memeorandum: The neighborhood bully strikes again (Gideon Levy/Haaretz)

2:37 AM ET, December 29, 2008

Top Items:

Egyptians open fire on Palestinians — Egyptian border guards have opened fire on Palestinians who breached the border to escape Israel's assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. — An Egyptian security official said there were at least five breaches along the nine-mile border and hundreds of Palestinian residents were pouring in.

Discussion: Jerusalem Post, Reuters, Don Surber, Associated Press, Jay Currie, Chicago Boyz, At-Largely, Jihad Watch, AmSpecBlog, Balloon Juice, Hot Air, A Blog For All and Jules Crittenden

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

ISRAEL, WRONG. — This is the paragraph that I can't get out of my head: … No deaths and few injuries. “Deeply disturbing.” Hamas lacks the technology to aim its rockets. They're taking potshots. In response, the Israeli government launched air strikes that have now killed …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, QandO, Mondoweiss, The Caucus, Associated Press, New York Times, Ynetnews, TPMCafe, Newshoggers.com, Think Progress, Booman Tribune and Power Line

Gideon Levy / Haaretz:

The neighborhood bully strikes again — Israel embarked yesterday on yet another unnecessary, ill-fated war. On July 16, 2006, four days after the start of the Second Lebanon War, I wrote: “Every neighborhood has one, a loud-mouthed bully who shouldn't be provoked into anger... Not that the bully's not right - someone did harm him.

Discussion: Realistic Dove, Syria Comment, Mondoweiss, Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Huffington Post, Salon and ATTACKERMAN

The Muqata:

Day 2, 7th of Chanuka, Sunday 12-28-08 — 9:26 PM Gaza rockets fall in a Kibbutz, east of Gaza. Damage to cow barn, no injuries. Note: As opposed to when I previously blogged about the Second Lebanon War, I will not be giving specific locations of where rockets land …

Discussion: BBC, Atlas Shrugs, Michael J. Totten, Ynetnews, Yourish.com and Israel Matzav

Daniel Levy / Prospects for Peace:
What next on Gaza/Israel and Why Americans Should Care

Discussion: Associated Press, Abu Aardvark, Haaretz, CNN, Reason, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, American Footprints, juancole.com, Commentary, D-Day, Los Angeles Times, War and Piece, theheretik.us, BBC and The Huffington Post

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Marty Peretz and the American political consensus on Israel

Discussion: Syria Comment, J Street, Doug Ross, Global Voices Online, ejpress.org, Chris Floyd, The Other McCain, Israpundit, Associated Press, CBS News and Mondoweiss

Hana Levi Julian / Arutz Sheva:
Hizbullah Vows to Open Second Front in Gaza Conflict

Discussion: Jerusalem Post, Israel Matzav, Atlas Shrugs and Ynetnews

BBC:
Hamas ‘bars injured leaving Gaza’

Discussion: Elder of Ziyon, Associated Press, Jerusalem Post, Harry's Place, Reuters, Mere Rhetoric, Power Line, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch and Gateway Pundit

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Gaza complicates Obama's policy in Mideast

Discussion: The Huffington Post

CBS News:

Condoleezza Rice: “I'm Not A Type A” — Outgoing Secretary Of State Shares Thoughts With Sunday Morning … She's been called the administration's “warrior princess,” the true believer who's visited scores of countries, traveling a million miles to implement, explain, and defend, president George W. Bush's foreign policy.

Discussion: The Raw Story, MyDD, theheretik.us, Think Progress and Jezebel

CNN: Rice: People will soon thank Bush for what he's done

Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press: Mrs. Bush, Rice: Bush presidency not a failure

Dave Barry / Washington Post:

The Year in Review — How weird a year was it? Here's how weird: — O.J. actually got convicted of something. — Gasoline hit $4 a gallon — and those were the good times. — On several occasions, “Saturday Night Live” was funny. — There were a few days there in October …

Discussion: Extreme Mortman

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:

Anger, sadness over fabricated Holocaust story — NEW YORK (AP) - It's the latest story that touched, and betrayed, the world. — “Herman Rosenblat and his wife are the most gentle, loving, beautiful people,” literary agent Andrea Hurst said Sunday, anguishing over why she, and so many others …

Discussion: The Other McCain and Vox Popoli

Sarah Baxter / Times of London:

George W Bush's $300m library in danger of becoming white elephant — His critics see it as a monument to a failed presidency that may not even hold all his key documents — As President George W Bush eyes his legacy, his presidential library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, threatens to be a white elephant.

Discussion: Think Progress and Booman Tribune

Bloomberg:

Cracks in U.S.-China Relations Are Widening Again in Crisis — The global recession is re-exposing fissures in United States-China relations that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. spent more than two years smoothing over. — Mr. Paulson, 62, who visited China 70 times during his career …

Peter S. Goodman / New York Times:
Printing Money - and Its Price

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TPMCafe and theheretik.us

Michael Goodwin / NY Daily News:

Goodwin: Say goodnight, Caroline — In the beginning, just three long weeks ago, the idea of Caroline Kennedy being a United States senator had a certain ring to it. The Camelot myth still has shelf life and a merger with the historic Obama presidency provided an intriguing story line.

Discussion: San Francisco Chronicle, Buffalo News, Politics on the Hudson, Perfunction, Firedoglake, The Other McCain, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air and JammieWearingFool

Anne Glusker / Washington Post:
She's a Kennedy, But She's a Lot Like Us

Discussion: Commentary and NewsBusters.org

New York Times:
Transcript of the Caroline Kennedy Interview

Discussion: The Field on the Narcosphere, Ben Smith's Blogs, NY Daily News, Commentary, New York Post, Gawker, Associated Press, Michael Calderone's Blogs and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

The Raw Story:

Laura Bush: Shoe-throwing ‘was an assault’ — While President Bush shrugged off an Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at him during a press conference, the First Lady said the incident was no laughing matter. — “It was an assault,” she said. “And the president laughed it off …

Discussion: Pam's House Blend

Fox News:
First Lady: Shoe ‘Assault’ Shows Freedom in Iraq

Discussion: The Swamp, Top of the Ticket, Gateway Pundit and Agence France Presse

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

The banality of vacation — Just got my fifth pool report of the day, from the Trib's John McCormick , who reports that Obama is at a friend's house, and that reporters could glimpse “a couple jet skiis moving about in the water” and “a group of people watching from shore.”

Carol E. Lee / The Politico:

Obama bristles as the bubble closes in on him — HONOLULU - The media glare, the constant security appendage and the sheer production that has become a morning jog or a hankering for an ice cream cone - it's been closing in on Barack Obama for some time. — Now the president-elect appears …

Discussion: RedState, Greg's Opinion, The Impolitic, TigerHawk and THE CUNNING REALIST

Niall Ferguson / Financial Times:

An imaginary retrospective of 2009 — It was the year when people finally gave up trying to predict the year ahead. It was the year when every forecast had to be revised - usually downwards - at least three times. It was the year when the paradox of globalisation was laid bare for all to see, if their eyes weren't tightly shut.

Discussion: TigerHawk

John / Power Line:

THE GREENING OF EARTH'S ECONOMY — If you seriously believe that the Earth is threatened with destruction by global warming, then the current global economic slowdown is providential. Reduced economic activity equals less energy consumption equals less carbon emitted into the atmosphere.