Unconventional Wisdom in the Middle East

Recent events across the Middle East put the lie to one of the foreign policy establishment’s most enduring tenets of conventional nonsense: that Israeli-Palestinian peace is key to greater regional peace and stability. Sharing concerns over hegemony-seeking Iran and radical Islamic forces like the Islamic State group and Muslim Brotherhood, the key Arab states of …

Clearing the Path for Peace

Everybody knows that President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem will derail Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts by tilting U.S. support to Israel, inflaming Palestinian passions and undermining America’s role as an “honest broker” between the parties. The only problem is that everybody’s wrong. In fact, once passions cool, Trump’s decision to align U.S. …

A Time to Celebrate Israel

“His Majesty’s Government,” British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour wrote a century ago in a 67-word paragraph that changed the course of history, “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.” The 100-year anniversary …

A Setback for Peace Prospects

Perhaps United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to congratulate him on the new unity deal between Abbas’ Fatah Party and the terrorist group Hamas, simply didn’t know what Hamas had said about it a day earlier. The deal was important, said Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’ deputy political leader and …

Iran Raises the Stakes

With America’s global attention largely focused elsewhere, Iran continues to expand its military capabilities – legally and otherwise – forcing the question of what Washington and its regional allies plan to do about it. Iran’s military expansionism of late encompasses a host of activities: pursuing illegal means to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile technology …