Quote of the Day – Bernanke Edition
"Y'know, you can't wish these things into being." - Dan Drezner, commenting on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's "eliding of the international dimension of policymaking." Much of the commentary I'm seeing on responding to major crises -- whether we're talking about the global financial crisis, energy, climate change, or Middle East peace -- these days ignores rather rudimentary international or domestic political ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 10, 2009 14:10
Israel Attacks Hamas in Gaza
[caption id="attachment_29276" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Smoke rises over the main Hamas security complex following an Israel air strike in Gaza December 28, 2008. Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second successive day on Sunday, piling pressure on Hamas after 229 people were killed in one of the bloodiest 24 hours for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 28, 2008 08:30
Pulling Out: Debating Middle East Disengagement (Neg. Rebuttal)
Since this is my last entry in the debate, I'd like to thank Bernard Finel for what I think has been an excellent, interesting, and informative debate. I've accomplished what I set out to do when I was moved to propose this debate: I've established that complete disengagement with the Middle East (the resolution of the debate) would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 22, 2008 13:52
Pulling Out: Debating Middle East Disengagement (Aff. Cross)
Question 1 (Finel): You write: “I believe the evidence speaks clearly: the increased U. S. engagement in the region has overall been a stabilizing force.” What is the precise benefit to the United States of this increased stability? Are American interests in the region more or less secure today as a result? Or is this purely ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 18, 2008 11:21
Pulling Out: Debating Middle East Disengagement (Neg. Cross)
Question 1: What evidence do you have that reducing our “footprint” and “fingerprint” will result in a reduction of radicalism in the Middle East? BERNARD FINEL: Obviously, it is impossible to prove a hypothetical, so there is no direct evidence to support my contention that reducing our visibility will reduce radicalism. Indeed, I don't think it is likely ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 16, 2008 13:12
Obama Offends 1.5 Billion Muslims
Writing at the San Francisco Chronicle, George Bisharat charges that Barack Obama unnecessarily offended the world's Muslims by pandering to the Israel lobby. On his first day as the presumptive Democratic candidate for president earlier this month, Barack Obama committed a serious foreign policy blunder. Reciting a litany of pro-Israeli positions at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 18, 2008 08:19
Fulbright Scholarships Restored for Gaza Students
A bureaucratic SNAFU almost cost seven Palestinian students their ability to study abroad on prestigious Fulbright scholarships. The U.S. has reinstated the Fulbright scholarships of seven Gaza Strip students blocked by Israel from leaving the Hamas-ruled territory, the State Department said Monday. The students were informed Thursday that their scholarships for the upcoming academic year would be deferred because ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 2, 2008 14:35
Rachael Ray, Donut Terrorist
Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an ad spot featuring Rachael Ray wearing a scarf around her neck because some thought it was a subtle nod of support to Palestinians. Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 28, 2008 07:51
Obama’s Jewish Problem
While much has been made of Barack Obama's problems with white working class voters, especially in Appalachia, a more problematic trend may be signs of trouble with Jewish voters, a strong if relatively small part of the Democratic base. Today's NYT features Jodi Kantor's story, "Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama." On Thursday, Mr. Obama will court Jewish voters with an ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 22, 2008 08:31
McCain’s Hamas ‘Hypocrisy’
Jamie Rubin, formerly Bill Clinton's State Department spokesman, takes to the pages of the Washington Post to call out John McCain for hypocrisy in claiming that Barack Obama wants to "appease" Hamas. Riffing on John Kerry's famous gaffe, the piece is subtitled, "McCain Was for Talking Before He Was Against It." McCain is the last politician who should be ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 16, 2008 08:49
Counterinsurgency Dulling Combat Skills?
Thomas Ricks reports that Matt Matthews, a historian at the Army's Combat Studies Institute, has written a new report concluding that "five years of fighting insurgents in Iraq may also have dulled U.S. soldiers' skills at more conventional combat." The study, apparently, isn't a case study of the U.S. military but rather the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and Israel's woeful ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 16, 2008 08:27
Acireman Foreign Policy
I'd like to bring an article in the Hoover Institutions's publication, Policy Review, A Moral Core for U.S. Foreign Policy by Derek Chollet and Tod Lindberg, to your attention. In the article the authors note that …after two successive presidents of opposite political parties (Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) have argued that spreading American values is itself a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 1, 2008 15:08
News You Can Use
Megan McArdle observes that, "When I tuned into the morning news yesterday, the BBC was covering the Gaza strip. Fox News was teaching people how to make homemade butterscotch pudding." I gather that she disapproves of Fox' choice. But, really, learning about the latest bizarre chapter in Palestine will have precisely zero practical consequence. By contrast, butterscotch pudding ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 24, 2008 15:11
Gazans Knock Down Border, Flee to Egypt
Massive numbers of Palestinians are fleeing to Egypt. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah. The border breach was a dramatic protest against the closure of the impoverished Palestinian territory imposed ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 23, 2008 11:39
Aksa Brigades Call for Murder of Palestinian PM
The al Aksa Martyr Brigades put out a leaflet advocating the assassination of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad. Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, on Sunday called for the murder of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad for "collaboration" with Israel and the US. This was the first time the group has openly called for Fayad's assassination. In ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 31, 2007 09:58
