Stories have abounded, but our blogging has been slow as of late during the holidays, so here’s a list of must reads if you haven’t already seem these stories on your Sunday:

  • Richard Silverstein offers extensive, updated coverage on the Obsession DVD scandal, and Third Jihad, including the updates revealing the secret producer of the of the film, Erik Werth, former advisor to Clinton who was arrested for impersonating a secret service agent; and that the Republican PR firm, Frontline Strategies, was hired to promote Third Jihad.
  • Richard and Jewschool also covers the nasty advertisements of Obama being run by the Republican Jewish Coalition in the Jewish media, and J Street’s petition to have Jewish papers stop running false advertisements.
  • Check out Charles Lenchner’s new blog, Peace in the Middle East, at change.org, where he blogs about the riots happening throughout Israel, starting on the eve of Yom Kippur, and challenges progressive Jewish activists on what solidarity looks like after visiting Palestine.
  • There has been endless coverage of the right wing Settler’s pipe bomb attack on Professor Zeev Sternhell and their threats to Peace Now, and further coverage of settlers’ extreme tactics.

    “In the past, only a few dozen individuals were implicated” in such behavior, Maj. Gen. Gadi Shadmi, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Central Command, told Israel’s daily Ha’aretz in a recent interview.

    While most of the estimated 250,000 Israeli Jews living in the West Bank are law abiding, Shadmi said, the ranks of the radicals are growing.

    “Today we are talking about several hundred people — a very significant change,” he said.

    “These people are conspiring against the Palestinians and against security forces,” he added, making the army’s job more difficult. Shadmi charged that some segments of the settlers’ leadership, including rabbis, are giving the movement’s radical elements either tacit or outright support.

  • Samantha Shapiro at the NYT Magazine delivers with a gripping history and current day coverage of the “Kosher Wars,” including alternative locally-based kosher food options.
  • New Voices’ latest issue is on the Chabad Lubavitch. Lemme know what you think. It’s on my *to read* list.
  • A personal favorite: The NYT offers a bit of comic relief for me when it writes about, “A Bit of ‘I Told You So’ Outside World Bank Talks” — I know, “I told you so,” reeks of seven-year-old’s battling it out on a playground, but it’s nice to see the media actually writing about how advocates have been talking about how the global economic policies and war were going to lead to this economic disaster for years now. I would have liked to have seen more of this when the lies about the war in Iraq started finally being covered because yes, there were advocates deploring the Bush administration for lying from the very beginning.
  • The NYT actually did somewhat of a tribute piece to Karl Rove yesterday on his legacy, with no critique that Rove is now making millions of dollars as a speaker, TV commentator and columnist, while he has refused to testify before Congress regarding the Department of Justice, and his egregious violations while serving in the White House. That he continues to so deeply influence the political realm, and celebrated in this way, should be disparaged.
  • There was some controversy over a film of “Retired Generals of the Israeli Defense Forces and high-ranking Mossad officials discussing Barack Obama and Middle East policy,” produced by ReviseFilms and released by Jewish Council for Education and Research, home of Jewsvote.org. According to the JTA:

    Two top retired Israeli security officials (Dayan and Halevy) say they had no idea that interviews they did this summer would be used for a pro-Barack Obama video.

    Former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy and retired Gen. Uzi Dayan were among seven retired Israeli security officials who appear in an eight-minute video endorsing Barack Obama, which was released Monday by the Jewish Council for Education and Research. But they told Israeli newspapers that they were interviewed about what issues the next American president will have to deal with in the Middle East, and had no idea their comments would be used to back a candidate.

    JTA also reprints JCER’s response statement, that JCER was assured by the producers that all participants were fully informed of the nature of the project, and that JCER is willing to work with the film’s producers to address these concerns.

    While troubling, with the producers saying the officials did know, and the officials arguing that they didn’t know what the video would be used for, there isn’t enough information to fully deduce what’s up. What would be the show stopper for me is seeing the consent forms that the officials signed, especially if the form included the purpose of the video. Then the case would be closed.

  • Finally, the Sarah Palin wig. Oy. Disaster! (h/t Y-Love)