When this presidential campaign got off to a start, all anyone could talk about was Iraq.

Now, as the race winds down, the campaigns seem to be spending more time talking about the Palestinians, an often-marginalized group that has played a surprisingly prominent role in the election.

Hamas political aide Ahmed Yousef kicked things off in April by expressing support for Obama.

That prompted a fund raising pitch from McCain who plainly stated: "If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly."

Then came the unusual campaign of Ibrahim Abu Jayab, a 24-year-old Gaza City resident who uses Skype to cold-call US voters and ask them to vote for Obama.

"I'm Ibrahim Abu Jayab from Gaza Strip," he said in one call, according to the AP. "I support the Senator Obama from Gaza Strip. I think the Senator Obama achieve the peace in the world and in my area. For the peace, please elect Senator Obama. Thank you very much."

(The whole idea of Palestinians with bad English calling US voters from Gaza must give Obama campaign officials serious indigestion...)

You can watch Ibrahim in action in this clip from last March:

Now, in the waning days of the campaign, McCain is using a six-month-old Los Angeles Times story to try and question Obama's relationship with Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi.

The story notes that Obama spoke at a farewell party when Khalidi left the University of Chicago for a new teaching job at Columbia University in New York.

The LAT article notes that several speakers at the party made critical comments about Israel (with one comparing Jewish settlers in the West Bank to Osama Bin Laden, for instance).

When he spoke at the party, Obama urged people to find common ground.

Even so, McCain is waging a last-minute campaign to force the LAT to release the full video of the event.

(The LAT said it won't show the tape because it made a promise to the source not to release the video.)

As McCain pressed the attack, it came out that a pro-democracy group McCain chaired gave at least a half million dollars to a Palestinian group Khalidi helped oversee.

The group, IRI, is trying to distance itself from the donations and suggesting it was all a mistake.

But why should people be afraid of Rashid Khalidi?

The issue is being pushed most aggressively by conservative National Review writers who note that Khalidi has compared Israel's policies to South African apartheid (a politically-charged analogy also pushed by former President Carter), the he has voiced support for a "one state solution" (an idea again gaining credence among Palestinians who fear a two-state solution is no longer possible), and that he helped advise Arafat during peace talks.

Sarah Palin is pushing the notion that Khalidi was a spokesperson for the PLO (a group that Palin inaccurately refers to as the Palestinian Liberation Organization as opposed to the Palestine Liberation Organization).

So it seems worth mentioning that Mahmoud Abbas, the current PA president who meets with Bush and Israeli leaders, is chairman of the PLO, that Israel now conducts full, open peace talks with the PLO, and that Arafat (after considerable prodding in 1993) and the PLO explicitly recognize Israel's right to exist.

"Rashid Khalidi is an American academic of extraordinary ability and sharp insights," Scott Horton writes on his Harper's Magazine blog. "He is also deeply committed to stemming violence in the Middle East, promoting a culture that embraces human rights as a fundamental notion, and building democratic societies. In a sense, Khalidi’s formula for solving the Middle East crisis has not been radically different from George W. Bush’s: both believe in American values and approaches."

These are tough days for Israeli PM Ehud Olmert.

Police say the political corruption investigation that forced Olmert to announce his resignation in July could lead to an indictment within days.

Polls show Olmert's Kadima Party facing a tough fight to retain power in elections to be held on Feb. 10th.

And now Olmert's older brother is defecting and running against the Kadima candidate for a city council seat in Rehovot. And the Kadima candidate happens to be his own son.

As Maariv reports this week, Amram Olmert, Ehud's eldest brother, left Kadima and is challenging his son, Yair, for a city council seat.

So far, both men are being generally diplomatic about the family feud.

"I am a member of Kadima and a candidate for the next Knesset and therefore preferred party loyalty," Yair told Maariv. "My father is a talented and wonderful man, I am sure he could handle the education portfolio wonderfully, but in the voting booth I will not vote for him."

"Yair is a member of Kadima, and in his public activities continues to support it and working in its favor," Amram said. "As his father, I wish him success. If he believes supporting Kadima will help him I wish him success."

(Article translation courtesty of McClatchy special correspondent Cliff Churgin.)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joined President Shimon Peres  in swiftly apologizing to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after right-wing Israeli lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman said the Egyptian leader could "go to hell" for not visiting Israel more than one.

Lieberman, who the AP story calls "one of Israel's most divisive politicians," made the stinging comment today on the floor of the Israeli parliament.

"If he wants to speak with us then let him come over here," said Lieberman. "If he doesn't want to come, then he can go to hell."

(The Reuters translation has Lieberman saying "get lost" instead of "go to hell.")

The comments sparked unusually swift and public apologies from Olmert and Peres.

Both Israeli leaders called Mubarak to personally apologize.

"I want to make clear that we have the highest respect for President Mubarak," Peres said in a special video statement. "He is a really stable leader for peace in the Middle East."

Olmert called Lieberman's comments "unnecessary and damaging."

Mubarak's government has been playing a central role in negotiations between Israel and Hamas over Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held by Gaza militants for more than two years.

It's not entirely clear why Olmert and Peres felt the need to be swift, public and adamant in denouncing Lieberman's remarks. Though the fact that they did suggests that there may be more going on behind-the-scenes to either get talks over Shalit going again or make some progress on regional peace talks...

Sure, President Bill Clinton knew how to rock the house with his saxophone.

And Boris Yeltsin used to get his groove on now-and-again on the campaign trail.

But it is a little known fact that 85-year-old Israeli President Shimon Peres is a closet rock star. (And you thought he just palled around with Madonna...)

OK, maybe Peres is not a rock star quite yet, but he is a songwriter

This year, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Peres Center for Peace, Italian opera tenor Andrea Bocelli joined Israeli teen pop star Liel Kolet in performing the Israeli president's latest song, "Ray of Hope."

Earlier this year, Peres posted the words to "Ray of Hope" on a songwriting Web site called Songweavers and encouraged musicians around the world to write the music to accompany his lyrics.

As David Brinn writes today in The Jerusalem Post, Kolet, 19, said that she was so inspired by the words when she read them that she produced the melody in an hour.

Here's the president's song, in full:

Ray of Hope

By President Shimon Peres

Oh my lord, it's time to pray.

When a new sun shines, let's make hay.

So save my land from desert stay,

call the oceans salt to melt away...

And bless the streams with love's sway.

Provide my foe and friend a bloodless day.

Invite boys and girls for peace to pray,

then send a Ray of Hope

for a new way.

Don't expect a Grammy nomination, but if Al Gore can win an Oscar, nothing's out of the question.

Kolet made something of a name for herself in 2003 when she invited Clinton on stage to sing John Lennon's "Imagine" at an 80th birthday gala for Peres.

That you can see here:

The stadium was packed hours before kick-off. Those unable to squeeze into the 7,000-seat stadium climbed onto the rooftops of adjacent apartment buildings draped with Palestinian flags. Even before kickoff, families sent confetti drifting down onto the soccer field in celebration.

Scores of Palestinian shabab pressed against the fence to get a look at their team taking to the field for the first time. Dozens more scrambled atop a metal warehouse roof overlooking the game.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was there to watch. Sitting next to him was the American consul general and, next to him, bizarrely enough, Israeli-Russian tycoon Arkadi Gaydamak, the man once dubbed "the Ross Perot of Israel," and, not coincidentally, a long shot candidate for Jerusalem mayor (there, some observers cynically suggested, trying to win the "Arab vote").

The stadium crowd, made up mostly of young Palestinian men, had come to be part of history:

They were here to be part of the first internationally-blessed home Palestinian soccer game.

When the Palestinian national team took to their new home field on Sunday night, the stadium broke out in an euphoric celebration of chants, cheers, drumming and screams.

"Watch. Look. See what Palestine is going to do," they chanted in unison.

And (translated very liberally): "From the north, to the south, Palestine shakes the ground."

"We have to defend our flag," Palestinian coach Izzat Hamza said before kick-off.

The Palestinian players made a circle at center field, dropped to their knees in prayer, kissed the turf and launched a new era in Palestinian sports. (You can see a nice photo of the scene here.)

Palestinian forward Ahmed Kashkash got the team's new era off to a jubilant start by scoring first with a dramatic goal that set off a wild round of celebration in the stands.

The Palestinian team held the lead until early in the second half when Jordan evened the score, which set off predictable fan grumbling.

From then on, the Palestinian team adopted the long-established soccer fan role of coaching the team from the stands.

"Gogogogogo!" fans shouted at Palestinian players who failed to turn opportunities into goals.

Still, it seemed somehow fitting that the game against Jordan ended in a 1-1 draw.

Palestine earned the honor of scoring first in their first official FIFA home game in the West Bank. But both Middle East teams retained their honor with a status-quo 1-1 tie.

The game was also remarkable for its timeliness: Getting things to start on time in the West Bank is virtually impossible, so the on-time 5:30 p.m. kickoff was a triumph for the Palestinian Authority all on its own.

The match was also a showcase of sorts for another team on the field: The Palestinian security forces.

Dozens of Palestinian police, decked out in new riot gear, stood in formation in one corner of the field.

The US, EU, Jordan and other outside donors are steadily working to train and equip the Palestinian security forces, which continue to expand their areas of operation. (Just this weekend, Palestinian security forces were deployed in Hebron.)

Strutting around on the pitch was the hero of the day: Jibril Rajoub, the longtime security adviser to Yasser Arafat who has set aside his military career to lead the Palestinian Soccer Association that succeeded in refurbishing the stadium to international standards, paving the way for the first official FIFA home game.

OK, the Palestinian team may rank 180th in the world, but they have at least launched their road to the FIFA World Cup with a feisty home game.

Now the big question remains: Which will come first? A Palestinian FIFA World Cup or an internationally-blessed independent Palestinian state?

Israeli author David Grossman has been called the country's "moral conscience."

And, in a new interview in The Sun Magazine, a literary monthly magazine based in North Carolina, Grossman succeeds in summing up the current state of Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a succinct 117 words:

"We are talking about two peoples so heavily damaged and distorted by past and present traumas that they can no longer identify what their real interests are. And quite often they act against those interests just to cause some damage to the enemy. Both peoples need a long and deep process of recovery, and this recovery will not start until they have identities that are separate and not interwoven, identities that allow each other just to be and to start to build up their own nation without occupation, terror, or hatred. Only then will both of them start to recover and lead the lives that they deserve to live and have been deprived of for so long."

There you go. That's all you need to read about the state of the conflict.

The interview, "My Enemy, My Brother," conducted by my friend Anna Blackshaw, delves deeply into the open wounds, the prospects (or lack thereof) for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, and the role of literature in such a dysfunctional conflict.

Only part of the interview is on-line, and there are a couple of other interesting reflections from Grossman worth excerpting here for those unable to get The Sun:

"As the world shrinks, we feel the need to minimize the surface of our soul that comes into contact with its harshness, because if we feel more, we suffer more. It is much more comfortable to entrench ourselves in the official position that we are the victims, that we are right and they are wrong, that they want only to kill us and will always try to kill us. Reality then adjusts to this position.

"Since language is an extension of your soul, if you close the doors of your soul, the language with which you describe reality becomes limited and superficial, and you surrender to stereotypes and prejudices... The mass media tempt people to think in a narrow, banal way. Living under threat, you feel how language narrows and reduces itself, how people talk in cliches. People repeat the same slogans because they don't have the energy to be articulate, to separate reality into its nuances and subtleties."

Anna also asks Grossman what he would say to American Jews "who are proud of their heritage but opposed to Israeli government policy."

"I see no contradiction," Grossman replied. "For Jews in the United States, Israel is not just another country. It is a country that extends itself towards them. Even if they are loyal American citizens, they have some expectations of Israel; they have some wishes. If they are silent, if they do not make their opinions heard here, Israel will believe that all Jewish Americans support Israel's occupation of Palestine. If U.S. Jews continue to support the megalomaniacal hallucinations of Israel and to finance the occupation and allow only the right-wingers in American Jewry to express their opinions, they actually support the deterioration of Israel. I am sure they do not want to do that. It is important that Jewish Americans who oppose the occupation communicate their point of view here, because we mainly hear from right-wingers, who are much more vocal and sure of themselves."

The-artist-formerly-known-as-Cat Stevens hasn't had the best luck flying to the US and Israel.

The "Peace Train" musician who converted to Islam in 1977 and changed his name to Yusuf Islam has been twice banned from Israel (most recently in 2000) and barred from entering the US in 2004 because his name was on a "no fly" list.

(Islam has been accused of giving money Hamas groups that fund terrorism. Islam denies "knowingly" giving money to support violence and says he once collected money for a Muslim charity that may have been working with Hamas...)

So it must have seemed a bit like Lucy putting the football down for Charlie Brown to kick when Islam was invited to Israel to take part in a special 10th birthday celebration for the Shimon Peres Center for Peace.

Islam was skeptical. Israelis informed him that it would be no problem! After all, he was being invited by the president of Israel!

Well, as you can read over at Israelity Bites, it turns out it was too good to be true.

According to production officials, Peres withdrew the invitation to Islam after realizing what a mess it could create.

So much for that "Peace Train."

Meanwhile, the folks over at "Babylon & Beyond" are reporting that Hamas leaders in Tehran have declared cyber-war on Israel by offering $2,000 to any hacker that can take down a Zionist web-site.

"Babylon & Beyond" reports that the contest may be a bit of payback:

"A group of Israeli hackers recently boasted of breaking into a Hamas website and uploading the Israeli national anthem onto it. Hamas accused Israelis of breaking into one of their websites some years ago and diverting traffic to a pornography site, called 'Hot Motel Horny Sex Sluts.'"

Some people have no sense of humor...

Wow.

They don't admit it, but researchers at The Gallup Poll have unearthed solid evidence that comedian Sarah Silverman's Great Schlep campaign is bearing fruit.

OK, media reports suggest that Silverman's comedic crusade to convince young Jewish-Americans to flood Florida and persuade their grandparents to vote for Obama has been proceeding, as The New York Times reported, "with the pace of a nice brisket."

The New York Times reported that 100 or so folks had been to Florida to take part in the first days of the crusade.

But you know you can't trust the media elite.

Especially when there are solid numbers to refute those haters.

Which brings us to this Gallup Poll that shows Obama winning nearly three-quarters of the Jewish vote.

Obama edges McCain by a 3-to-1 margin, with the GOP nominee winning support of only 22 percent of Jewish voters.

That puts Obama on pace to secure the same amount of support from Jewish voters that Kerry-Edwards got in 2004 and nearly as much backing as Gore-Lieberman got in 2000.

Obama's support from Jewish voters has grown by 12 percentage points over the last four months, while McCain's has fallen by nine percentage points.

The numbers suggest that the inflammatory attempts by McCain-Palin to portray Obama as a terrorist sympathizer or closet Muslim have not helped the GOP ticket, at least among Jewish voters.

So where does "The Great Schlep" come in?

A close reading of the numbers shows Obama getting more support from Jewish voters over the age of 55 (74 percent) than under the age of 35 (67 percent).

In other words: Jewish grandparents are more likely to support Obama than their grandchildren.

Hmm. Wait a minute...

If the younger Jews are more likely to vote for McCain than their grandparents, doesn't that mean that they wouldn't try to convince their grandparents to vote for Obama?

Damn.

Maybe "The Great Schlep" isn't working.

But it certainly is interesting that Jewish voters under the age of 34 are more conservative than their parents and grandparents...

As expected, al-Qaeda has launched its "October Surprise" in an attempt to influence the outcome of the US presidential election: Members are endorsing John McCain.

Surprise!

In a story headlined "On al-Qaeda web sites, joy over U.S. crisis, support for McCain," The Washington Post reports that some militant supporters say a vote for McCain would be better for Al-Qaeda.

One person on a password-protected site argued that al-Qaeda has lured the US into a trap that has "exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy." The writer then suggested that a new attack would turn voters towards the Republican candidate.

"It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda," said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. "Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America."

Then, as our colleagues over at Nukes & Spooks reported, the McCain campaign unloaded on The Washington Post and accused the newspaper of cherry-picking postings from the site to make its point.

In a special teleconference with reporters that you can listen to here, the McCain campaign went on to suggest that, if terrorists support anyone, they support Obama.

In the conference call, former CIA director James Woolsey (who served under Clinton) argues that al-Qaeda may be trying to use reverse-psychology to get Americans to vote for Obama.

"This individual knows that the endorsement of people like him is a kiss of death, figuratively and literally," Woolsey says in the call. "So it seems to me it's pretty clear that by making this statement that he wants, that it would be a good thing for McCain to be President, he is clearly trying to damage John McCain, not speaking from his heart."

So, by endorsing McCain, al-Qaeda was really endorsing Obama.

Get it? Those crafty terrorists are using psy-ops on the American voter!

But... wait a minute!

What if, by endorsing McCain, al-Qaeda knew that American voters would think that they were really backing Obama, prompting people to vote for McCain?

Maybe it is double-reverse psy-ops! Maybe they really do want Americans to vote for McCain!

Damn those terrorists!

And, if the terrorists are using reverse-psychology, is that what Hamas political aide Ahmed Yousef was doing in May when he voiced support for Obama?

Does Hamas really want American voters to support McCain?

Was Yousef using his nefarious Hamas mind-trickery?

Of course, McCain had no trouble at the time using Yousef's words to his advantage.

"If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly," McCain said back then.

The whole thing reminds one of the scene in The Princess Bride where the masked hero challenges one of the Bad Guys to a battle of wits. The masked man puts poison in a glass of wine and challenges him to decide which one.

The Bad Guy goes through some tortured mental gymnastics and tries his own reverse-tricks to figure out which one has the poison. Unfortunately for the Bad Guy, the masked hero has put poison in both cups!

You can watch the absurd drama unfold below.

AND, IN AN UPDATE: It turns out that the folks over at Sadly, No! have taken this to a whole-different level and turned the movie scene below into a McCain-Obama campaign showdown.

You can read their revised script here.

Sadly, No! bills itself as a "progressive humor site" based in Germany, so you can guess which candidate is the masked hero and which one is the Bad Guy...

Here's the original:

As reported earlier this week, Iran has arrested suspected spy pigeons that may have been the second wave of animal agents sent in after 14 spy squirrels were caught last year before they could bring down the Iranian government.

Israelis are adamantly rejecting any suggestion that they dispatched Mossad pigeons to Iran.

In his blog, Jerusalem Post News Editor Amir Mizroch reports that Mossad pigeons could not fly from Israel to Iran, thus debunking the idea.

"Israeli pigeon grower and expert Daniel Mizrachi says that pigeons were used extensively in WWI, WWII and during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 to carry messages," Mizroch writes. "One pigeon was even given a medal of honor for getting it’s message home even after it was shot and wounded. But can a pigeon fly the 3,000 Km (1,900 miles) from Israel to Iran? Mizrachi says pigeons can fly between 1,000 - 1,500 Km (620 -930 miles) in 24 hours, and that technically, they could make the trip in a couple of days. However, a pigeon’s natural inclination is to return home from whence it came, so it is more likely the pigeons were bred, raised and trained in Iran. It is very unlikely that a pigeon can be sent to fly to Iran, and that the bird would complete its journey - in a straight line that is."

Of course, no one said these (alleged) Mossad spy pigeons were launched from Israel.

It would be much more likely that they would have been dispatched from northern Iraq, where Kurds are believed to have a longstanding relationship with Israeli spies, or perhaps from eastern Turkey, which also borders Iran...

Whatever the case, the discussion reminds me of the classic skit from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" where King Arthur is dragged into an esoteric argument over the flight velocity of African and European swallows.

Watch the absurdity unfold here: