The “blame America first” crowd that Jeane Kirkpatrick, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called out in her speech to the 1984 Republican National Convention, lifts its collective head at opportune moments. When death and destruction rain down on America, this odd mix of hard-left, hard-right and hard-middle critics and cranks don’t blame …
Continue reading “After Boston, A Predictable Wave Of America-Bashing”
If you monitor United Nations proceedings, listen to political debates on college campuses, and take in much mainstream and new media, you might think that Israel is the world’s greatest human rights abuser. The reality is quite different, as this week’s release of the U.S. State Department’s latest annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices …
Continue reading “No, Israel’s not the world’s big human rights problem”
Western thinking about freedom and democracy is marked by a set of optimistic assertions, which include the following: First, the global advance of freedom and democracy marches ever-onward. Second, economic and political freedoms in a particular nation walk hand in hand, each reinforcing the other. Third, the more a society (particularly its middle class) enjoys …
Continue reading “Stakes Too High To Ignore Democracy’s Retreat”
Fresh off the failure of Almaty, where global negotiators again received nothing for their slavish effort to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear pursuit, Western diplomats insisted that talks would continue. “There is enough substance for these negotiations to continue,” a Western diplomat told Reuters this week. “I would not expect a breakdown.” Why? Because …
“Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to visit Turkey this week,” Reuters reported yesterday, “as part of a trip to Western Europe and Asia to consult allies on issues including Syria’s civil war.” Turkey? An “ally?” In United States foreign policy-making, perception often lags reality. Presidents George W. Bush and President Barack Obama assumed …
Across our world in which 7.1 billion people dwell, 2.2 billion (or 31 percent) are Christians. They pray in mega-churches across America, in isolated villages in China, and in thousands of places in between. More and more, they pray in fear. That’s because, as the Hudson Institute’s Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, and Nina Shea outline …
“Put yourself in their shoes,” President Obama said of the Palestinians, imploring his Israeli audience in Jerusalem to work for peace. “Look at the world through their eyes.” A fine sentiment, smoothly expressed. But if, on his recent swing through Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, Obama hoped to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, he will …
Continue reading “Soothing words in Israel won’t pull peace from Mideast flames”