• In a leaked memo, U.S. diplomats threatened to withdraw strong support for a Palestinian state if President Abbas does not quickly accede to direct talks. [AP/Haaretz]
• Director Oliver Stone blamed “Jewish domination of the media” for preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust and “the most powerful lobby in Washington” (hint: Not the AARP) for “messing up” U.S. foreign policy. [JTA]
• Prime Minister Netanyahu compared the U.N. Human Rights Council’s flotilla probe to the Goldstone committee. [Ynet]
• Michiko Kakutani is famous for being harsh on novels, so if she calls a new one “wonderful” and “supersad, superfunny, superaffecting,” you may want to consider reading it. [NYT]
• This story is a week old, but depressing enough to be flagged: The Hamas operative who shot and killed an Israeli security agent last month has a daughter who, a couple weeks before that, had had a tumor removed from her eye at an Israeli hospital with funds from an Israeli organization. [Ynet]
• A conservative synagogue in Olney, Maryland—a town in heavily Jewish Montgomery County (whence comes your faithful blogger)—was vandalized with swastikas and slogans. [Vos Iz Neias?]
Oliver Stone may think the Jews are an insidious influence on the body politic. But what does he think of the Magic Loogie Theory?
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.