Due to the variety of interests that it represents, the Iraqi government was unable to devise a formula that would allow an American military presence after January 2012. It refused to grant legal immunity to US forces, even though Iraqi military leaders supported a continued US presence in order for Iraq to remain on its feet. Over the past weekend both the US and Iraqi heads of state confirmed that the withdrawal of US troops will take place as planned, and by Christmas no American forces will remain in the country. Iraqi Prime...
When Sarah Palin announced last week she would not seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, she joined a number of other politicians who have recently crossed their names off the GOP ballot. Yet with little more than a year remaining until the election, no clear frontrunner has emerged from the still-crowded field of Republicans seeking their party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama. While candidates have been campaigning for months, a Washington Post-ABC News poll published in early October showed that the...
When PA President Abbas formally submitted his bid for recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital, the PA thereby rejected the requests by the administration not to appeal to the United Nations. Indeed, Abu Mazen completely ignored the United States in his speech before the UN. Moreover, the statehood bid clearly rebuffed warnings by the US Congress, notwithstanding the critical importance of American assistance to the Palestinian.
The Iowa caucuses, the first step in the US presidential nominating process, are a little more than six months away. For the past four decades, at this point in the race, the Republican Party has had either a sitting president or a clear front runner who clinches the nomination. So far, however, no such candidate has emerged, leaving a slew of GOP contenders still vying for the opportunity to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in November 2012.
According to various reports, Foreign Minister Lieberman told European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton that if the Palestinians undertake a unilateral move in the United Nations, Israel will renounce all the agreements it has signed with them, including the Oslo Accords. Ashton refused to accept this position. Nearly two decades after the Oslo Accords were signed with much fanfare, there is still disagreement as to their benefits and their relevance today.
The killing of Osama Bin Laden by American Navy SEALs forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan in early May represents a new peak in the ongoing tension between the United States and Pakistan regarding the issue of combating terror in general, and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas within Pakistan’s sovereign territory in particular. Nevertheless, at this stage, the two sides are avoiding an irreparable divide based on their clear mutual interests: Pakistan needs the economic support of the United States and aims to prevent...
Because two previous confrontations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama had left both a bit bloodied and bowed, it is unlikely that either was seeking a third round during Netanyahu’s recent visit to the United States. Yet that is precisely what happened – largely because of a phrase that was both superfluous and misunderstood.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to the May 24, 2011 joint session of the United States Congress was the third in a series of speeches in which he presented his position on the Palestinian issue. The first was given at Bar-Ilan University in June 2009; the second was delivered on May 16, 2011 before the Knesset. The differences between the three fundamental addresses, as slight as they may seem, indicate a cautious and measured development and represent an attempt to confront two kinds of pressures – internal and those coming from...
After a period of heightened expectations regarding a series of speeches by President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, from the Palestinian perspective the mountain turned out to be little more than a molehill. The Palestinians were not given any incentive to reexamine their strategy in anticipation of September 2011. In their view, the speeches were a combination of a very grudging gesture toward them accompanied by a heap of bitter pills to swallow.
Since the Obama administration took office, its relations with Israel have been characterized to no small measure by distrust and suspicion. In this context, the April 11, 2011 essay in the Weekly Standard by Elliott Abrams, a senior researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs under President George W. Bush is of particular interest. It reviews the sorry state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and in part focuses on the lack of...
From Egypt’s signing of the peace treaty with Israel in 1979 to the recent mass demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, there has never been a question as to Egypt’s commitment to the agreement. In spite of difficult tests over the years, including Israel’s bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad (1981); the invasion of Lebanon and the IDF’s continued presence there (1982-2000); two intifadas; and various operations in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, Egypt observed most of the articles in the military part of...
In his capacity as commander of the American forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus testifies before the Senate Armed Forces Committee every few months. The purpose of his testimony is to provide the American legislature with an official update regarding the situation in Afghanistan, review major processes and trends, and present what is needed to fulfill the mission.
