This is unbelievable and really shows how absolutely clueless American politicians are:

A push by right-wing American Jewish activists to change the constitution of the governing Palestinian party is gaining momentum in Congress, even as Israelis are dismissing the document as “irrelevant,” and the umbrella body of American Jewish organizations has voted against taking up the issue.

Recent demands by the Zionist Organization of America for the rescinding of clauses in the Fatah party’s constitution calling for Israel’s destruction were rebuffed last week by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which tabled a resolution on the constitution for at least the next three months. But the campaign has found a far more sympathetic ear in the House of Representatives, where leading lawmakers are calling for altering the 40-year-old document, and in the Senate, which is expected to raise the issue soon...read on!

Israel, by the way, does not have a Constitution.

Hat tip: Robin

Here is a man who goes by the name of Reverand Fred Phelps in Kansas. His followers are protesting funerals of US military and legislators are seeking to BAN his activities (I don’t know how constitutional the ban can be).

Try to get this: he is protesting on the basis that US boys are dying because of homosexuality and the Sodom and Gomorra atmosphere of the US.

It is the flyer that went out by "Reverand" Phelps calling people to show up to protest at a military funeral. The whole irony is that this group was never mentioned until they actually showed up and people got so pissed they started passing laws against it. Remember, we're not supposed to see these funerals out of respect for the families of the fallen soldiers. Now the ACLU is taking up the "reverand's" defense in claiming his freedom of speech is being denied. - Robin

More here:
http://www.godhatesamerica.com/
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/opinion/editorials/060605b.shtml
http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=408

Very ironic indeed!!
At least SOMEONE is protesting US military (although I think funerals are a pretty sorry choice of venue for protest).

Aljazeera:

Constitution has been approved, the 'independent electoral commission' said, as it announced the final results of this month's landmark referendum.

I liked the word 'independent'... Independent under occupation, aren't they?

Anyway, as the Independent Commission for Iraqi Elections proclaimed a few hours ago, only 2 provinces (Anbar & Diyala) rejected the draft with more than 2/3 of a �No� vote.

The referendum�s most important data:

Yes: 78.59% No: 21.41% No � 63% participation, 135 complaints

Anbar: over 95% No
Salah al-Din: over 81.75% No
Niniveh: 55.08% No

Will the occupiers and their terrorist groups turn all put down their guns and start planting daisies now? No, but this is a significant milestone in the history of the region. Will this magically transform Iraq into a functioning democracy? No, specially that it is very clear the Sunni Arabs rejected it.

We have to keep in mind that results showed that Sunni Arabs, who had sharply opposed the draft document, failed to produce the three-quarters �no� vote they would have needed in at least three of Iraq�s 18 provinces to defeat it. Some Sunni leaders rejected the results. Sunni politicians allege that some �yes� areas had more votes than registered voters.

In the heavily Sunni areas of western Anbar and central Salahuddin, initial counts show the vote over passing the constitution is �no�. But initial counts from two provinces where there is also a Sunni majority � Ninevah and Diyala � was an overwhelming (70 per cent) �yes� � a result that has stirred up accusations of fraud. Now the results are changed!!!!

A prominent Sunni Arab politician claimed Diyala in particular had seen vote rigging. He said that there were an extra 3,000 more ballot papers than the actual number of people registered to vote.

Bottom line, we can say that the whole operation witnessed interference from government forces.

Now Iraq�s Shiite and Kurdish leaders are hoping the charter will unite the country, where Sunni will be accused and shown as being terrorists and will wage a campaign of suicide bombings and shootings in a bid to topple the U.S.-backed government.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Durnpty had a great fall;
Not all the king's horses,
Nor all the king's men
Could set Humpty Dumpty together again.
Should a Humpty-Dumpty Iraq
Be glued back together again?

Iraq's draft constitution will probably be approved in the referendum to be held today. But whether it is ratified or not ultimately does not matter, as the finished product -- and the whole constitution-making process -- is totally out of touch with the realities of a country that no longer exists as a coherent body politic.

The problem is not with the constitution, but with the conventional wisdom -- almost an idee fixe -- that Iraq is a viable modern nation-state and that all it needs to make it work properly is the right political institutions. But this is a fallacy and responsible leaders should begin to think of alternatives.

Let's be frank: Iraq is going the way of Yugoslavia as it disintegrated in the early 1990s. This should be acknowledged and ultimately welcomed, despite conventional diplomatic norms regarding the inviolability of the territorial integrity of existing states.

Of course, such norms are helpful. But once a state disintegrates, as happened in Yugoslavia, no constitutional formulations can save it. Constitutions works only if all sides have an interest in operating within the proposed framework -- and this obviously is not the case in Iraq.

There is nothing sacrosanct in the continued existence of multi-ethnic and multi-religious states if their constitutive groups do not wish to live together. On the contrary, there are lessons to be learned from the demise of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and even -- perhaps especially -- Czechoslovakia, which negotiated its break-up without violence.

By contrast, Bosnia-Herzegovina is an example of another failed attempt to keep a decrepit multi-ethnic entity alive: It doesn't work, and the country is held together only by the almost dictatorial power of the international community's High Representative and the presence of foreign troops.

It is time to face reality: The Kurdish region in the north is functioning in a reasonable way and it has even been able to allay Ankara's fears that its existence will aggravate Turkey's own Kurdish problem.

With the Shias building their polity in the south, the Sunni areas too should be allowed to go their own way. This may be more conducive to peace than trying to impose on them a hated occupation or an equally hated Shia hegemony.

The emergence of three states -- or highly autonomous regions -- instead of a unified Iraq is happening anyway, constitution or no constitution.
[via: Taipei Times]

The following is the full text of the draft constitution being voted on by Iraqis in Saturday's referendum. It was translated from the Arabic by the United Nation's Office for Constitutional Support, and the translation was approved by the Iraqi government.