As Jake Tapper explained on ABC World News Thursday night, the Republican response to President Obama's statements regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was "much ado about nothing." After all, U.S. policy under both Presidents Bush and Clinton was largely identical to Obama's assertion that "the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the […]
Category: Foreign Policy
On Friday, Senator John McCain became the highest ranking American political figure to meet with the Libyan rebels. But while his declaration that "they are my heroes" doubtless was well received in by the anti-Qaddafi fighters in Benghazi, McCain's track record should give Americans good reason for concern. After all, this is the same John […]
Over the past several days, Fox News host Glenn Beck has explained that the unrest sweeping the Middle East augurs a New World Order jointly pursued by a combination of George Soros, radical Islamists and communist unions, all aided, apparently, by Google. But on Thursday, Beck literally turned apocalyptic, warning that the seeming chaos could […]
For pure political shadenfreude, few developments have been as entertaining as the right-wing family feud over the chaos in Egypt. Among just the neoconservatives, democracy promotion idealists are clashing with advocates of authoritarian stability. On air and online, the Republican partisan pundits are at each others' throats. While Bill Kristol derided as "hysteria" Glenn Beck's […]
While the Obama administration is grappling to find the right path forward in Egypt, Republicans are deeply divided. Fearful of the Muslim Brotherhood and fearful for Israel, some like John Bolton and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter have urged support for the authoritarian "devil we know." Others, like Bill Kristol and Max Boot, called for the President […]
As the Washington Post and the New York Times reported, the rapidly developing unrest in Egypt is just as quickly posing a major challenge to U.S. foreign policy in the region. On Tuesday, Secretary of State declared "the Egyptian government is stable" even as tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Cairo. […]
Assessing the impact of the Wikileaks revelations, Fareed Zakaria concluded the confidential cables actually show "the skills of U.S. diplomats." Overall, Zakaria was reassured that "the State Department works" and by "an American diplomatic establishment that is pretty good at analysis." But in one case - the conflict between Russia and Georgia in the summer […]
Just because you can leak embarrassing, classified national security information doesn't mean you should. And just because the American government may be able to prosecute someone for it doesn't mean they should, either. But in the case of the Wikileaks, prosecution - to the extent that U.S. law allows it - is warranted. Because Julian […]
To be sure, Wikileaks' release this weekend of a quarter million diplomatic cables is a devastating blow to the national security interests and foreign policy of the United States. And the secret assessments they contain regarding U.S. allies and potential partners like Germany's Angela Merkel ("avoids risk and is rarely creative"), Nicolas Sarkozy ("emperor with […]
For weeks, the fate of the continuing peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has hinged on the extension of the moratorium on new settlements in the West Bank. But as the New York Times is now reporting, that extension may have less to do with any deal Prime Minister Netanyahu reaches with President […]

