The Dish

Bruce Hoffman surveys the Israeli experience and asks what they can tell us about how to cope.

With a fever.

A reader emails to show a contrast between al Jazeera’s coverage of the latest atrocity committed by the insurgents in Iraq, and the New York Times’. Al Jazeera’s is tougher on the terrorists! Start with the photos, here and here. AJ also included this devastating quote:

Hassan Muhammad, whose 13-year-old son Alaa also died, said: “Why do they attack our children? They just destroyed one US Humvee, but they killed dozens of our children. What sort of a resistance is this? It’s a crime.”

I’m not criticizing the NYT’s coverage as such. It was fine, if not as graphic as al-Jazeera. But I’m encouraged that al Jazeera is reporting on the popular backlash to terror. Isn’t that a good sign?

“Even though I’m a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.” – president George H.W. Bush, April 26, 1999.

An obviously non-procreative couple gets married in Britain. Worse: “Simon is gifted with the organ.” I anticipate condemnation from Maggie Gallagher, Stanley Kurtz, and Pope Benedict XVI.

Whenever I point out the excrescences of Jerry Falwell on the far right, I am routinely told that he is no longer a member of the religious right in good standing, that he is now a fringe character, that he has no real ties to the Bush administration, that his comments blaming 9/11 on gays and women in America made him persona non grata, and on and on. So why did the White House call Falwell for input on a judicial nominee for the Supreme Court? Just asking.

More nuttiness from the new Vatican.

I recently pointed out a glaring error in a recent Molly Ivins column. To her credit, she has now corrected herself and apologized:

This is a horror. In a column written June 28, I asserted that more Iraqis (civilians) had now been killed in this war than had been killed by Saddam Hussein over his 24-year rule. WRONG. Really, really wrong.

Good for her.

He could be France’s pro-market, pro-U.S. salvation. A new profile is up at Foreign Policy (you have to register but it’s free).

I’d say it would be prudent for all journalists to be very careful in speculating about the Rove-Plame thingy. We don’t know enough to know anything for sure. One of the first casualties of the impulse to jump to conclusions is Bob Kuttner. (I can’t believe I beat Mickey to this. I guess he’s been too busy covering the London massacres.)