Presidents of the United States don’t have to make friends, have friends or be friends. They do, however, have to manage America’s foreign policy interests. The Obama Administration, by essentially demanding that Israel produce a Palestinian state even when the…
So said Vice President Biden as he arrived in Israel. Why?
The radio newsreader noted that Sunday marked, “only the second Iraqi general election since the U.S. invaded the country in 2003.” That would be two more real elections than have been placed in a row in any other Arab country.
Like swallows returning to Capistrano, Congress’s annual determination to debate the history of the Ottoman Empire is a sign of spring. The Turkish government’s approach to the American Jewish community to help sink the proposed Congressional resolution officially recognizing the…
The Iraqi Election: It has been a politically tricky and physically dangerous run-up to Iraq’s scheduled 7 March national election. The elimination of hundreds deemed “Ba’athists” by the largely Shiite electoral panel (many of whom were later reinstated) produced a…
On February 23, a Kyrgyzstan Airways flight from Dubai bound for Bishkek was ordered by the Iranian government to land in Iran and a passenger, Abdol Malik Rigi, was taken off in handcuffs. Have you seen it in the newspapers?…
In late December, the Senate passed a 60-day extension of three key-and sometimes controversial-provisions of the USA Patriot Act, known as the “lone wolf,” “business records,” and “roving wiretap” provisions. The “lone wolf” allows the government to track a non-American…
The speed of the uproar claiming it was Israel’s Mossad that sent Hamas master smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to his reward should make you suspicious. Mossad, of course, is a convenient rack on which to hang one’s hat, but to believe…
It is tempting in the midst of “snowmageddon” here in Washington, to hunker down and forget that anyone is out beyond our immediate very white sphere, but tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. It has been 30…
Middle East envoy George Mitchell announced on a recent visit to Syria that the United States would be returning an ambassador to Damascus. A U.S. official in Damascus told a German press agency that the ambassador, “will help change Syria’s…