U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is home following an informal and indefinite recall. The Obama Administration cited concern for Ford’s personal safety as the basis for this decision. A more likely explanation, however, is the failure of the Administration’s policy of “engagement” with Bashar al-Assad’s repressive autocratic regime. Assad’s unremitting violence caused the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership earlier this week, as the country continues its slide toward civil war. The fact of the matter is, no U.S. ambassador should have been in Damascus in the first place—for …
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today addressed a joint session of Congress and proclaimed that his government is willing to make “painful compromises” for peace with the Palestinians, but he ruled out any proposal that sacrifices Israel’s security needs or its identity as a Jewish state. In a lengthy speech that was interrupted 29 times by standing ovations and once by an incoherent protester, Netanyahu said that “Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967” and that any agreement would have to take into consideration the “vast demographic …
President Obama today delivered a lengthy speech on U.S. policy in the Middle East that promised continued American support for democratic transitions in the countries influenced by the “Arab Spring.” He outlined an overly optimistic vision of what an Israeli–Palestinian peace settlement would look like. But he missed an opportunity to express strong U.S. support for democratic opposition movements brutally repressed by two dictatorships that stand as the chief barriers to realizing American goals in the Middle East: Iran and Syria. The President reviewed the “extraordinary change” that has recently …
The United States is the largest contributor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). According the Congressional Research Service, “Since UNRWA’s inception in 1950, the United States has provided the agency with nearly $4 billion in contributions. U.S. contributions to UNRWA have steadily increased over the past decade, with nearly $228 million thus far for [fiscal year] 2010.” This support is intended to help provide food, shelter, medical care, and education for the Palestinian refugees (and their decedents) fleeing the 1948 …
Two years of President Barak Obama’s Middle Eastern foreign policy, and especially its handling of the Egyptian revolution, earned poor marks at Israel’s flagship national security event, the Herzliya Conference. The prestigious conference attracted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, U.K. Defense Minister Liam Fox, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and many others. Israel is concerned that the the Obama Administration demonstrated inconsistency, first declaring the Mubarak regime stable, then hastening to ease out an octogerian President who for a long time was America’s …
From the outset of the Obama presidency and the emergence of the Obama Doctrine, the similarities between this Administration and that of Jimmy Carter have been striking. Like Obama, Carter trumpeted soft power and international institutions as the means to solve the most perplexing foreign policy problems. The programs of both Presidents hinged on the cooperation of adversaries who interpreted the U.S. initiatives as signs of weakness, and in the second half of their presidencies, both faced the prospect of sharp reversals.
The Middle East was meant to be the crowning achievement of the Obama Doctrine. Once in the White House, President Obama focused laser-like on a “charm offensive” with Iran. When voices rose against the regime in Tehran in the wake of a disputed national election, Obama offered virtually no support for the cries for freedom. Nevertheless, the “playing nice initiative” with Tehran fell flat. Today, the regime is more aggressive than ever—backing a terrorist take-over of the government in Lebanon, snubbing Western nuclear negotiators, and promoting an Islamist agenda across …
Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez recently returned from October encounters with some of the least savory actors on the international stage. His trip focused on cementing a new nexus or alignment in world affairs, some cleverly dubbed VIRUS. It is not a computer malfunction or a contagion but rather a shadowy network of cooperation linking Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and Syria. A core element of VIRUS is developing nuclear capacity and acquiring nuclear weaponry, the ultimo ratio of international power politics. Chávez did exactly that when he purchased a nuclear reactor in Moscow, …
In Washington last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that Russia will supply P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria, confirming the rumors about the contract between the two countries that appeared in October 2009. The contract was signed in 2007 according to Moscow. A ram-jet powered Yakhont (“Ruby” or “Sapphire” in Russian) is a universal supersonic anti-ship cruise missile. It can be launched from land, sea, air, and submarines. Because it flies at 2.5 Mach at water-skimming altitudes, it is virtually cloaked from radar detection. It also has a …
While hosting Syria’s President-for-life Bashar al-Assad on June 25-26, Venezuela authoritarian populist and aspiring president-for-life Hugo Chavez was quick to promise ever-closer ties with Syria. Assad’s Syria is the longest running country on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Chavez described the Syrian leader’s visit as part of a “strategic project of cooperation to build the Caracas-Damascus axis” linking two socialist countries. Chavez made clear that he shares common enemies with Syria: “We have common enemies: “the Yankee [U.S] empire” and “the genocidal state of Israel.” Chavez continued: Arab civilization …
