Latest Article from Matthew RJ Brodsky

Israel and the U.S. Plan to Withdraw from UNESCO

October 13, 2017  •  i24News Desk with Jeff Smith

Matthew RJ Brodsky joins Diplomatic Correspondent Ellie Hochenberg on i24News Desk with host, Jeff Smith, to discuss the recent decisions by the U.S. and Israel to leave UNESCO. Ellie explains why Prime Minister Netanyahu is waiting a little before leaving and Brodsky describes how the choice makes sense from an American perspective. The Trump administration won't tolerate the level of anti-Israel smears at the world body that was accepted during the previous administration. UNESCO has an important function that has been subsumed by morally objectionable states with political axes to grind. The U.S. will still be able to have it's voice heard but at a time when the State Department is facing budget cuts, the decision to stop funding and walk away from UNESCO was an easy choice to make.

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Latest Article from Judith Miller

Trump's Iran Deal decision -- it could have been worse

October 13, 2017  •  Fox News

It could have been worse. You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from America's allied capitals when President Donald Trump announced that he was kicking the Iran nuclear deal over to Congress to fix.

True to his campaign pledge, President Trump refused to certify to Congress that Iran has been complying with what he called the "worst" arms control deal the U.S. ever negotiated.

He also asked Congress to impose sanctions on Iran for its continued ballistic missile tests, its aggressive conduct in the region, its support for Syrian president Bashar al Assad, its support for terror and other efforts to destabilize the Middle East, and its human rights abuses.

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Latest Article from Michael Freund

Trump should demand an end to the Arab boycott of Israel

October 13, 2017  •  Jerusalem Post

Two months ago, for the second time since Donald Trump entered the White House, the US Treasury Department published a brief notice that warrants serious attention as well as immediate action by Washington.

As required by US law, the Treasury released a quarterly "list of countries requiring cooperation with an international boycott."

The list, which appears in the Federal Register (Vol. 82, No. 147), consists entirely of nine Arab countries which continue to implement various aspects of the Arab League boycott of Israel. They include failed states such as Libya and Syria, but also ostensible US allies such as Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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Latest Article from Clifford May

We'll always have Paris
But like the rest of Europe, it may be a very different place

October 11, 2017  •  The Washington Times

Europeans seem to have an increasingly bizarre and perhaps self-destructive view of the world, and their place in it. Last week's most creative illustration: The Irish postal service issued a stamp to "commemorate" the 50th anniversary of the death of "Argentinian Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara."

Is it conceivable that letter carriers and others in Ireland don't understand the contempt with which Marxist revolutionaries view bourgeois parliamentary democracies such as theirs? Can you even imagine the Cubans or Chinese issuing a stamp commemorating Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman?

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Latest Article from Jonathan Schanzer

Ending America's Paralyzed Iran Policy

October 11, 2017  •  The Atlantic

President Donald Trump is taking considerable heat for his expected announcement this week that he will "decertify" the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Critics say he is heedlessly discarding a deal that has been working, and needlessly putting America on a collision course with Iran.

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Latest Article from Ilan Berman

Prague's Eastward Turn

October 10, 2017  •  U.S. News & World Report

Since its emergence from the wreckage of the Soviet Union more than a quarter-century ago, the Czech Republic has consistently ranked as a success story of post-totalitarian transition. Unlike that of many of its neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe, Prague's path toward democracy has been more or less linear, cresting in the middle of the last decade when the country garnered the ranking of "full democracy" from the prestigious Economist Intelligence Unit. Today, however, Czech democracy is showing signs of erosion, while the country as a whole is in the process of making an alarming eastward turn. Since the democratic high-water mark of 2013, the Czech Republic has retreated on such indicators as social equality, media freedom and political pluralism, and now ranks as a "flawed democracy" by European assessments. This decline corresponds to the rise to power of President Milos Zeman and his center-left Party of Civic Rights.

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Latest Article from Soeren Kern

The Czech Donald Trump
"I have stopped believing in multiculturalism."

October 8, 2017  •  Gatestone Institute

A "politically incorrect" billionaire businessman opposed to further EU integration is on track to become the next prime minister of the Czech Republic.

Andrej Babis, a Slovak-born former finance minister who has been sharply critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migration policy, is leading the polls ahead of general elections, set for October 20.

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Latest Article from Asaf Romirowsky

How Palestine "Occupies" Itself

October 7, 2017  •  Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

A consistent Palestinian strategy for seeking statehood while blaming Israel for its absence has been codified through the narrative of "occupation." The anniversary of the 1967 war brought this to the forefront in endless accusations regarding the Israeli "occupation" of the West Bank. There is even an assertion that Gaza is still "occupied."

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Latest from Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi's Blog

Amaq News and Claims of Responsibility

October 2, 2017 at 11:47 am

Understandably, there has been widespread disbelief on social media regarding the claim published by the Islamic State's Amaq News that the Las Vegas attacker was a "soldier of the Islamic State" (i.e. inspired by Islamic State to carry out the attack). Probably anticipating or responding to the disbelief, Amaq News released a follow-up post saying the attacker had embraced Islam months ago. Amaq News only purported to rely on "a security source." In this context, "security" refers to the carrying out of operations inside enemy territory. Thus, any Islamic State-directed or Islamic State-inspired attack inside the U.S., which is leading the coalition against Islamic State, would come under this category.

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Latest Article from Tevi Troy

In Hurricane Relief, 2 out of 3 Ain't Good

October 2, 2017  •  The Wall Street Journal

The federal government deserved the rave reviews it earned for its responses to back-to-back hurricanes in Texas and Florida. The Federal Emergency Management Agency worked well with state and local officials and predeployed key resources and personnel. It seemed as though Washington had learned from its failed response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Yet as President Trump visits a Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Maria, cheers for FEMA have turned to boos. What went wrong?

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Latest Article from Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

Israel's Relations with the Syrian Rebels: An Assessment

July 3, 2017  •  Middle East Review of International Affairs

In light of media coverage regarding Israeli backing for certain Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime along the border with Israel in Quneitra governorate, this article provides a wider overview of the situation along Israel's borders with Syria. It also establishes a better context through provision of extra detail not otherwise present in recent media coverage. The article concludes with an assessment of Israeli policies and aims on the border, given the various concerns regarding the situation in Syria.

INTRODUCTION

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Latest Article from Jeff Stier

Is $13.7 Billion a Good Price for Whole Foods?
The brilliant online behemoth absorbs a sometimes careless and deceptive grocery chain.

June 30, 2017  •  National Review

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross called Amazon's recent $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods a "clever move" because it marries Amazon's marketing and distribution expertise with a "high-quality, niche retailer." One suspects that perhaps Secretary Ross, a 79-year-old billionaire investor and art collector, doesn't do a lot of grocery shopping.

More to the point, as to the "high quality" of Whole Foods' operation and reputation, he might wish to check with his government colleagues at the FDA and Department of Justice, because Whole Foods' violations of state and federal law have been escalating: They've gone from defrauding their customers in various ways to adopting food-preparation practices that actually endanger them.

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