An exhibition of artwork at Brandeis University featuring 17 paintings by Palestinian youths from the al-Rowwad cultural center at the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, was removed by the university last week, after several students complained, according to Democracy Now. The paintings depicted life under Israeli military occupation. It ran for four days until it was removed. The exhibit is now showing at MIT.

It seems Mehlman and the AJC have not heard the message from more moderate elements of the Israel lobby, or from right-wing pollster Frank Luntz. The following May 3 AP article ran in the Jerusalem Post:

'Iran nukes threaten Jewish people'
The head of the US Republican Party said Tuesday that Iran's nuclear program threatens Israel, the Jewish people and the United States, and "we must confront an evil ideology head on."

From the respected Israeli human rights organization B'tselem, April 30:

Southern Hebron hills: Israel reinstates the cancelled barrier route "through the back door"
The army has recently issued new orders requisitioning land in the southern Hebron hills along Route 317 and a short section of Route 60. On this land Israel is now building a 41 kilometer-long concrete barricade between the settlements Tene, on the west, and Carmel , on the east. The barricade, 82 centimeters high, blocks the passage of vehicles from one side to the other. Thirteen crossing points will be set up along the barricade for Palestinian use.

The following ran in the New York Jewish Week. It marks a post-M&W pendulum swing, in which more centrist elements of the Israel lobby are speaking out with alarm over what more hard-line elements -- The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal op-ed page, and also the American Jewish Congress (AJC) in a full-page NYT ad -- have been calling for.

Sweden and other Scandanavian countries are the harshest European critics of Israeli behavior. One of the largest regions in Norway, Trondheim, has banned the sale of Israeli goods as well. Haaretz, April 28:

Israel summons Swedish envoy over NATO drill, visas for Hamas
Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor on Thursday summoned Swedish Ambassador to Israel Robert Rydberg to clarify Stockholm`s decision to withdraw from a NATO international air force exercise because of Israel`s participation, as well as reports that the Scandinavian country was planning to grant visas to two Hamas representatives.

Note the last line asserting that the release of the findings at this time is coincidental. Could be, but it certainly serves an important propaganda function as Bush prepares to play Churchill to Ahmadinejad's Hitler. From Reuters, April 7:

BERLIN — Nazi Germany planned to expand the extermination of Jews beyond the borders of Europe and into British-controlled Palestine during World War Two, two German historians say.

The final results of Israel's Knesset election are as follows: Kadima, the party created by Sharon and now led by Ehud Olmert has 29 seats, a disappointment considering polls had projected up to 43 seats at one point. Labor, led by Moroccan-born Amir Peretz, has 20. The Mizrahi Orthodox party Shas and Likud have 12 each. Yisrael Beiteinu, the party led by Moldovan-born xenophobe Avigdor Lieberman, who once threatened to blow up the Aswan dam, won 11. The transferist National Union-National Religious Party won nine; the Pensioners' Party, led by Jonathan Pollard's control agent Rafi Eitan, won seven; the non-Zionist United Torah Judaism won six; the increasingly moribund Zio-leftist Meretz won five; the Palestinian Israeli Ra'am-Ta'al party, led by Sheik Sarsur of the more moderate southern wing of the Israeli Islamic movement, won three; the Arab-Jewish communist faction Hadash led by Mohammed Barekeh, won three; and the Balad party led by Palestinian nationalist Azmi Bishara won three. The lowest voter turnout in Israeli history was advantageous for the smaller parties as it lowered the amount of votes needed to pass the 2% threshold to enter the Knesset. Likud also suffered as a result of a voter backlash against the neo-liberal policies of current party leader and former finance minister Benyamin Netanyahu. The pro-marijuana Green Leaf party did not make it past the threshold. (Haaretz, March 31)

This commentary in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly gets it just right. The incredibly sad irony is that Al-Ahram's editors obviously didn't read it! The introdek they appended to it assumes the piece is making the same tired point about how the Jews control US foriegn policy. In fact, Massad, to his great credit, is making the opposite point: that the Jews are taking the hit for US imperial interests.