Obama Foreign Policy
May 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
You may have read in the news that John Yoo has suffered the indignity of being banned from Russia by the government of Vladimir Putin. Yoo and 17 others were banned in a tit for tat response a day after the United States imposed sanctions on Russians guilty of human rights violations. Yoo was in good company, included in a group of four men who Russia’s Foreign Ministry said were
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April 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Chuck Hagel has announced that the United States believes, “with varying degrees of confidence” that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its people. Taken literally, Hagel’s statement makes no sense. No one — and no entity — can believe something with varying degrees of confidence. What Hagel means, I assume, is that the relevant players within our government believe that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against
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April 17, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We mourn the passing of Margaret Thatcher, but President Obama is not exactly choked up. Like us, he puts her in the same category as Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan, but in Obama’s scheme of things, that’s a bad place to be. Over at NRO Charles Cooke observes: The news that the Obama administration will sit out Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral, sending from the current crop only the charge d’affaires from
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April 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the weekend, I wrote about how the Palestinian Authority blew off John Kerry’s efforts to keep Salam Fayyad in power as Prime Minister. Kerry’s failure, I believe, “demonstrates once again the lack of U.S. influence over the PA” and the futility of our efforts to cause it to make any concessions to Israel. As for Fayyad, I dismissed him a “PA pol.” But, plainly, that’s not how the U.S.
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April 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the resignation of his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad despite pleas from the U.S. and the EU that he retain Fayyad. Actually, I am wrong to say “despite.” According to Fatah officials, U.S. pressure on Abbas to keep Fayyad in power proved counterproductive. Let us not probe the merits of Abbas’ decision to accept Fayyad’s resignation or explore the demerits of Fayyad’s tenure as
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April 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We’ve been following the Egyptian government’s harassment of Bassem Youssef, the Arab world’s most popular television comedian, “for the supposedly criminal use of satire in jokes about President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist political party,” as Robert Mackey and Kareem Fahim put it in this New York Times post. We posted the video of Jon Stewart’s critique of the Morsi government here. In an update Mackey and Fahim posted a
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April 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I want to second Steve’s thoughts about Kim Jong Un and North Korea. The recent words and moves by North Korea strike me as saber rattling for a purpose (or, more likely, purposes). One purpose, as Steve says, is to obtain new concessions from the U.S. Another purpose may well be to shore up the dictator’s standing with the military. It has been reported that Kim Jong Un has turned
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April 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We turn the floor over to Andrew McCarthy: My column last weekend dealt with the travesty of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s apology to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, under great pressure from President Obama, for Israel’s self-defense against Turkey-based jihadists who attempted to break its lawful blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. Netanyahu not only apologized but added to the humiliation by agreeing to Erdogan’s demand that Israel compensate the “victims” of the
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March 31, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I would like to think that the internal contradictions of Islamism will bring down regimes such as that of Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi. Today the New York Times reports on Egypt’s shortages of food and fuel, a story that David Goldman has cornered for quite a while. If only we were to impose appropriate conditions in return for the financial aid that we provide — and if only we sought to
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March 29, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Elliott Abrams wonders where the hard core jihadists currently fighting in Syria — an estimated 5,000 of them — will go when/if the fighting ends there. Israeli officials naturally are asking the same question. According to Abrams, the Israelis identify the following possibilities: They may go west to Lebanon, to fight the Shiite group Hezbollah. They may go south to try to cross into the Golan, and fight the Israeli
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March 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Not well, according to Israel’s new Minister of Economy and Trade Naftali Bennett, who should know. Bennett had this to say on his official facebook page: It seems that since [Netanyahu’s] apology, Erdogan is doing everything to make Israel regret it. He is running a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israeli-Turkish relations. For example, Erdogan has announced that he intends to visit Gaza, and has stated that
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March 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I want to return briefly to Obama’s Iranian new year’s greeting, the video of which I posted here. The holiday in issue is Nowruz, which I understand to predate Islam and extend back to Zoroastrianism. The White House has posted the text of the message here. Let’s take it from the top: Dorood [hello]. As you and your families come together to celebrate Nowruz, I want to extend my best
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March 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Scott isn’t the only observer who has noticed the Obama administration’s neglect of Iraq and the significant adverse consequences that flow from that neglect. Consider these words by the Washington Post editorial board: [In Iraq] violence continues, the central government appears to be crumbling, and the United States, by failing to live up to its promises of partnership, is tipping the country toward deeper trouble. . . . Iran’s influence
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March 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Secretary of State (remember?) John Kerry took a detour to Baghdad on his current trip to the Middle East. He sought to persuade the government of Prime Minister Maliki to stop Iran from flying arms across Iraqi territory to support the Assad regime. The United States has more or less abandoned Iraq, Iraq lacks an air force, and Iran is filling the vacuum created by our withdrawal. The New York
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March 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Barry Rubin argues that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu did not really apologize to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident. He reasons that Netanyahu did not meet the demands Erdogan set forth for an apology. I’m a fan of Rubin’s work, but in this case his argument rests on a fallacy. The fact that Netanyahu’s statement doesn’t met Erdogan’s specifications doesn’t prevent it from being an apology. Rubin acknowledges that the
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March 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The President of the United States had some incredibly foolish things to say during his trip to the Middle East. Some of them were said during his press conference with Mahmoud Abbas, the Chairman of the PLO and the President of the Palestinian Authority, now serving out the ninth year of his four-year presidential term. The Wall Street Journal has posted a transcript of the press conference here. Standing under
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March 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Benjamin Netanyahu took to Facebook to explain his apology to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident. Netanyahu does have some explaining to do. As, I argued here, it is Turkey that owes Israel an apology. Moreover, even after receiving the apology, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has not agreed fully to restore diplomatic ties with Israel or to drop his case against the Israeli generals accused of being responsible for the
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