[It's not the revolution -- we're still below zero, without even cement for reconstruction coming in -- but these two developments are slightly heartening. Links in original. See esp. the Haaretz link for the John Kerry pasta anecdote.]
http://www.wowowow.com/post/hillary-clinton-angry-jewish-israel-gaza-222225
February 26, 2009 Women on the Web
Clinton's Gaza Insistence Angers Pro-Israel Jewish Leaders
Hillary Clinton hasn't been on the job as the nation's top diplomat
for long, but she's already taking some flack for her job
performance. And by a longtime ally: Jewish groups.
New York Jewish leaders like New York Daily News publisher Mort
Zuckerman aren't too happy about the pressure the secretary of state
has been putting on Israel and say she shouldn't be too quick to
help Hamas.
"I liked her a lot more as a senator from New York," Assemblyman Dov
Hikind, D-Brooklyn, told CBS News. "Now, I wonder as I used to
wonder who the real Hillary Clinton is."
So, what are they so upset about? Well, not only will Clinton soon
announce that the States will give the Palestinians $900 million in
aid, but this week she has reportedly been chiding Israel for not
getting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip fast enough. Israeli
newspaper Haaretz reports that senior Clinton aides say the issue
will be highly contested on the secretary's trip to Israel next
Tuesday.
Atlantic Monthly's Jeffrey Goldberg, meanwhile, has a message to
those Hillary naysayers: chill out.
Do I have to point out that this doesn't make her George
Galloway? I understand Israel's hesitations here -- it has a
kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit, in Gaza ... I have not a single
doubt that Hillary Clinton is working assiduously to free Shalit,
and working assiduously to marginalize Hamas in other ways.
On a related note, rival Palestinian political parties Hamas and
Fatah announced today that, after 20 months of fighting, they're
going to form committees to establish a unity government.