Have you ever noticed that Barack Obama constantly has to take on both of them?

Well, apparently, he’s getting sick of it:

In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts to air Monday on “Good Morning America,” Obama, D-Ill., directly engages Bill Clinton on a series of issues.

“You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling,” Obama said. “He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts — whether it’s about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas. This has become a habit, and one of the things that we’re gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements that are not factually accurate.”

Good luck with that!

Prince Turki offers Israelis a peace deal if they withdraw from all Arab lands (the article doesn’t specify exactly what that means), and their reward is that they will then be considered “Arab Jews.”

Prince Turki, who was previously head of Saudi intelligence, said that if Israel accepted the Arab League plan and signed a comprehensive peace, “one can imagine the integration of Israel into the Arab geographical entity.”

“One can imagine not just economic, political and diplomatic relations between Arabs and Israelis but also issues of education, scientific research, combating mutual threats to the inhabitants of this vast geographic area,” he said.

Can one really imagine such a thing? If so, one must have quite an imagination! ***

As for the “Arab Jews” concept, I have a feeling it’s not going to go over so well. Yossi Alpher welcome the notion of a normalization of relations. However,

[he] said he hoped that once there was a comprehensive peace, Israel’s Arab neighbours would accept Israelis “as Jewish people living a sovereign life in our historic homeland” and not as “Arab Jews” or “European Jews.”

I dunno. Something tells me they’d like to be known as Israelis, since that’s what they are. But what do I know?

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***On the other hand, it turns out the Saudis aren’t exactly lacking in imagination, as I learned in today’s New York Times. Apparently, they’re trying to give the Gulf Arabs a run for their money, with something called King Abdullah Economic City (seriously!):

Amid a forest of cranes, towers and beams rising from the desert, more than 38,000 workers from China, India, Turkey and beyond have been toiling for two years in unforgiving conditions — often in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees — to complete one of the world’s largest petrochemical plants in record time.

By the end of the year, this massive city of steel at the edge of the Red Sea will take its place as a cog of globalization: plastics produced here will be used to make televisions in Japan, cellphones in China and thousands of other products to be sold in the United States and Europe.

or, Still Life with Rotting Food

(via Andrew Sullivan)

Learning-through-art bonus:

Here are the laws and rules governing what you are and are not allowed to bring into the United States. A quick scan of the list indicates it’s not altogether different from what you can bring into New Zealand.

Both countries ban the import of diamonds from Sierra Leone and Liberia, for example. Interesting!
Here are some others prohibited items from the NZ site:

prohibition: Dehumidifiers, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, supermarket display cases, heat pumps, and water coolers that contain any CFCs

purpose: Protect the Earth’s ozone layer

legislation: Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996

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prohibition: Dogs and their semen and embryos.

purpose: Community protection

legislation: Dog Control Act 1996