Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post have dueling editorials today on Israeli-Syrian peace talks.

Both note the more conciliatory, peace-oriented tone in President Bashar Assad’s latest pronouncements, made during a visit to Damascus by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But while Ha’aretz sees in them signs of genuine, new approach by Assad, and finds that obstacles to peace lie in Israel, the Post’s editors are more skeptical about Syria’s true intentions.

Here’s what Ha’aretz sees:

The dialogue with Syria has opened a serious new window of opportunity. Assad claims to have presented a number of practical proposals for continuing negotiations, and has announced that he would like to hold direct talks after the U.S. elections. By this he is openly exhibiting his expectations that the Americans will be partners. No less important is the businesslike tone of his comments about Syrian contacts with Israel. It is encouraging that in addition to the French president, the ruler of Qatar and the prime minister of Turkey - the country that has hosted the indirect talks - have highlighted the negotiations with Israel in their talks in Damascus…

In the meantime, it seems that if there is an obstacle to the talks, it comes from the Israeli side. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who initiated the dialogue, is about to end his tenure, so the status of the person responsible for the negotiations is unclear. This situation has already broken the talks’ continuity. Every effort must be taken to ensure that this break will be short, because it is vital that the meetings keep their momentum.

And here’s what the Post sees:

We can’t help but ponder why Assad’s rhetoric veers so unsteadily between belligerence and conciliation.

Israel must be clear-eyed, first of all, on the nature of the Syrian regime, which happens to be engaged in brisk military build-up and procurement…

Damascus is also a long-standing state sponsor of terrorism, hosting Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations. It has not only shipped Iranian weapons to Hizbullah but also supplied it with Russian-made military equipment such as the Kornet anti-tank missile and its own 220mm anti-personnel rockets. Syria has also played a key role as the source of foreign fighters and insurgents infiltrating Iraq.

Although a Kuwaiti newspaper reported this week that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal had left Damascus for Sudan because of Syria’s interest in moving along the diplomatic talks with Israel, Jerusalem officials have challenged the claim.

If Assad is making conciliatory sounds now, therefore, perhaps it’s not because he has abandoned a belligerent posture, but because it serves his interests and deflects pressure. This, indeed, is a long-established pattern.

Both, however, add caveats at the end. Here’s the Post’s:

Then again, he may be sincere. If so, he should come to Jerusalem, or invite our premier to Damascus, and lay out his peace vision.

And here’s Ha’aretz’s:

Of course, the concerns and suspicions raised by the opponents of dialogue with Syria should not be ignored. Most importantly, it is important to evaluate the price Israel will have to pay for an agreement with Syria. But there will be time for this when the direct negotiations begin and the Israeli public, which recognizes that Israel will have to withdraw from the Golan Heights, learns what it will get in return.

The Israeli activist who went to Gaza by boat from Cyprus, flouting Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory, wrote an account of his arrest by Israeli authorities upon his return to the Jewish state.

The activist, Jeff Halper, says he was given honorary Palestinian citizenship in Gaza, making him probably the only American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew in the world (Halper is a native of Minnesota).

Here are some of Halper’s reflections:

To be honest, we Israeli Jews are the problem. The Palestinian years ago accepted our existence in the country as a people and are willing to accept ANY solution — two states, one state, no state, whatever. It is us who want exclusivity over the “Land of Israel” who cannot conceive of a single country, who cannot accept the national presence of Palestinians (we talk about “Arabs” in our country), and who have eliminated by our settlements even the possibility of the two-state solution in which we take 80% of the land. So it’s sad, truly sad, that our “enemies” want peace and co-existence (and tell me that in HEBREW) and we don’t…

When I was in Gaza everyone in Israel — including the media who interviewed me – warned me to be careful, to watch out for my life. Aren’t you scared? they asked. Well, the only time I felt genuine and palpable fear during the entire journey was when I got back to Israel. I went from Gaza through the Erez checkpoint because I wanted to make the point that the siege is not only by sea. On the Israeli side I was immediately arrested, charged with violating a military order prohibiting Israelis from being in Gaza and jailed at the Shikma prison in Ashkelon. In my cell that night, someone recognized from the news. All night I was physically threatened by right-wing Israelis — and I was sure I wouldn’t make it till the morning. Ironically, there were three Palestinians in my cell who kind of protected me, so the danger was from Israelis, not Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in Israel.

Your thoughts? Feel welcome to comment below.

Here’s what they’re teaching the kiddies in southern Lebanon: Revere terrorist masterminds.

The New York Times and Ha’aretz both have stories on a new museum in Nabatiye, Lebanon, devoted to glorifying Hezbollah chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in February in Syria by unknown assailants.

The museum exhibits Mughniyeh’s personal effects, including his blood-stained clothes, broken Israeli tanks, fake skeletons and a portrayal of the after-life. Chalk it up as yet another monument to the culture of death among Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East.

Click here for more photos of the exhibit.

The success of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election bid is not a foregone conclusion, writes Benedetta Berti in The Jerusalem Post.

The Iranian president has been under fire at home for economic mismanagement, with Iran’s economy faltering and inflation at 23 percent. Backing by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei helps, but it may not be enough. Berti writes:

The ongoing economic crisis endangers Ahmadinejad’s credibility and popularity within his constituency, and increases the number of critics. Only in the past week, former president and current head of the Assembly of Experts Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani blamed Ahmadinejad’s administration for the ongoing economic and energy crises, saying the country was ready for change.

Given this decline in popularity, it seems that Ahmadinejad’s reelection now depends even more on the support of the conservative coalition, as well as on the backing of the supreme leader. However, neither of these factors can be taken for granted.

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, began on Monday, coinciding this year with the Jewish month of repentance, Elul. Both the Jewish and Muslim calendars operate on the lunar cycle, but the Jewish calendar has a leap month every three years or so to keep pace with the solar calendar used the world over. The Muslim calendar does not; hence, Ramadan falls at a different time every year.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met in Jerusalem on Aug. 26.

Visiting Israel this week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is trying to figure out what Israel’s state of political limbo means for the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

To her dismay, she’s discovering it means the Bush administration is unlikely to see any progress of note during the remainder of Olmert’s — or Bush’s — term.

Here’s Barak Ravid’s analysis in Ha’aretz:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have arrived in Israel with the intention of advancing talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but her meetings have also dealt with trying to understand Israel’s political limbo.

An Israeli government source said a key issue Rice’s aides discussed with their Israeli counterparts was what happens the day after the Kadima party primary.

U.S. officials were trying hard to understand the constitutional ramifications of the Kadima race. They discussed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s role in an interim government and whether he could carry out significant political decisions. Rice’s aides concluded that it is highly likely that Israel will not have a stable new government before the end of 2008, around the time the Bush administration comes to a close.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama jumped into the fray over Agriprocessors yesterday by slamming the company for hiring underage workers (more on that here). Coming on the eve of the DNC convention in Denver, the comment predictably got a lot of attention. But it followed a far lengthier and more damning appraisal of the company by Iowa governor and fellow Democrat Chet Culver.

Writing Sunday in the Des Moines Register, Culver assailed the company for taking advantage of a failed immigration policy and of “taking the low road” in its business practices. He reviews the history of troubles the company has run into with government regulators and pats himself on the back for the steps his administration has taken in response to the latest allegations. Finally, he tops it off with what is fast becoming standard practice when criticizing Agriprocessors — referencing Upton Sinclair’s landmark expose of the meatpacking industry in the novel “The Jungle.”

Agri responded Tuesday with a comprehensive refutation of the governor and an invitation to tour the plant (apparently, everyone gets one of these now except for me).

Full statement after the jump.

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Ha’aretz tells the story behind the story of the Israeli government decision not to stop two boats full of activists from thwarting Israel’s blockade of Gaza and reaching the Hamas-ruled strip.

• Beijing it aint, but the folks from Heeb have concocted a Semitic version of the Olympiad. Other videos from the series include Disconnecta Yenta, the Penny Pick-Up and Gefilte Fish Wrestling.
• Madonna compared John McCain to Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe, and the ADL isn’t pleased.
• Meanwhile, Madonna hubby Guy Ritchie doesn’t share his wife’s affinity for Kabbalah, saying he prefers to stay “objective.”
• Israeli rabbis have a beef with Uruguay’s president.
• A shofar recovered from the Thames is found to be reaaaally old, just not as old as was hoped.
• The Dalai Lama gets a tallis.
• A biographer has revealed that Austrian Jewish actress Heddy Lamar was forced into a sexual relationship with Adolf Hitler by her first husband.
• The Miami Herald tells the story of nearly 400 Jewish youth who fled Cuba for America in the 1960s.
• The Chicago Tribune recounts how state courts wrestled with the question of whether or not to enforce the will of a Jew who nixed his descendants’ inheritance for marrying outside the fold.
• The Independent (UK) explains how two Picassos once owned by a wealthy German Jewish banker made their way from Nazi Germany into the hands of two New York museums.
• An Egyptian film critic expresses incredulity at his government’s decision to ban the release of Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.”

Two funny-Jewy books, two funny-Jewy promotional videos.

The first, featuring Daily Show reporter John Oliver, comes from Hazonik and Daily Show staff writer Rob Kutner, and is for his new book “Apocalypse How,” which Jon Stewart, in an obviously objective and impartial manner, called, “A great read.”

Second is the advert for former American Jewish Life editor Benyamin Cohen’s “My Jesus Year,” which Publisher’s Weekly called “a delicious olio of guilt, longing, surprise, wonder, unease and of course humor” that has “universal appeal.”