It is hard to see any good in the metastasizing plague of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, but the increasingly outrageous and bold attacks by the Somali-based pirates are leading to remarkably sensible decision-making in Riyadh and Washington.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obamas historic election victory may have done a lot more for Israeli moderates than just boost the election prospects of the Kadima party and its new leader Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. A remarkable public speech by one of the Jewish states espionage chiefs Monday suggests that Obamas emergence is encouraging Israeli doves to spread their wings, even in the military high command.

Trailing badly in the dying days of the presidential campaign, the John McCain campaign is claiming that Sen. Barack Obamas supposed lack of experience makes him unfit to lead the country and that trusting him to do so would be risky.

There is an old joke about American politics about it being the best democracy money can buy. By election day next week $2.4 billion will have been spent on this years presidential election campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And another $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests.

PARIS -- The Arabs should be aware that pressure is mounting in the United States to reduce dependence on Middle East oil – in other words to reduce oil imports. Whoever wins next months U.S. presidential election, whether it is Barack Obama or John McCain, is bound to want to shape a new national policy, less dependent on imported oil, for energy and climate change. Both candidates have vowed to do so.

American policy toward the Middle East has always been determined by the politics of oil and the politics of oil are determined by the oil companies.

Middle East leaders and policymakers welcomed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama with open arms a few weeks ago, but they had better start preparing to deal with President John McCain.