Jonathan Freedland reports on the Israeli election and how attempts to reign in Sharon’s corruption actually helped him. “A fortnight or so ago, the PM [Sharon] was haemorrhaging in the polls amid allegations of undeclared, million-dollar foreign donations. He was under police investigation. To stop the slide, he gave a televised address. By common consent, it was a disaster, with Sharon rambling and aggressive. Halfway through, he was pulled off the air by order of a high court judge, for violating the election law which bars on-air politicking outside the official campaign broadcasts. Instantly, and curiously, the slide was halted. It turns out that the judge’s decision had helped Sharon, by confirming what many Likud voters have long believed: that the country’s institutions, including the judiciary, are still run by the same condescending, leftwing Ashkenazi elite of old.” Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Jonathan Freedland reports on the war…

“where the cold war against communism in Middle Europe brought America and Europe together, the “war against terrorism” in the Middle East is pulling them apart. The Soviet Union united the West, the Middle East divides it.” The New York Review of Books: Anti-Europeanism in America

“Mr Blair now finds himself perilously close to his nightmare scenario – sandwiched between a US administration bent on war and the rest of Europe either openly hostile to military action or passively resistant.” Bush people claim to have evidence that will justify war and will show it after weapons inspectors give their report on Monday. They call it the Adlai Stevenson moment. Blair needs an Adlai Stevenson moment. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The message from the Bush camp: ‘It’s war within weeks’

Anil facetiously deconstructs the US Declaration of Independence in the manner of a Glenn Reynolds rant against Berkeley liberalism. Read the comments, looks like the right lose to me. anil dash – archives