A couple of friends and I recently participated in a study group session discussing Afghanistan and Pakistan with former Afghanistan-deployed US foreign service officer and former Marine Matthew Hoh. In passing he posed the question “What’s the most dangerous job in the Middle East?” Hoh’s answer: “Being the Number 3 leader in al-Qaeda.
Above is a video taken by Israeli Defense Force personnel of the beatings and violence unleashed as IDF seals boarded the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. The IDF should not have boarded the vessels — and the activists should not have engaged in such violence.
President Obama’s team just issued the “read out” of the President’s conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan regarding the Israel Defense Force clash with what many describe as a humanitarian flotilla on its way to Gaza (see below).
New America Foundation fellow and Daily Beast columnist Peter Beinart has received overwhelming attention recently for his controversial and vitally important piece on American Jews, Jewish organizations and Israel. But he is also the author of a new and wide-ranging book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris.