There aren't many 'must visit' websites on a daily basis, but for political news and analysis(analyses?) I would have to give nods to Cursor, Democracy Now!, BuzzFlash, CounterPunch, and Salon(especially noteworthy at Salon: Michelle Goldberg and Joe Conason's Journal).

From CounterPunch comes this:

Lessons from the Israeli School

How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Islamic World

By GREG WEIHER

OK, now it's official. The United States is taking lessons from Israel on appropriate ways to deal with the Arab and Islamic world.

This is clear in Seymour Hersh's story on Israeli-trained American death squads in the latest New Yorker, and Chalmers Johnson's December 3 article on the same subject on the Common Dreams website.

Of course, if you've been paying attention, the U.S.-Israel connection comes as no surprise. The U.S. occupying force in Iraq has been adopting tactics, one after the other, that mirror those used by the Israelis against the Palestinians. "No," you think to yourself. "Even Bush and the prevari-cons can't be that stupid. Even in all their arrogance they can't overlook the implications that such a parallel will have for U.S.-Arab relations." Well, unfortunately, it turns out they are, and they can. Much more at link.

If you have been following the Israeli/Palestinian and the US current treatment of 'insurgents' in Iraq, the article is nothing new. However, for those that haven't, it's a good primer to the parallels of the IDF's techniques, and that of the 'allied forces' now occupying Iraq.