WASHINGTON – Perhaps the most noteworthy development for Jewish groups that watch the Supreme Court was not what it decided this session, but what it decided not to decide.

In its 2007-08 session, which ended last week, the majority conservative court turned away a number of church-state cases where its decisions might have had a long-lasting impact in areas of traditional concern to Jews.

"The less church-state cases the Supreme Court takes, the better off we are," said Jeff Sinensky, the counsel for the American Jewish Committee.

WASHINGTON – As the question of an Israeli attack on Iran edges from if toward when, a new question looms: What would the United States do?

The question is preoccupying not just the White House but the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns, although neither would address the matter on the record.

A number of neoconservatives in Washington, known for their closeness to the Israeli defense establishment, now predict that Israel may strike between the election in November and the inauguration of the next president on Jan. 21, if only because that’s a time when Israel can count on U.S. support.

WASHINGTON – President Bush is about to preside over a series of events that mark the unraveling of the core principles of his Middle East peace policy.

His trip this week to the Middle East — what was to have been Bush’s triumphal coronation as Israel’s best friend ever in the White House — is becoming, at least in policy terms, a repudiation of his three nos: no to negotiating with terrorists, no to negotiating with their state sponsors, and no to getting ahead of the Israelis and Palestinians in peace talks.

Egypt is negotiating with Hamas at Israel’s behest, Israel is itching to negotiate with Syria, and U.S. allies in the Middle East are pressing for Bush to impose a solution to breaking through the current Israeli-Palestinian impasse.

WASHINGTON – Condoleezza Rice keeps talking about building peace and a Palestinian state in the Middle East, but she’s still short on the building materials.

The U.S. secretary of state’s most recent foray into Middle East shuttle diplomacy produced many of the same pledges of progress and warnings of what its absence would bring — but few tangible results.

Rice was preparing the ground for President Bush’s visit to the region next week. Concerned with his Middle East legacy, Bush is eager for success on the Israeli-Palestinian front, particularly given the situation in Iraq.

WASHINGTON – Is it connected to the classified-information case against two former AIPAC staffers? A bid to pressure Israel to concede more to the Palestinians ahead of a new round of peace talks? Connected to the murky circumstances of Israel’s mysterious airstrike in Syria last September?

For now, the main question surrounding the case of Ben-Ami Kadish, the octogenarian New Jersey man arrested last week for allegedly sharing classified information with Israel decades ago, is: Why now?

The charges against Kadish are serious. He is accused of having shared with his Israeli handler U.S. nuclear secrets, plans for combat aircraft improvements, and missile defense information.

WASHINGTON – In a series of speeches otherwise notable for their defiant tone against his real and perceived enemies, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. sounded some conciliatory notes toward Jews, casting them as fellow strugglers against inequity and for peace.

But an outburst in a question-and-answer session and an analysis of what lies behind his remarks reveal that the Jewish community may still have reason to be less than comfortable with the former pastor to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Wright launched a media blitz this week just as Obama entered the final stretch of his bid to become the Democratic nominee for president.

WASHINGTON – After years of on-and-off policy wars with the pro-Israel establishment, liberal Jewish advocates for a more aggressive U.S. posture in Middle East peacemaking are taking the fight to the street.

K Street, Washington’s lobbying mile, that is.

A conference call Tuesday was set to launch J Street, a lobbying outfit and political action committee backed by some of the biggest names in the dovish pro-Israel community.

Until now, organizers of J Street have been unwilling to discuss their plans in detail. But in a recent interview with JTA, executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami said the goal is to take on the pro-Israel giants, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where they are the most powerful: in Congress.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration has taken the groundbreaking step of identifying some virulent criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, as it warns that anti-Jewish attitudes and incidents are on the rise worldwide.

In a new study, the U.S. State Department cites Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute in reporting an increase of serious anti-Semitic incidents, encompassing physical attacks and vandalism, from 406 in 2005 to 593 in 2006.

The new study, "Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism," also cites a range of other nongovernmental organizations to show dramatic increases in Latin America, Australasia, and Europe, including a 31 percent spike in incidents in Britain from 2005 to 2006 and a 35 percent jump in Argentina during the same period.

WASHINGTON – Now that they’ve called each other disrespectful, Rabbi Eric Yoffie and the Rev. John Hagee are ready to meet and discuss their differences — respectfully.

The two religious leaders have been squaring off for the past week.

Yoffie in a major speech April 2 called on Jews to dissociate themselves from Hagee and the organization he founded, Christians United for Israel, asserting that the pastor did not respect other faiths or the right of Israeli leaders to make territorial concessions.

Five days later Hagee, a San Antonio-based evangelical mega-church leader and arguably the country’s most influential Christian Zionist, fired back in a conference call with reporters.

WASHINGTON – Even as conservatives continue to paint Barack Obama as being surrounded by anti-Israel advisers, a new poll shows the Illinois senator and Hillary Rodham Clinton in a neck-and-neck battle for Jewish support.

A Gallup Poll tracking views according to religious beliefs March 1 to 22 found Jewish Democrats in a statistical dead heat in their support for their party’s presidential nominees.