Iran
December 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
At the Weekly Standard, Daniel Halper describes the Iran PressTV site as the state-run propaganda outlet. In the outlet’s piece on the prospective nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, one can observe that the mullahs are pretty excited by the Hagel thesis. The piece struggles a bit with idiomatic English. Nevertheless, the Islamically correct Schadenfreude comes through loud and clear. “Some in the Israeli lobby have reportedly reacted
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December 3, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports on the reemergence of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). According to Bruce Reidel, a former CIA counterterrorism expert now with the Brookings Institution, “what we’re now seeing is al Qaeda in Iraq’s revival, not only as a movement in that country but as a regional movement.” Reidel notes that from its base in the Sunni provinces west of Baghdad, AQI is building networks in Syria and
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November 27, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Reuters reports on what some may see as a touching display of gratitude: “Gazans say ‘Thank you Iran’ after Israel conflagration.” Gazans offered very public thanks to Iran on Tuesday for helping them in this month’s fight against Israel, when Iranian-made missiles were fired out of the Palestinian enclave towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. “Thank you Iran”, said large billboards on three major road junctions in the Gaza Strip –
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November 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Let’s take a preliminary look at the advantages and disadvantages of the cease fire agreement, from an Israeli and traditional pro-Western perspective. There are two big advantages. First, the agreement puts an end, at least for now, to the bombardment of Israel. I suspect that Hamas was approaching the end of its ability effectively to bombard and, for this reason, was willing to agree to the cease fire. Even so,
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November 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
It seems exceedingly unlikely that the recent Hamas attacks on Israel from Gaza are a mere coincidence with Obama’s re-election. More likely still is that this is part of a new political phase in the Hamas-Tehran axis that presages some kind of breakout (next step in the nuke program?) and is designed to tie up Israel and make a strike against Iran more difficult. In any case, one new thing
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November 17, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Israel’s decision to leave Gaza some years ago meant that it could no longer police that cesspool of a Strip, and thus that it would suffer from the rocket attacks that have plagued it ever since. Now, Isreal’s only recourse is periodically to intervene in Gaza. That’s what is happening now, and the intervention might entail another invasion. Given that the Israelis must tackle Gaza every few years anyway to
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November 8, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Iran’s intelligence ministry published a report on the U.S. election in Farsi that appeared prior to Tuesday, but–no surprise here–didn’t get reported on in the U.S., and still hasn’t been, to my knowledge. The Israeli press has the story on why Iran’s mullahs were pulling for Barack Obama: As the world ponders what Barack Obama’s re-election will mean in regard to the U.S.’s stance against Iran, an Iranian intelligence ministry
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November 5, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I should have written much earlier about an interesting congressional race in my district, Maryland’s Eighth. It pits incumbent Democrat Chris Van Hollen against Republican challenger Ken Timmerman. What makes the race stand out is not its competitiveness; Van Hollen is very likely to win. Rather, the race stands out because of the sharp contrast between the two candidates on foreign policy, an issue seldom seen in the 2012 election.
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October 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker
From Israel National News comes this highly entertaining report on Iranian coverage of the presidential election: Iran’s government mouthpiece Press TV is panicking over the prospect of a defeat for President Barack Obama and warns that Mitt Romney will steal the election through “black-box” voting machines that “manufacture election outcomes.” It also charged that the polls – virtually all of which now show Romney in the lead or at least
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October 14, 2012 — Scott Johnson
We went to see the film Argo last night. The film takes us back to the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 for a sidebar (“the Canadian caper”) regarding the rescue of six State Department employees who had escaped from the American embassy at the time of the embassy’s takeover. The true story of their return from Tehran to the United States courtesy of the CIA was declassified by President Clinton
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September 27, 2012 — Scott Johnson
At the risk of courting the condemnation of the Obama administration or a visit from local law enforcement authorities, we bring you reader David Ferguson’s illuminating photoshop of Prime Minister Netanyahu at the UN today. Come and get me, copper! Mr. Ferguson comments: “In simple enough language even the UN delegates can understand — though likely not simple enough for the US Delegates.”
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September 27, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The text of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech has been posted here by the Israel News Agency. C-SPAN has posted the video here. As with Churchill’s great speeches, there is a bracing clarity in the truth of the words and in hearing them spoken in a forum where the truth is at a premium. Please read it all: Thank you very much Mr. President. It’s a pleasure to see the General
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September 25, 2012 — Scott Johnson
David Ignatius is the prominent Washington Post columnist who specializes in foreign affairs. He writes highly regarded espionage novels in his spare time. Ignatius is full of good feeling toward some of the world’s foremost terrorists, tyrants, and malefactors. In September 2003, for example, Ignatius got together for a little chat with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Ignatius’s subsequent column on the interview maddeningly refers to the Hezbollah war of extermination
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September 23, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
In his interview on Sixty Minutes tonight, President Obama called Israel “one of our closest allies in the region.” Who, it is fair to ask, are the other countries in the Middle East that Obama considers U.S. allies on a par with Israel? Obama also referred to Israeli expressions of alarm about Iran developing nuclear weapons as “noise”: QUESTION: You don’t feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the
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August 31, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The Blaze reports on the continuing deterioration of relations between the Obama administration and the government of Israel: The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot headlined its Friday paper “The Confrontation” with a photo of Netanyahu on one side and President Obama alongside U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, on the other. Veteran diplomatic correspondent Shimon Schiffer reports that during a private meeting last week, Netanyahu very undiplomatically attacked Obama and his
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August 22, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Lee Smith argues that Mitt Romney is no more likely than Barack Obama to stage a preemptive strike against Iran. Romney, Smith contends, will not want further to burden our economy by destabilizing the Middle East and sending oil prices skyrocketing, nor will he want to be tagged as a war-mongering Republican who bombed Iran. Thus, Romney will persuade himself that Iran can be deterred from using its nukes by
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August 6, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
David Plouffe is a senior adviser to the Obama administration and very much a member of President Obama’s inner circle. In 2008, he served as Obama’s campaign manager. MTN Group is a South African company that has been active in Iran and Syria, and is now under international sanctions as a result of that activity. In December 2010, about a month before he joined the White House staff, Plouffe received
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