Defining ‘Success’ for the Annapolis Conference

Like most analysts, Peter Brookes sees little chance that the Annapolis Conference will solve the longstanding Arab-Israeli crisis. He does think, however, that it is already a resounding success. The bulk of his column is devoted to the obstacles that will almost surely prevent much substantive change. Several major players have an interest in keeping the ...

Lebanon President Steps Down without Successor

Lebanon's president stepped down at midnight, as required by law, with no successor in place, leaving the country in constitutional crisis. Reuters reports a power vacuum: Lebanon stepped into uncharted territory on Saturday when time ran out on attempts to find a new president before President Emile Lahoud's mandate expired. Lahoud, a pro-Syrian retired general in power for nine years, left ...

Condoleeza Rice’s Highs and Lows

While Condoleeza Rice's tenure as Secretary of State is, so far as I'm aware, not set to expire for another fourteen months, the AP has nonetheless rolled out a story on Rice's Highs and Lows. Interestingly, the listed highs are pretty substantial and the lows seem to be almost entirely happenstance. Among the lows: Getting confirmed only 85-13, Hamas ...

Israeli Soldier Exposes Breasts to Flee Interrogation

Now, here's a headline you don't see every day: "Soldier flees interrogation by exposing breasts." An IDF soldier fled an interrogation room by exposing her breasts to a stunned officer. The soldier was interrogated at the Biranit army base on the northern border after she refused to undergo a drugs test. A short while after her questioning began the soldier was seen ...

Islamofascism

Monday's essay by Christopher Hitchens defending the term "Islamofascism" drew quite a bit of blogospheric reaction. Matt Yglesias responds to it with what amounts to a straw man and yet backhandedly makes a valid point. [The term] provide[s] a spurious patina of unity and sameness to diverse phenomena involving Muslims Behaving Badly so that al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Assad, ...

September Attack on a Nuclear Reactor?

I really wish that there were new information in the New York Times report on Israel's air attack on a Syrian facility early in September. It looks to me as though the same info continues to be chewed over and presented in different ways: WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site ...

France to Rejoin NATO Military Command

All signs point to France rejoining NATO's military structure more than forty years after declaring its independence and kicking the alliance headquarters out of Paris. Norman Polmar provides some background: France is expected to soon rejoin NATO's military command after a 40-year absence. The French government withdrew from the NATO military structure in 1966 (although remaining a member of NATO's political-policy ...

North Korea Smuggling Nukes to Syria and Iran?

The U.S. has quietly acknowledged that Israel did in fact bomb Syrian territory last week -- apparently to take out suspected nuclear weapons installations. After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003. A Defense Department official said Israeli jets had struck ...

The Emerging Middle East Security Paradigm

I'd like to draw your attention to a very interesting article from Parameters, “Iran and the United States: The Emerging Security Paradigm in the Middle East” (hat tip: Mark Safranski). The argument of the article is two-fold: Iran is a crucial player not only in the Middle East, but more broadly in west Asia and the international arena. ...

Losing The War Against Radical Islam?

Fareed Zakaria notes that there are several hopeful signs in the fight against Islamist terrorism, including the capture of important leaders and several schisms threatening to break apart alliances in Iraq and elsewhere. Moreover, he argues, the jihadists face numerous structural problems. The split between Sunnis and Shiites—which plays a role in Lebanon as well—is only one of the divisions ...