Regional Affairs

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".

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.

Dore Gold’s Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs summarizes the gradual thawing of China-Israel relations as China matures.

Yossi Klein Halevi articulates Israeli feeling on Obama’s “got your back” statement.

Jeffrey Goldberg interviews a very articulate, reasonable-sounding President Barack Obama prior to Netanyahu’s visit.

Photographer Paul Conroy makes his escape from Homs through a sewer.

Ensuring that Iran does not go nuclear is the best guarantee for long-term regional stability. Amos Yadlin, one of eight Israeli fighter pilots who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak, debunks some conventional wisdom on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

More refreshment from Edward Luttwak. I am enamored.

Revenge of the Sunnis: What the Arab Spring is really about. By Edward Luttwak. In Foreign Policy.

Al-jazeera is liveblogging the Syrian uprising.

Hama families speak up about the atrocities of 1982.

After an unhappy Treasury bills offering, “Egypt faces a disaster of biblical proportions, and the world will do nothing about it,” writes Spengler.

A Riche history: The café at the heart of revolutionary Cairo.

Scotland’s early industrialisation produced great wealth and great poverty and after two centuries is yet to tackle that fundamental inequity. Lesley Riddoch compares Scotland’s failure and Finland’s success.

An argument that at the euro summit Cameron overplayed his hand.

Rashid Khalidi speaks at length to Haaretz. Agree or not, it’s required reading.

“European “normality” was based to a large extent on West German “abnormality”. Now that the reunified Germany is becoming more “normal”, it is undermining European “normality.” A sobering analysis of Deutsch affairs by Tony Corn.

In its first serious act, the Arab League sanctions Syria. Travel bans on officials, frozen assets, reduced trade. Vote was 19-2: Iraq abstained, Lebanon against.

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.”

Tony Blair, Middle East Quartet envoy, on Charlie Rose.

Masterful summation by Herb Keinon of the significance of Obama’s speech to the UN on voting for a Palestinian state.

Spengler: the “new, apocalyptic tone” in the Middle East is due to Egypt’s chronic unproductivity.

Springtime from Hitler — the new face of the Arab Spring.

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.

Turkey is more beleaguered than we realize, muses M K Bhadrakumar in Asia Times.

Arab Spring = Kurdish Summer, argues David Eshel in his new blog covering Middle East affairs.

The strange story of Saif Qaddafi in Vanity Fair.

Stunningly good piece by Amir Oren in Haaretz on the British in Libya.

Recent home interviews with Ehud Ya’ari on Gaza and Syria.

Libyans! Hamas has competition in the Sinai smuggling business.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s begins his victory speech chillingly: “Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, the West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir.” What I believe is that many Turks are dissatisfied with being merely a nationstate. What a neighborhood.

At the Gaza-Egypt crossing.

What’s there to disagree with in The Third Man, Elliott Abrams’ account of the Obama-Bibi-Abbas fracas.

If current fertility rates continue, Israel will have more 18-24-year-olds than either Iran or Turkey by 2085.

On George Mitchell’s retirement: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not and was never comparable to Northern Ireland.

Syria’s about to join the UN Human Rights Council. Well.

Barry Rubin cuts to the chase re prospects for success in the Syrian uprising compared to Egypt, Libya, etc.

A primer by an Egyptian liberal on how to achieve at least something in the upcoming elections.

More than 60% of Egyptians want to maintain the peace treaty with Israel.

Israel performs the world’s first interception of a hostile short-range rocket.

Regarding Syria, Israel should arm the Kurds.

Libya, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia: all artificial states that could disintegrate.

Harvard professor of public policy Robert Putnam reflects on his 2007 desert encounter with Gadhafi.

Hitchens upbraids Obama on Libya.

Michael Totten reposts his masterly visit to Tripoli in light of Libya’s pending liberation.

Victor Davis Hanson dissects the shambles that has been the Obama administration’s reaction to the protests in Egypt.

Netanyahu speaks: “The peace between Israel and Egypt has endured for over three decades and our goal is to ensure that these relations continue.”

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.