Moral Clarity in Gaza  —  Late Saturday, thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language cell-phone messages from the Israeli military, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons.  —  Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated.  The Israel-Gaza war is not.

Two Advisers Reflect on Eight Years With Bush  —  White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley remember conferring with President Bush during the darkest days of the Iraq war, in 2005 and 2006, when violence was out of control.

Steel Industry, in Slump, Looks to U.S. Stimulus  —  The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead.  As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy.

Bigger Than Bush  —  As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.  —  Some of the whining almost defies belief.  Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty …

A Focus on Violence by G.I.'s Back From War  —  FORT CARSON, Colo. — For the past several years, as this Army installation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains became a busy way station for soldiers cycling in and out of Iraq, the number of servicemen implicated in violent crimes has raised alarm.

Creature Comforts  —  ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT IN A SUBURB of Albany, a group of children dressed as vampires and witches ran past a middle-aged woman in plain clothes.  She gripped a leather harness — like the kind used for Seeing Eye dogs — which was attached to a small, fuzzy black …

Bernard Henri Levy among 6 Jews said targeted by Islamist group  —  Jewish-French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy was listed by a Belgium-based Islamist group as a target for assassination alongside other leading Jewish personalities in Europe, the Belgian daily La Derniere Heure reported earlier this week.

Burris sought death for innocent man  —  Former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to replace Barack Obama in the Senate, is no stranger to controversy.  —  Public fury over the governor's alleged misconduct has masked the once lively debate …

Harry Reid's Doing the Right Thing  —  digg it  —  I've had my problems with Reid over the years, but he's not in the wrong on Blagojevich and Burris.  This is not a racial issue.  Long before Burris, a black man, was appointed by a corrupt governor, Reid said he wouldn't allow anyone, anyone, appointed by Blagojevich, to be seated.

The Next World Order  —  CHINA and India are in a struggle for a top rung on the ladder of world power, but their approaches to the state and to power could not be more different.  —  Two days after last month's terrorist attack on Mumbai, I met with a Chinese friend who was visiting India on business.