“If they want Iran to return to its commitments,” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, declared this week about the 2015 global nuclear agreement, “the United States must lift all sanctions in practice.” Hours later, President Biden told CBS News that he will not lift sanctions until Iran agrees to abide by the agreement’s restrictions on …
Continue reading “Iran nuclear program presents new challenges”
Even the closest of bilateral relationships have their ups and downs, and that’s surely true of the vibrant ties that the United States has maintained with Israel since the latter was established more than 70 years ago. As President-elect Biden prepares to assume office, however, he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be wise …
Continue reading “Biden and Netanyahu can carefully nourish U.S.-Israeli ties”
This week’s revelations that the International Atomic Energy Agency found traces of uranium at an undeclared nuclear site in Iran’s Tehran Province — revelations which the regime has refused to explain — shows that the Iranian nuclear issue is far more complicated than U.S. and Iranian jockeying of recent days suggests. The issue is not …
Continue reading “Future Iran nuclear deal needs stronger verification”
Few things are more infuriating than to hear Western leaders lecture Israel about how it should behave — whether the issue is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or other matters — while they say little if anything about far more serious matters of regional stability or human rights around the world. After all, it’s Israel — and …
Continue reading “Netanyahu ignores global opinion at Israel’s peril”
Everybody knows that President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem will derail Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts by tilting U.S. support to Israel, inflaming Palestinian passions and undermining America’s role as an “honest broker” between the parties. The only problem is that everybody’s wrong. In fact, once passions cool, Trump’s decision to align U.S. …
Hailing the new 10-year, $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel on U.S. security aid, President Barack Obama couldn’t pass up the opportunity to chastise the Jewish state for failing to secure a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The U.S. commitment to Israel’s security, Obama said in a prepared statement …
Israel’s growing diplomatic, military, and economic ties across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia should shatter an enduring myth: that the Israel-Palestinian conflict will make Israel an international pariah. These ties reflect not only the foresight of Israel’s leaders, the doggedness of its diplomacy and the strength of its economy, but also the rise of …