Tag Archives: Israel

Resetting the Middle East

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama left last night for Israel in an attempt to “reset” the Israeli-US relationship. There are those who will say that if either side has to reset the relationship, it is the Israelis. I understand that; I don’t agree with it, but I understand it.

A couple of weeks ago shiny new Secretary of State John Kerry effectively presented a check to the Egyptian government – which is now in the throes of an electoral breakdown – for $250 million. Continue reading →

Hagel Testimony = Fail

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I subscribe to the general theory that a President, Republican or Democrat, should be able to have the people running his Departments, Commissions, and Agencies that he wants.

Unless there is some overriding disqualifying reason to reject him or her, the Senate should abide by the terms of Article II, Section 2 that says the President, “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Officers of the United States.”

The nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense is an excellent case in point.

I may not agree with Hagel on the 3 I’s – Iran, Iraq, and Israel – but we don’t generally allow Secretaries of Defense to make foreign policy. Nor, for that matter, do Secretaries of State make foreign policy. Continue reading →

Apology: U.S. Response to Egypt Violence

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

If you think the Administration of Barak Obama has its arms around foreign policy, read this from the Associated Press yesterday: “Ultraconservative Islamist protesters climbed the walls of the United States Embassy in Cairo on Tuesday and took down the American flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a movie attacking Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.”

Did President Obama demand that the Egyptian government provide assurances that our embassy would be protected?

No.

In fact, Obama’s crack foreign service issued an… apology.

He apologized for the presumed existence of a movie that no one on this planet (to my knowledge) has seen in its entirety. Continue reading →

Bad Day for GOP

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

It’s time for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to get their arms around the Republican Members of the House and give – at least some of them – a Leroy Jethro Gibbs slap to the back of the head.

Yesterday was a day that should have featured the Obamas answering questions about the charges of crankiness, stubbornness, and general dysfunction among the White House and Chicago campaign staffs.

We’ll come back to that later.

Instead it was all about Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) who was asked during a TV interview whether he thought abortion was justified in cases of rape. Continue reading →

Syria is Serious, Indeed

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, abruptly resigned as the special peace envoy to Syria.

Abrupt is the correct word, because Annan’s brief only extended until the end of this month. The current UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said he would try to find a replacement for Annan to complete the term of the “mandate.”

Annan said, in his statement of resignation: “At a time when we need – when the Syrian people desperately need action – there continues to be finger pointing and name calling in the Security Council.” Continue reading →

Newt, News, & Palestine

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

Newt Gingrich apparently let loose with some puzzling pronouncements  about Palestine and Israel in a cable television interview recently and again in the Iowa debate. Before the debate, the Washington Post quoted him saying, “Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire…We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people…”

The Post reporters went to Ghaith al-Omari, executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine, for this response:  “Besides being factually and historically wrong, this statement is unwise,” and from former national security adviser Elliott Abrams: “There was no Jordan or Syria or Iraq, either, so perhaps he would say they are all invented people as well and also have no right to statehood.”

Gingrich’s remark threw the spotlight on one of the most profound, turbulent and impactful political, religious and human conditions of the 19th,  20th and 21st centuries. The hot and cold wars of the Arab-Israeli conflict have affected the lives of millions of people throughout the world, as dramatically and injuriously as some of the greatest events of our time.

The Gingrich story, then, served as a wonderful opportunity for the Post to both inform and educate its readers on the history and the complexities of the conflict. Continue reading →

Intrigue With Iran

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

So, let me get this straight. The Iranian government decided it would be a good idea to launch a plot to kill the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S.  To do this they sent two geniuses to contact a guy they thought was a Mexican drug bandito but was actually an undercover agent pretending to be a drug bandito to do the deed.

They offered the undercover agent pretending to be a Mexican drug bandito $1.5 million to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. while he was dining at a restaurant in downtown Washington, DC.

Oh, yeah. This was going to go down like clockwork.

One-point-five-mil for a member of a Mexican drug gang? The Iranians could have gotten some Russian Mafia thug from Brighton Beach in Brooklyn to do it for bus fare and an all-expenses paid night at the Elliot Spitzer suite at the Mayflower Hotel in DC. Continue reading →

Egypt: Serious Troubles for All

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

 On December 17, 2010 a 26 year-old fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest at his treatment by the local authorities in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid.

Continue reading →

Support Mubarak

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from the Washington Times

Whatever may happen in the hours after I write this column, two things are certain: The next chapter in the magnificent and ancient civilization of the Nile is yet to be known. The role that America plays in Egypt‘s great, unfolding story also remains in doubt.

Continue reading →