Posted in Harvey Sicherman, Robert Satloff, Michael Mandelbaum, Robert J. Lieber, Josef Joffe, J. Scott Carpenter, Martin Kramer, Walter Laqueur, Joshua Muravchik, Geopolitics on Jul 3rd, 2008 1 Comment »
MESH marks the Fourth of July by asking this question: Is the American era in the Middle East over? The argument was first made by Richard Haass in an article published in 2006:
The American era in the Middle East… has ended…. It is one of history’s ironies that the first war in Iraq, a […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Joshua Muravchik, Harvey Sicherman, Robert Satloff, Michael Mandelbaum, Adam Garfinkle, Hezbollah, Terrorism, Matthew Levitt, Palestinians, Democracy on Jun 16th, 2008 6 Comments »
In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered a parting statement under the title “Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a New World.” The section on the Middle East includes an elusive passage that would seem to acquiesce in the political inclusion of violent groups. The Rice quote […]
Read Full Post »
In late April, MESH hosted a discussion of the “Jordanian option.” In today’s New York Times, Thomas Friedman, writing from Ramallah, offers his own version of it (see below, left). MESH member Adam Garfinkle reviews the earlier MESH thread, and adds his own insights. Comments are offered by MESH members Barry Rubin, Walter Reich, David […]
Read Full Post »
From Jon Alterman
It would be nice to think that Israeli-Syrian negotiations represent a key strategic advance. While I wouldn’t rule out such an advance in the future, this all has the whiff of tactical advantage to me.
Read Full Post »
From Alan Dowty
So the focus shifts to deterrence. Both Charles Krauthammer (here) and Zev Chafets (here) hold out little hope for international efforts to block Iran getting the bomb, or for military action to that end (though Chafets suggests that Israel might be able “in the best case” to weaken and delay Iran’s program). […]
Read Full Post »
From Adam Garfinkle
In the latest issue of The American Interest, March/April 2008, Itamar Rabinovich, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, former president of Tel Aviv University, former head of the Dayan Center, current visiting professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and a member of the The American Interest editorial board, takes […]
Read Full Post »
From Harvey Sicherman
The Winograd Report has confirmed what I heard on a trip to Israel in August 2006, namely, that an inexperienced Israeli cabinet sought the rewards of a combined arms (air-ground) operation at the risk of an air raid. When this proved inadequate to the rhetoric of victory, the same group bungled the […]
Read Full Post »
Posts+Comments
Posts+Comments
