The events themselves are interesting - not fascinating, but interesting - as an example of the 'scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' politics that represents our government today. Only snippets have been released, so we don't know if they are edited to do maximum damage to Harman (I'd guess likely) or minimize the import of the conversation.

Without getting into the substance of the AIPAC thing, it always seemed small beer, but significant as the tip of a larger set of partially hidden events around the jockeying by Israel and the Arab states for influence over US policy.

What's most interesting to me about this story is the timing. Why is it being released now?

That's always the interesting question with things like this. Is it just random timing?

Or is someone trying to pin a strong advocate for Israel into a corner just as Obama gets ready to begin getting deeply engaged in the Israel-Palestine impasse?

...I need to do a post on that, by the way...

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