What a week...

Just a quick, observational post today...

If you're any follower of politics and the Jewish world, then you're already aware of a few blockbuster news items from the past few days.



1. First, we heard the news of Israel and Syria engaging in serious peace talks through Turkish mediators. Israelis, Jews in the Diaspora and others are all keenly aware that making peace with Syria could go a long way towards stabilizing the Middle East. Problem is, the thought of giving back the Golan Heights is a huge non-starter to most Israelis according to polls conducted on the question. But it may all go for naught if the second major news item has anything to say about it...



2. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is, as Ned Flanders would say, in a dilly of a pickle over these bribery charges. If the latest reports out of Israel are correct, he may not last much longer as P.M. As far as Israeli politics goes, this wouldn't be a huge event, but with many peace treaties and negotiations in mid-stride, the peace process (such as it is) will have a huge monkey wrench thrown into the works if he has to step down. And speaking of taking things down a notch...



3. Down south, past the longest friendly border in the world, our U.S. brothers and sisters are in the middle of massive electioneering. Everyone's courting everyone for votes and Jewish constituents aren't exempt. Recently, Democratic hopeful, Barack Obama, reportedly claimed his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz as part of the U.S. army. He later had to retract that statement and revise it to mean his great-uncle was there at a small outpost in Buchenwald to help oversee its liberation.

Now Barack, it's OK to invoke these family anecdotes. They're nice and can potentially make you more favourable in the eyes of Jewish voters. But when you make it into a fisherman's tale, your credibility gets lost somewhere along the way. Oh, and as the Republicans happily pointed out afterwards, it was the Red Army that liberated Auschwitz in 1945, not American forces. And while we're discussing liberation...




4. We at Heebonics would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the freeing of acclaimed filmmaker Sydney Pollack from his mortal coil. The director and producer of hits such as "Tootsie", "Out of Africa" and "The Firm" passed away on Monday at his home in Los Angeles from cancer. You can read his obit from the Los Angeles Times here.