President Obama’s strong vocal support for Israel’s right to self-defense in the wake of its aerial bombardment of weapons sites in Gaza reflects an apparent, and welcome, evolution in Obama’s thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that contrasts sharply with his initial approach toward the Jewish State. To his credit, the President resisted the traditional temptation …
“I am with the Uprising of Women in the Arab World,” says a sign that Marwa (from Tunisia) holds in front of her, “because women’s sexuality is considered as a [sic] Taboo, while Sexism, Pedophilia, and Rape are seen as commonsense.” “I am with the uprising of women in the arab [sic] world,” says a …
Dear President Obama, With your re-election in hand, you’ll now have some of that second-term “flexibility” on foreign policy that you had discussed earlier this year with outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. You’ll be glad to have it. Because you will need Congress for major domestic initiatives, and because you’re already a lame duck, you’ll …
The next president must discard two longstanding but problematic pillars of U.S. policy in the Middle East and chart a new course that reflects both regional realities and the dynamic changes that are underway there. For decades, presidents have sought to maintain regional stability by propping up pro-Western autocrats and to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict …
The recent launch of talks between Iranian and Argentine officials over how to improve relations between their countries is troubling enough from a moral standpoint – but the strategic implications are even worse. Buenos Aires long ago concluded that Tehran directed Hezbollah’s 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in the Argentine capital that killed …
Now that Gov. Mitt Romney has skillfully presented himself in three presidential debates as a reasonable alternative to President Obama, undercutting the latter’s months-long effort to paint him as a scary extremist, Obama is struggling to hold his lead in the few swing states that will decide the election. Will Obama hang on, re-energizing his …
Continue reading “Will Obama hang on? Three factors to watch”
Though President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney are clashing mightily over United States policy toward the Greater Middle East — Iran and the bomb, the terror in Benghazi, and so on — neither one is addressing the need for a new, visionary framework that serves U.S. interests in the region. For most of the …
Continue reading “We Need a New Vision for the Greater Middle East”