Snark news briefs, good news edition

So many wonderful things, so little time. (Actually, there’s plenty of time; work’s done for the day.)

Sucks to be you, Part 1: The anti-Israel (some might say “anti-Semitic” Egyptian minister of culture lost his bid to become the director of UNESCO. Gee, guess building those synagogues for the six Jews left in Egypt just didn’t convince the west that he’s changed. Or maybe it’s just the year of the woman—a Bulgarian woman won the job. I will point out that Israel did not oppose the Egyptian’s election, at least, not publicly. It was a private election. I’m guessing they didn’t vote for the bastard who said that he only wanted Israeli books burned that “insult Islam.” Oh, that makes it all better, then.

Sucks to be you, Part 2: What’s a dictator to do? First, the Helmsley Hotel chain cancels Mad Mahmoud’s banquet reservations and tells him he’s not welcome in any of their hotels. Then the Libyan mass-murderer-slash-dictator finds himself barred from most hotels in the city (on top of being banned in NJ, and yay, Garden State!). So he’s decided to sleep at the Libyan embassy. And Mad Mahmoud is going to be staying at the Essex House—unless the protests get too overwhelming for the hotel.

Sucks to be you, Part 3: Lowered expectations you said, lowered expectations you got! Obama told Israel that it needed to make “important steps to restrain settlement activity.” I do believe that goes into Netanyahu’s column as a “win.” Poor, poor Stephen Walt. He must be so disappointed today. Then again, he can use this as more proof of that invincible Israel Lobby in his next book. And I’m thinking that Barack Obama’s having a very, very bad day today overall. Not that I think that’s a good thing, because his screwing up international relations is a very bad thing for America. Maybe he’ll use this as a teachable moment, and learn from it.

Naaaaaaaah. Just kidding.