A Baleful Peace Process
To be outrageously iconoclastic among the Washington foreign-policy crowd is easy: Just suggest that the Israeli-Arab peace process is not merely pointless but actually damaging to America’...
Pan-Arabism
How A Weak Iran Deal Makes Us All Less Safe and War More Likely
The debate over whether Israel would launch an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities to blunt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions has always loomed large in the mind of Western policymakers...
Op-eds
The Muddle East
If Congress refuses to support American military action against the Assad regime in Syria, and President Barack Obama declines to strike or strikes meekly, will American power—that marriage...
Op-eds
The Great Collision
For most of those who were so hopeful when the Great Arab Revolt downed the dictator Hosni Mubarak two years ago, the travails of Egypt’s fledgling democracy have been depressing. Many in t...
Op-eds
In Egypt, the Popularity of Islamism Shall Endure
How will the Egyptian army&rsqu...
Op-eds
Hezbollah’s Drone to Israel: Calculated Adventurism
On Thursday, Israeli fighter jets shot down a drone off of Haifa’s coastline. The drone, according to a statement from the Israeli military, was identified as it flew north...
Policy Briefs
The New War Against America
Last January, President Obama went over to the Pentagon to announce deep cuts in defense. He took the occasion to proclaim: “Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of...
Op-eds
Obama’s Detachment Policy on Syria
On Monday, the editor of the pan-Arab Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Tariq al-Homayed, penned a column that deli...
Op-eds
Useful Fiction
Newt Gingrich says the Palestinians are an “invented people.” They are, like many others in the Middle East.
Op-eds
The Case for Palestinian Nationalism
If only Palestinians were making it seriously.
Op-eds
The Fall of the House of Assad
Bashar al-Assad is finished. The Arab League has condemned him, as have former allies Qatar and Turkey. One time Saudi intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal says Assad’s exit is inevitable. Pe...
Op-eds
Autocracies United
“Reset” with Russia and “engagement” with Iran have failed. Here’s why.
Op-eds
The Way Forward for Egypt
Egypt’s deposed former president Hosni Mubarak made his first appearance in his trial in Cairo today. On Monday, Mubarak’s former subordinates in the military retook Ca...
Op-eds
The Syrian Challenge
The administration’s policy toward Syria is shaping up to be the greatest missed opportunity of Barack Obama’s presidency. His failure of vision and nerve, paired with an acute Republ...
Op-eds
Are We Safer?
Yes, George W. Bush has made America more secure since 9/11.
Op-eds
Carnegie advice Lebanon can do without
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has just released a report on the Middle East that ostensibly lays out "a new approach" for the next American administration to pursue - one that is...
Op-eds
The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to Jordan this month for talks with King Abdullah II, just days after the monarch swore in a new governme...
Op-eds
The Army’s Regime
When commenting on Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, President Obama spoke about the Egyptian people’s “hunger for change,” which “bent the arc of history toward justice....
Op-eds
Fear the Muslim Brotherhood
At the Daily Beast, Bruce Riedel has posted an essay called “Don’t fear Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood,” the classic, conventional-wisdom response to the crisis in Egypt. The...
Op-eds
Tunisia’s Anti-Israel Eliza Doolittle
Christian Ortner, a commentator for the Austrian dailies Wiener Zeitung and Die Presse, picked up a golden journalistic nugget about Leila Trabelsi, the wife of Tunisia’s former authoritari...