Foreign Policy-related Parries
March 2010
Friendship is for Weenies
It’s amazing, given the adulation he enjoyed elsewhere, that the Israeli public knew from the start not to trust this US President.
January 2009
Shanghai Europe
So, finally, we stopped yesterday; the Israeli assault of late 2008/early 2009 on Gaza is over. With it, Israel lost moral purity and made vital strategic gains.
January 2008
Israel’s Greatest Victory Since Osirak
The great tactician Ariel Sharon steamrolled through Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and today we see another step in the unfolding of this masterplan to staunch the damage caused by the victory of the Six Day War in 1967.
April 2007
Now the Sailors are Safe, Pursue the Matter
Even though the British government did a great job in getting the kidnapped soldiers back, that is the first step, not the last. Such piracy must cost dearly in order to discourage the Iranians (or anyone else) from doing anything like it again.
British Press on Pending Hostage Release
“Extraordinary scenes as Iran frees sailors”— The Telegraph. “Iran releases 15 as ‘gift’ to Britain”— The Times. Strangely, it’s the left-wing papers who seem less naive and and demonstrate understanding that it ain’t over ‘till it’s over. “Iran announces release of British sailors”— The Independent; and “Iran to release sailors tomorrow”— The Guardian.
February 2007
Approaching Infinite Justice
Immediately after 9/11, the burgeoning war on terror was named “Operation Infinite Justice”. This terrible name was quickly changed to “Operation Enduring Freedom” but there was such a gulf between the emotions connoted by the two monickers that the second always seemed to me merely a polite cloaking of the first. That is to say, the mission is still infinite justice and it may well still be on.
Foreign Policy-related Photos
Latmag does Foreign Policy
January 2010
Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom, Pp. 406-7.
Jacob’s Summary
“ The biblical counterpart of Odysseus, Jacob must solve the fundamental human difficulties illustrated in the pre-Abrahamic chapters of Genesis. ”
December 2002
Henry Kissinger, The White House Years
The Meeting Went Badly
“ Ford was unfamiliar with Israeli negotiating methods, which reject the biblical assurance that the meek shall inherit the earth, and he grew even more restless when he discovered that the Israeli request would draw down the reserve stocks of the American military and hence affect the readiness of American armed forces. ”
And on the Trail
Fri 27 Apr ’12
George Friedman of Stratfor on Israel’s new strategic environment, republished by the UK Defence Forum. Also, Friedman on Turkey’s strategy", Iran’s and Russia’s".
Wed 25 Apr ’12
Impressive, lengthy, casual yet in-depth conversation between The Economist and the very Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Love her up close and personal potted history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict since 1995.
Mon 9 Apr ’12
Dore Gold’s Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs summarizes the gradual thawing of China-Israel relations as China matures.
Tue 6 Mar ’12
Jeffrey Goldberg interviews a very articulate, reasonable-sounding President Barack Obama prior to Netanyahu’s visit.
Sun 4 Mar ’12
Photographer Paul Conroy makes his escape from Homs through a sewer.
Fri 21 Oct ’11
Dead. Qua-daffy. The NYT’s potted (and potty) history. “By the time he was done, Libya had no parliament, no unified military command, no political parties, no unions, no civil society and no nongovernmental organizations.”
Fri 16 Sep ’11
Aluf Benn’s depressing wrap-up of Israel’s position today. Me, I think it’s not as bad as it looks; to be beleaguered and passive is also to remain above the fray, ignoring the hateful rhetoric as well-nigh meaningless by staying focused on the true hidden conflicts among the neighbors themselves. Iran, Turkey and to a lesser extent Egypt and Saudi Arabia each compete for the same pie of Middle East dominance, while Israel just wants to be left alone to be itself — a liberal democratic ideal that bestows true power, as Ataturk understood.
Wed 14 Sep ’11
What the Palestinians want from the UN is not to exercise statehood but to be a “state under occupation” in order to legitimize escalation.
Fri 2 Sep ’11
The Weekly Standard gives credit where credit is due to President Obama on Libya.
Thu 25 Aug ’11
Despite Libya, what matters now is Syria, namely defeating Iran there.
Tue 23 Aug ’11
Fri 17 Jun ’11
Sun 12 Jun ’11
Al Schwimmer, founder of Israel Aircraft Industries, dies at 94. Haaretz obit.
Mon 30 May ’11
Walter Russell Mead waxes deep on Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. “…The people and the story of Israel stir some of the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the American soul.”
Fri 29 Apr ’11
This repeated lunge for the sour spot — WRM on the Obama presidency.
Thu 31 Mar ’11
Mon 28 Feb ’11
Hitchens upbraids Obama on Libya.
Tue 22 Feb ’11
Michael Totten reposts his masterly visit to Tripoli in light of Libya’s pending liberation.
Mon 31 Jan ’11
Barry Rubin comes down unequivocally on supporting the Egyptian regime.
US and Canadian Multinational Force & Observers await evacuation from Sinai, Debka reports. They’ve been there since 1981 to observe and preserve demilitarization.
Tue 18 Jan ’11
The case for an engaged USA, elementally argued by Robert Kagan. “The danger, as always, is that we don’t even realize the benefits…”
Sun 16 Jan ’11
Fri 14 Jan ’11
The fault line runs between George Mitchell and Dennis Ross.
Mon 27 Sep ’10
My goodness: a long juicy New Yorker piece on David Grossman.
Mon 20 Sep ’10
Thu 9 Sep ’10
The lovely John F. Burns revisits Iraq with Charlie Rose.
Tue 27 Jul ’10
The Luftwaffe’s in Israel, training to fly Heron drones in Afghanistan.
Mon 26 Jul ’10
On the Case of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer by a formerly admiring former student.
Tue 13 Apr ’10
Fri 9 Apr ’10
Mon 29 Mar ’10
Israel-Iran war games at the Saban Center. Game simulation — such a powerful way to think.
Sat 27 Mar ’10
Robert Kagan expounds dispassionately on the Obama Administration’s unhinged approach to world affairs.
Sat 13 Mar ’10
Surprising whirlwind of an article on Afghanistan by national treasure Robert D. Kaplan in The Atlantic. Surely the world’s greatest magazine?
Sun 24 Jan ’10
Stephen M. Walt’s latest on Israel. This guy reads like Chomsky. “Israel’s self-destructive land grab… most hard-line government in Israeli history… if Israel preferred peace to land… Netanyahu’s intransigence… recalcitrant client… carve up the West Bank and make creation of a viable Palestinian state impossible… increasingly becomes an apartheid state… might help give al Qaeda a new lease on life… a poor embodiment of their own values… greater risk of anti-American terrorism.” Still, at least he’s “a long-time supporter of Israel’s existence.” That’s a relief.
Fri 22 Jan ’10
On moving forward smartly on Iran. Robert D. Kaplan in The Atlantic (be like Reagan). James K. Glassman in The Wall Street Journal (a serious plan). And the participants in a Harvard Kennedy School diplomacy wargame with Iran talk to Charlie Rose: Gary Sick, Graham Allison, Nicholas Burns and Ehud Eiran.
Mon 18 Jan ’10
George Mitchell with Charlie Rose for 52 whole minutes on the current Israeli-Palestinian situation. Great man… A few days later Elliott Abrams responds.
Wed 13 Jan ’10
Evelyn Gordon in Commentary on Israel since Oslo: “The desperate pursuit of peace is not the solution but the problem”.
Tue 1 Dec ’09
Bill Clinton tells us what’s up and what to read. Interesting, though his recommending Paul Krugman, who seems to me unfailingly wrong about everything, stands as a warning.
Tue 20 Oct ’09
Some quickly digestible nuggets of imperial wisdom from Byzantium, as channelled by Edward Luttwak in Foreign Policy.
Sat 17 Oct ’09
Caroline Glick on how Turkey was lost. She blames the Bush Administration and I have to sadly agree; their eagerness to see liberalism and democracy within Islam vitiated liberalism and democracy within Turkey.
Thu 15 Oct ’09
It’s madness but persuasive: Why Russia is Not Afraid of an Iranian Bomb by Boris Morozov.
Sun 11 Oct ’09
Paul Wolfowitz speaks! The Realist is not pragmatic, he argues. “…ignoring the nature of states is to ignore a fundamental reality that has a huge bearing on the U.S. national interest. To do so is not realistic. It is dogmatic or even ideological.”
Boogie Ayalon articulates the bottom-up approach to the Israel/Palestinian conflict.
Thu 27 Aug ’09
If ever the US has been close to achieving potentially terminal self-marginalization in the Middle East, it is now, under Obama. By Michael Young, opinion editor, Lebanon’s Daily Star.
Mon 10 Aug ’09
Sharper in style than his dad, John Podhoretz slices open Obama’s new “honest” Israel policy.
Tue 4 Aug ’09
Yossi Klein-Halevi has words for the Obama Administration regarding its Middle East attitudes and policies.
Mon 8 Jun ’09
Glick parses Obama’s giving Israel the finger in Cairo.
Sun 26 Apr ’09
Mark Steyn isn’t even trying to be funny any more. In “The End of the World as We Know It”= he expresses what I’m thinking and feeling, that we’re in deep trouble because Americans voted impetuously and like spoilt children for a Feelgood o’Balma that’s going to stop feeling good mighty fast as Americans realize that given the choice, and if you can’t have both, it is indeed better to be feared than loved — and in America’s case, better for everyone.
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