Is Israel losing it? ...

Prior to the elections that brought Netanyahu back as the prime minister, I had hoped that Tzipi Livni would win.  I didn't know much about Livni, but never cared for Netanyahu ... If Livini had become the PM, there is a good probability that incidents such as the metaphorical slap on Joe Biden's face, or the crazy Dubai killing, or the latest one--the commando assault on the Gaza aid flotilla--might not have happened ...


Like we didn't have enough problems already!!!
Turkey is ready to sever diplomatic ties with Israel.  The US is in one hell of a tough spot now: it will find it difficult to condemn Israel's actions.  If it is not categorical in critiquing Israel, then the US will lose that much more ground in the Islamic world.  This will make the US' job in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan even more difficult.  I would assume that by now Obama's big time speech in Cairo has been thrown into the trash ...

The world's second most powerful woman

No, I am not referring to Sarah Palin.

Tzipi Livni.

There is a chance you are puzzled, and are thinking "is Tzipi Livni a curse word, and what does it mean?"

Livni is the foreign minister of Israel, and who is the leading candidate to take over as the prime minister from Ehud Olmert, who has been forced to leave because of corruption scandals.

Less than a month ago, when Forbes published its list of 100 most powerful women in the world, Germany's Angela Merkel came in #1 for the third year in a row. Livni was a distant 51 in the Forbes ranking. As Forbes reported, Livni "backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian standoff and is working with the U.S. to get a framework by year's end. Livni is also on board with Israel's negotiations with Syria. Controversially, she supported July's prisoner-casualty swap with Hezbollah."

If Livni becomes the prime minister--and I hope she does, particularly when I think of characters like Netanyahu!--then she will be one important and influential player in the world. While we play up the Russian boogeyman here in the US, the geopolitical tensions are nothing compared to the Israel/Palestinian issue and the entire Middle East, and the India/Pakistan tensions.

The New York Times magazine had a lengthy piece on her a year ago. If elected as prime minister, she will be the second most, or even the most, powerful woman in 2009. Be nice to her :-)

BTW, who do you think is the #2 in the current Forbes list?