From the Egyptian NGO, Civil Monitors for Human Rights, in Cairo, May 11:

Egyptian Authorities Continue Crackdown on Opposition Today
Continuing in their policy of oppression, the Egyptian authorities are trying to prevent protests which the Egyptian opposition is organizing to support the judges Hisham Bistowissi and Mahmoud Mekki and to condemn the oppressive policies of the Egyptian government.

From the American Library Association, May 5:

Brandeis Students Protest Removal of Palestinian Art
Some 100 people, many of them students at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, marched May 4 to protest the removal a week earlier of "Voices from Palestine: Aida Refugee Camp Children Speak Out"—an artwork exhibit that had been on display at the campus's Farber Library. Drawn by Palestinian youths, the paintings depict such images as a bulldozer threatening a girl lying in a pool of blood, a boy with an amputated leg, and a dove perched on barbed wire.

An exhibition of artwork at Brandeis University featuring 17 paintings by Palestinian youths from the al-Rowwad cultural center at the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, was removed by the university last week, after several students complained, according to Democracy Now. The paintings depicted life under Israeli military occupation. It ran for four days until it was removed. The exhibit is now showing at MIT.

It seems Mehlman and the AJC have not heard the message from more moderate elements of the Israel lobby, or from right-wing pollster Frank Luntz. The following May 3 AP article ran in the Jerusalem Post:

'Iran nukes threaten Jewish people'
The head of the US Republican Party said Tuesday that Iran's nuclear program threatens Israel, the Jewish people and the United States, and "we must confront an evil ideology head on."

From the respected Israeli human rights organization B'tselem, April 30:

Southern Hebron hills: Israel reinstates the cancelled barrier route "through the back door"
The army has recently issued new orders requisitioning land in the southern Hebron hills along Route 317 and a short section of Route 60. On this land Israel is now building a 41 kilometer-long concrete barricade between the settlements Tene, on the west, and Carmel , on the east. The barricade, 82 centimeters high, blocks the passage of vehicles from one side to the other. Thirteen crossing points will be set up along the barricade for Palestinian use.

The following ran in the New York Jewish Week. It marks a post-M&W pendulum swing, in which more centrist elements of the Israel lobby are speaking out with alarm over what more hard-line elements -- The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal op-ed page, and also the American Jewish Congress (AJC) in a full-page NYT ad -- have been calling for.

UPDATE: May 8 a reader in Buffalo sent us the following:

No one in Buffalo knows about this. We thought Hand was dead. Last time he tried this thdere were three Nazis and over 5,000 counterprotestors. He fled town immediately after that, declaring Buffalo a lost cause, and moved to the Carolinas. This timing is questionable. It's right around the time of the big international peace fest in Buffalo with Cindy Sheehan and all.

The following April 30 article should thus be taken with that grain of salt —

Yuck. From an April 26 press release of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group:

Sweden and other Scandanavian countries are the harshest European critics of Israeli behavior. One of the largest regions in Norway, Trondheim, has banned the sale of Israeli goods as well. Haaretz, April 28:

Israel summons Swedish envoy over NATO drill, visas for Hamas
Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor on Thursday summoned Swedish Ambassador to Israel Robert Rydberg to clarify Stockholm`s decision to withdraw from a NATO international air force exercise because of Israel`s participation, as well as reports that the Scandinavian country was planning to grant visas to two Hamas representatives.