This week in power: Bulgaria, Government disbanding, Adelson petition, Condi rumors

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Bulgaria bombing
A bus full of Israelis exploded on Wednesday in a Bulgarian resort, killing at least eight people and wounded dozens more, ” title=”http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/18/from-iran-to-bulgaria.html” target=”_blank”>said Trita Parsi at The Daily Beast. “The question is: Can the two sides continue to level charges of assassination plots against each other without this conflict morphing into an actual war?” ” title=”http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/world/middleeast/unity-government-in-israel-disbanding-over-dispute-on-draft.html?hp” target=”_blank”>said The New York Times. Netanyahu will keep office for the immediate future in spite of centrist Kadima party’s decision to leave the government it joined this spring. “In the end, in the worst Israeli partisan political tradition, perceived self-interest prevailed over all the highfalutin rhetoric about the good of the state,” ” title=”http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/17/kadima-just-trying-to-go-home.html” target=”_blank”>said Yehudah Mirsky at The Daily Beast. It’s bittersweet, said a Jewish Week ” title=”http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/07/11/3100531/njdc-removes-adelson-petition” target=”_blank”>said the JTA. The petition stemmed from a claim by Sen. John McCain that Adelson was secretly sending Chinese money into the campaign. “This week Jewish Democrats took a clumsy swipe at Adelson’s credibility. Then Jewish Republicans responded with oblivious defenses that only make Adelson look more manipulative than before. And then the Democrats had to give the Republicans a win, not on the strength of their defense but on the total weakness of the Democratic offense. At this rate the Knesset will have to come and train our political spokespeople in effective PR,” ” title=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/16/sarah-silverman-indecent-proposal-romney_n_1676669.html” target=”_blank”>other ways to tackle Adelson…

LePage apology
After comparing the IRS to the Gestapo, Maine Gov. Paul LePage ” title=”http://www.journaltribune.com/articles/2012/07/14/columnist/doc5000a5b0eebaf160601818.txt” target=”_blank”>said in the Journal Tribune that there’s no room for these remarks. “Disagreement is essential to our system, but extreme and unwarranted vilification of one’s opponents makes it impossible for Americans to work together to deal with the challenges and opportunities we all share.” “LePage is a governor, so he gets more national scrutiny. But even the left within New Hampshire did not denounce the Hitler comparison. Some applauded it,” ” title=”http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/condoleezza-rice-still-not-interested-in-vp-slot/” target=”_blank”>rumors swirled that Condi Rice was being sought after for the VP nod. “Her nomination would also undercut the Republican Jewish establishment’s multi-million-dollar campaign to make Israel a wedge issue in this election by accusing Obama, who also pushed to revive the peace process, of being insufficiently supportive of the Netanyahu government,” ” title=”http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/106544/what-condi-says-about-romney” target=”_blank”>he said.