Political tidbits: Obama talks to Abbas, the end of “identity politics”? (UPDATED)

• Barack Obama reiterated his support for a Palestinian state in a phone call yesterday with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
• Yes, he can? First it was his website looking remarkably like Obama’s, and now Bibi Netanyahu is linking himself to the president-elect in a speech to the UJC General Assembly and calling himself a candidate of change.
• The conservative Powerline blog wonders if it is time for Republican Jews to "throw in the towel."
• Elliot Jager in the Jerusalem Post says everyone should stop worrying about Obama’s policy towards Israel — and adds that Israel would be better off if "we knew what we wanted and pulled together."
• Rabbi Marc Gellman hopes Obama’s election is the end of "identity politics," in Newsweek.
• Al Qaida’s video response to the election of Obama includes an image of the president-elect wearing a yarmulke and meeting with Jewish leaders, reports the AP.
• The Forward talks to two of the new Jewish members of Congress.
• "This is the beginning of a new chapter," said Joe Lieberman yesterday after keeping his committee chairmanship, reports the Forward.
• Noam Schieber in The New Republic notes Lieberman’s admission of "political and personal hurt" when fellow Democrats campaigned against him in 2006.
• Some details on the now-underway Minnesota Senate recount from the AP. They’ll count 30,000 ballots a day, or one every five seconds for each counter.
• Today’s the first vote in the John Dingell-Henry Waxman showdown on Capitol Hill, reports Dingell’s hometown Detroit News.Here’s JTA’s look at the clash of House giants.