Foreign Policy

The June issue of the American Spectator carries a “Special Report” by George Gilder on “The Arab Debt to Jewish Settlement” that pokes a very large and new hole in the foreign policy of the Obama Administration. I think that even those familiar with Israel and its history will be surprised at the historical information our Discovery Sr. Fellow (and institute co-founder) has assembled Read More ›

Betrayal is not too strong a term. The president’s May 19 speech turned Israel upside down. It was a shocking sellout of our only reliable Mideast ally, and can only energize Palestinian maximalist sentiments. There are two money paragraphs of Obama’s May 19 speech. First, on final borders: The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian Read More ›

The wily Col. Gaddafi declared a cease fire after the U.N. resolution authorizing use of force. If he stuck by it, President Obama, speaking at his press conference this afternoon seemed prepared in turn to avoid any military action against Gaddafi, thereby leaving him in power and establishing a tense division of the country between Gaddafi and the rebels. but Read More ›

Distorted media coverage of the recent terrorist assault on the Israeli community of Itamar compounded the pain of an unspeakably brutal crime. On Friday night shortly after 10 PM, just hours after the commencement of the Jewish Sabbath, two knife-wielding intruders broke into the modest one story home of the Fogel family, murdering the mother and father in their bed Read More ›

Prof. Benjamin R. Barber of Rutgers, a Distinguished Fellow at a progressive think tank called Demos, is a leading exponent of what he calls “strong democracy,” direct rule by the people. Weak old fashioned (small “d”) democracy that is set within traditional (small “r”) republican institutions is objectionable to Dr. Barber. America’s Founders wanted a government of checks and balances Read More ›

There is an old chestnut that often resurfaces when Americans are taken hostage: Emulate Thomas Jefferson’s resolute dispatch of forces to free hostages held by the Barbary pirates. Yet the historical truth is quite different, and explains why Somali pirates have killed American hostages with impunity. The depressing reality is that in our republic’s earliest years, most hostage crises were resolved by paying Read More ›

I never have written down this nightmare scenario before because who would want to give ideas to terrorists? But now the nightmare has been given an unavoidable real life demonstration at the airport in Moscow. The suicide bomber at Domodedovo Airport killed 35 and injured 168. That would be seen as catastrophic even in Iraq or Afghanistan, and it is unknown Read More ›

In a Washington Post op-ed, five former secretaries of state—all of whom served under Republican presidents—urged ratification of the New START Treaty, although they did not press for ratification during the current lame duck session. Could they all be wrong? In a word: Yes … The authors argue: (1) New START promotes verification; (2) New START permits missile defenses; (3) New START’s ratification Read More ›

President Obama pushed his New START Treaty through Congress before Christmas. Do not celebrate. The Russians will, and should. Why? First, the Russians got an arms-reduction treaty negotiated on their terms, relieving them of the pressure to maintain a strategic nuclear arsenal beyond what the economic base permits, enabling them to hide telemetry test data on their newest strategic missiles Read More ›

Two solid analysts, ex–Bush 43 speechwriter Marc Thiessen and Hudson Institute intelligence scholar Gabriel Schoenfeld, have published defenses of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) controversial new scanning and patdown policies. They argue that TSA’s policy is a necessary reaction to the evolution of terrorism. Their analysis rests on eight air-security myths. 1. The fact that there have been no attacks since 9/11 vindicates Read More ›

President Obama’s push for lame-duck Senate ratification of his New START arms treaty ran into a brick wall when Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, a GOP arms-treaty expert, announced that he opposes a floor vote before the new Congress is seated in January 2011, when a more extensive, detailed exploration of treaty issues can be conducted. Sen. John Kerry intends to press Read More ›