From the Israeli perspective, the situation is dire. Sharon must have seen the writings on his wall and perhaps the vision finally felled the big man: the polyglot Zionist vision that found a reality in Israel is unsustainable in its present form and function. Something has to give, but all options appear to be open, including accelerating the pace of the creeping genocide in Palestine. Or perhaps Iran truly represents the next step from Iraq.

Like chickens in need of a rooster, neocons perched on their proverbial eggs during the Clinton administration’s efforts to promote Middle East peace. They had an omelet recipe, and they needed an emasculated rooster to break some eggs and combine them with hallowed ingredients, like the state of Israel’s continued hegemony – a necessary component for protecting the Israeli governance while it abuses human rights, abrogates international laws, and snubs common decency. A righteous puck, George “Dubya” Bush, could not have made a better evangelist for the state of Israel’s supremacy, crowing the virtues of supporting a mass murdering Israeli Prime Minister whom he crowned as his teacher. And thus red becomes the color of the Middle East at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It’s very easy when national conscience can be defined by events like Nine Eleven.

Coretta Scott King died on Monday January 30, 2006. Having lived a meaningful life, fighting for racial inconsequence, she died at the ripe age of 78.

On Wednesday February 1, 2006, Donovan McNabb, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, took offense at being overshot in comparison to one of American Football’s great quarterbacks, Bret Favre, on account of Favre’s skin color! McNabb described the offense as “black-on-black crime,” referring to Terrel Owens who made the comment of how the Eagles would have been better served by Favre instead of McNabb.

McNabb would have preferred a comparison to another black quarterback: “Michael Vick or Daunte Culpepper or Steve McNair or Byron Leftwich”.

Oh, well, there’s always the nuclear option. It will definitely silence my critics, and I will ultimately get my way, one way or the other.

Brady recognizes and respects both the business and the marketing aspects of the professional sport he plays. I think Brady recognizes that his success is dependant on more than his throwing arm and his swift legs. His relatively modest acceptance of a reduced contract, for example, solidifies his image as a selfless leader among his teammates, and that’s priceless for any Visa commercial in which he is featured. An effective leader, whether in business, politics, or sports, cannot even be perceived to have a selfish agenda. Vick, on the other hand, has made it quite clear that money is his most important motivation, and by that admission he loses much of the leadership qualities that enabled Brady to lead a team to three Super Bowls in this decade, proclaiming a new dynasty in the business of professional American football.

Rabbi Marder, however, pulls no punches in describing criticism of Israel’s role in the US invasion of Iraq as anti-Semitism. It appears that only a Zionist costume, tailored to fit Israel’s tactics along its strategic designs, patterns acceptable criticism of Israel. It therefore shouldn’t be surprising that the knee-jerk tendency to clothe critics of Israel with a latent desire to destroy the Jewish state will continue to mutate and stifle most reasoned analyses of the subject. Israel has historically followed a strategy of territorial expansions and tactical consolidations that has allowed concessions at a net territorial gain, giving Israel the appearance of compromise in the face of intransigence, and Israel’s present strategy explicitly affirms that trend. Thus substantive criticism of Israel’s policies is now, as has been, equated with extremism in the face of Israel’s fashionably manufactured moderation.

Keeping in mind that Christians all over the world explain God’s Will in their belief that all Arabs are descended from Ishmael, elder son of Abraham, the Middle Eastern conflicts can be described as extreme sibling rivalries that are also egged on by distant cousins. Crusading Christians have thus widened the scope of Middle Eastern divisions. The prevalent din of opposing divine interpretations consequently allows suppressive brutality to emerge as the clearest and most consistent truth in most parts of the Middle East, proving divinity’s inadequacy for temporal governance.