especially about Liz Holtzman's role. For you youngsters, Liz Holtzman came within 80,000 votes of becoming New York's most progressive Senator ever. She lost due to a third party effort designed to draw enough votes from Holtzman so that a real progressive never made it to the Senate from New York. She was defeated by Al D'Amato (Likud-NY).

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The Palestinian Authority, in a brilliant display of public relations, ran Hebrew-language ads this week, in Israel's four major newspapers, endorsing the Arab Peace Initiative (formerly known as the Saudi plan) and calling on Israelis to support it, too. The Palestinian Authority is also urging President-elect Barack Obama to put his prestige behind the initiative as a critical first step to help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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I'm still trying to figure this one out. I'm in the "one the one hand, on the other hand" mode.

But, like Josh, I'm surprised he'd ask her and surprised she wants it.

What's the deal?

The election of Barack Obama had the effect of prying open a window in a stale room. You can breathe again.

Not everybody, of course. The neoconservatives are in shock. Suddenly they have no administration in Washington. The White House is enemy territory, soon to be staffed by people who do not see the world in black and white.

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I've died and gone to heaven. The chief-of-staff of America's next President has apologized for something his father -- not him, mind you -- said about Arabs.

""From the fullness of my heart, I personally apologize on behalf of my family and me. These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family," Rahm said.

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I fear that I might have bought into the story that Israelis favored the other guy

It turns out that the Israelis who preferred McCain were Americans who emigrated to Israel. They speak decent English so they get interviewed a lot.

But they are as representative of Israel as Israelis in Los Angeles are of America. The newspaper headlines depicted here are from Israel's largest circulation newspapers last Wednesday. I love the headlines "Obama: The Hope, "He Has a Dream." Etc.

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It's Veterans Day and I'm not thinking about the relatives who died in WW2 or served In Vietnam. I'm letting one young Vermonter, who I never met, stand in for the more than 4000 who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He wasn't from my family. Just everybody's.

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They had a long run. Rush and Malkin and Lucianne and Drudge and Free Republic and those Littlle Green Footballs.

But it's over. The Obama Presidency will produce untold millions for these guys because frustration and hate is something you can take to the bank -- but with no branch of government under their control, they have been rendered powerless. Who will pay attention when some irrelevant rightist hack like Eric Cantor (R-VA) or Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) rushes to the House floor to cite a Michael Savage diatribe? Nobody.

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In theory I should not be posting a tribute to J Street's Election Day triumph. I work for Israel Policy Forum and, on paper, J Street is the competition.

But only on paper. Israel Policy Forum works to change US Middle East policy through our publications and advocacy work. (My IPF Friday, for instance, is the most widely circulated English language publication on the Middle East in the world). Click to subscribe for FREE). We regularly meet with Senators, House Members and White House and State Department officials to inform them about what is really happening in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. In private, I'd say 90-95% of legislators agree with us. Our goal is to turn private support (and resentment of the lobby's unrelenting pressure) into public support and major policy change.

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