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Sundown: Biden Defends Israeli Self-Defense

Plus Obama forsakes sticks and stones against Syria, and more

by
Marc Tracy
May 08, 2012
Vice President Biden last week.(Brendan SmialowskiAFP/GettyImages)
Vice President Biden last week.(Brendan SmialowskiAFP/GettyImages)

• Speaking to a Rabbinical Assembly confab today, Vice President Biden insisted Israel retains the right to take action against Iran on its own. [JTA/Times of Israel]

• Jeff Goldberg on the fierce linguistic assault the Obama administration has launched against President Assad’s regime, which is engaged in its own fierce assault—but like with guns—against its own people. [Bloomberg View]

• The saga over Franz Kafka’s papers continues to defy the use of any adjective other than “Kafkaesque.” [Haaretz]

• The leader of the negotiations that brought this morning’s Likud-Kadima deal actually had had to leave the prime minister’s office following harassment allegations. [Haaretz Diplomania]

• The chemistry of delicious bagels. [i09]

• A rabbi/accused Torah thief used an East Village synagogue as an alibi, which said synagogue denies. [The Villager]

We hear there will be a Mighty Rumpus around 11pm tonight at Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim to honor the life and work of Maurice Sendak. Here’s “One Was Johnny”: lyrics by Sendak, music by Carole King.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.