With the elections of President Barack Obama and the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speculation on the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship swirled and captivated diplomatic circles throughout the world. Top officials said the relationship is strong, rooted in shared values and mutual interests that can transcend beyond changes in leadership. Leaders said the two countries […]
Lawmakers get that Israel acted in its self defense by boarding the Gaza-bound flotilla of ships. AIPAC and J Street have been battling on whether lawmakers should use the incident to push for an end to the blockade (J Street’s position) or reaffirm the U.S.-Israel strategic alliance and American support for Israel’s security (AIPAC’s stance). […]
A recent New York Times article on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff is worth a read, if for nothing else than a good chuckle. The former lobbyist, caught in a corruption scandal, is living in a halfway house and working at a Kosher pizza parlor in Baltimore. But, it appears the NYT reporter has never met […]
Dear FPA Family, I am happy to announce my return to DC. I shall resume my weekly blogs soon. P.S: Thank you Derek Catsam for bringing the World Cup to us.
With all the problems that Israel has, ranging from terrorism to international bias to internal identity crises you would think Israeli officials would have some sympathy for problems here in the United States. Well, if you thought that, you clearly have never met an Israeli. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met today with Secretary of […]
An early summer heat-wave has scorched the Gulf with record temperatures and terminal power-outages are leaving few Iraqis with any way to beat the heat, but plenty to complain about.
As has been well documented over the last few years, anti-semitism is on the rise in Europe, often masked as anti-Israel sentiments. However, the anti-semitic mentality also emerges on its own, with Europeans desecrating Jewish graves, spray painting swastikas in Jew-heavy areas, and other acts. Well, not everyone is taking it lying down. The Dutch […]
Three months after international observers hailed Iraq’s parliamentary elections as a resounding success for sovereignty and civil society, the nation’s fragile democracy is suffering a withering swell of political violence.
And…. there’s more evidence that violence on the Gaza flotilla raid was premeditated by the activists. The organizer of the flotilla said: “If they board our ship, we will throw them into the sea, Allah willing!” This sentence is strikingly similar to Hamas and Iran’s claims that the Jews will be thrown into the sea, […]
Friday June 11, 2010 Turkey along with Brazil voted “No” to further sanctions on Iran. This decision illustrated Turkey’s precarious situation in the Middle East. Turkey has applied to join the EU and is now a member of NATO, long hailed to be one of the only Muslim countries with a democracy and a western […]
The largest pro-Israel lobby in the country, AIPAC, is trying to leverage is Capitol Hill supports to issue a steadfast expression of support for the Jewish state following last month’s highly controversial raid on an aid ship from Turkey. Even though the Israeli public and Israel supporters have come out backing Israel for defending its […]
The Kuwaiti newspaper As-Siyassah is reporting that Hizballah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been invited to Ankara to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Neither Hizballah nor the Turkish government have confirmed the story, but if it is true, it marks a significant deterioration in Turkey’s relationship with Israel in the wake […]
Present Dangers A Counterterrorism Ally In North Africa Morocco’s remarkable soft-power strategy By Ilan Berman Morocco can trace its contemporary approach back to the end of the Cold War. While many in the region saw the Soviet Union’s collapse as a destabilizing development–and consequently tightened domestic control–Morocco’s monarch did the opposite. The previously authoritarian […]
Lebanon’s abstention in last week’s United Nations Security Council vote on Iranian sanctions should have surprised no one. The vote not only represents internal divisions among the Lebanese political establishment, but also that country’s precarious position in the escalating confrontation between Iran and the West. Steadily over the last thirty years, Hizballah has gained traction […]
A handful of Jordanian and Yemeni social workers teamed up this past week to learn supportive techniques for helping people recover from trauma. In Yemen, the trauma(s) that made this training necessary are domestic – Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war of sorts in Saada for the past six years or so. Jordan, […]