• No matter what the United Nations General Assembly does, an independent Palestine could not actually become a member state without Security Council approval—according to the General Assembly president. [Ynet]
• Some Israeli officials see Egypt’s opening of the Rafah Crossing as a boon: It will ease international pressure on Israel’s blockade of Gaza (with the flotilla sailing next month), and the weapons are getting in anyway. [NYT]
• Word is Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been talking secretly. [Telegraph/Vos Iz Neias?]
• Amy Winehouse has gone back to rehab. I wish there were an adequate song lyric that I could utilize to cleverly summarize this. [Page Six]
• President Obama visited the memorial of the Warsaw Ghetto today. [AP/Haaretz]
• Iran’s atomic envoy insisted sanctions have had no effect on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. So then they won’t mind the yet tougher ones that were proposed in the U.S. Senate? [AP/WP]
• U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon—Italian troops— sustained injuries in a bomb attack, the first since 2008. [AP/WP]
• Amazing story about IDF paramedics, and their treatment of, among others, injured Palestinians. [JTA/Jewish Journal]
• Robert Satloff wrote the most cogent objection to President Obama’s mentioning the ’67 borders. [Washington Institute]
• Howard Jacbson’s Jewiest interview yet! (Which is saying something!) [KCRW]
•For your weekend viewing, a Charlie Rose roundtable on Mideast peace, starring (among others) contributing editor Jeffrey Goldberg. [Charlie Rose]
• Not all Democrats have sold Obama out on Israel. [The Plum Line]
Happy Memorial Day.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.