Tag: autocrats

Boycott of Israeli institutions is academically dishonest

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U.S. scholars’ mounting boycotts of Israeli academic and cultural institutions are ironic indeed, for they contradict everything that higher education is supposed to stand for – they are wholly ignorant and profoundly narrow-minded. That Israel is a perennial target on America’s college campuses is hardly breaking news. The Jewish state has long suffered from the …

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Freedom’s decline and U.S. silence move in tandem

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Let’s be clear: the United States cannot single-handedly ensure the advance of freedom and democracy around the world. But, notwithstanding all too much conventional wisdom of late, America retains enormous diplomatic, economic, and other capacities to influence the course of events. So, it’s no coincidence that, as Freedom House reported late last week, freedom declined …

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All Hail Dennis Rodman, Our Latest “Useful Idiot”

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We might be tempted to dismiss the latest antics of Dennis Rodman, the freak show of a former NBA great who’s now cozying up to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as the desperate bleats of an attention-starved celebrity. But, let’s give the flamboyant Rodman his due. He now follows proudly in a long line of …

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New proposal for Syrian chemical weapons won’t produce anything good

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The growing focus, at home and abroad, on a proposal under which Bashar al-Assad would subject his chemical weapons to international control seems an all-too-fitting next step in the clumsy U.S. effort to punish the Syrian strongman for using those weapons against his own people, killing more than 1,400 of them in late August. The …

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White House undercuts its professed steadfastness in very public ways

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The public run-up to all-but-certain U.S. military action in Syria in response to the al-Assad regime’s chemical weapons usage is undercutting the very message that President Obama feels compelled to deliver. For starters, Administration officials continue to say that the President still has not made a final decision on whether to respond forcefully – despite …

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