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.
I had a bit of a schedule change in the last couple of days and had to catch a flight to Doha on short notice. I am here now, but when I boarded the plane, all was still as it was in the Middle East — not peaceful, but not on the brink either.
I really like former Clinton administration National Security Council official and Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Charles Kupchan‘s new book, How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace.
Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel published last week in the Washington Post a no nonsense assessment of America’s situation in Afghanistan. Read the entire oped, but the zingers are that General Stanley McChrystal has acknowledged that there is a stalemate in Afghanistan now.
Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer will be speaking at the New America Foundation TODAY from 12:15 pm-1:45 pm, discussing his new book, The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? , with TWN publisher Steve Clemons.
It will be released officially later today by the White House. But here is the official pdf of the National Security Strategy report. More on this important report later.
From the BBC: West Bank rabbi bans women from local election Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the Elon Moreh settlement, near Nablus, said women lacked the authority to stand for the post of local secretary. He wrote in a community newspaper that women must only be heard through their husbands.
